Xu Xiaoguang, The Concept of Private Property Rights during the Meiji Period of Japan

　　During the Meiji period of Japan, the concept of private property rights widely spread in the Japanese society both under the influence of the Western thoughts and on the basis of the concept of legitimate business interests of the Japanese machi people. The Enlightenment thinkers and theorists of civil rights broke through the traditional concept of ‘evil’ based on self interest over thousands of years, fully expounded the legitimacy of people obtaining private interests and owning private property, and analysed the characteristics of private property rights. In the meanwhile, the government should not interfere in the private property, but should provide legal protection instead. This new thought theoretically interpreted the Meiji government's national policy of ‘Industry Breeding and Business Intiating Policy’, and had a direct impact on the formulation of the new constitution on the protection of private property, consequently promoting the development of the capitalist economy based on the private ownership in Japan.