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What if Japan's Meiji Emperor would have passed away in August 1878? After all, in August 1878, Emperor Meiji had no living male children and also had none on the way:
Thus, the new Japanese Emperor would have probably been needed to have picked from one of the Japanese cadet branches. However, who would the new Japanese Emperor be in this scenario? Also, would the new Japanese Emperor have been a more active Emperor than Meiji was? After all, as far as I know, the Japanese Emperor's was officially restored (but generally not used--with the genro making the main decisions instead) as a result of the Meiji Restoration a decade earlier. Thus, theoretically speaking, the new Japanese Emperor had some power which he could have used if he wanted to.