The Osaka Conference of 1875 (大阪会議, Ōsaka Kaigi) was a meeting held by the major leaders of the Meiji Restoration in Osaka, Japan from January to February 1875 to address the issue of forming a representative assembly.
The remaining Meiji oligarchs called for a meeting in Osaka in early 1873 in an attempt to reconcile differences and to persuade Itagaki and Kido to return to the government. As concessions, it was agreed that a Senate (Genrōin) would be established, along with an Assembly of Prefectural Governors. A new Supreme Court, called the Great Court of Cassation(Daishin-in) would also be established to separate the judiciary from the legislative branches of government.
The decisions reached at the Osaka Conference were officially sanctioned by an Imperial Proclamation in April 1875.
Although on the surface, the oligarchs appeared to be creating a form of representative assembly, the Genrōin and the Assembly of Prefectural Governors were appointive rather than elective, and were dominated by conservative bureaucrats, and in the same year, the first of the Peace Preservation Laws were enacted to suppress the liberal movement.
