第79页 2. CULTIVAING AN EMPEROR

 … Although the Meiji constitution failed to make explicit the emperor's nonresponsibility, commentators generally agreed, from the outset of the constitution, that the operative word "inviolable" in Article 3 ("The emperor is sacred and inviolable") automatically approved that interpretation. Thus, even if the emperor acted illegally according to domestic law and committed a crime, he could not be punished. He also could not be held accountable for the actions of the government if it acted illegally, even though he was the head of state. The only guarantee that the emperor would not violate the constitution was Article 55, which stipulated that ministers of state bore advisory responsibility for they offered the monarch.
Yet this was not really a guarantee of nonresponsibility, because cabinet ministers were excluded from giving advice on decisions involving matters of supreme command, the emperor did not have to accept the advice of his minister, and no procedures or institutions were ever developed for questioning the emperor on his constitutional responsibilities.