Mr Okuma thinks otherwise. He points out to you (rather with a smirk on his face) that the strongest and most modern countries in the West are the USA and Britain, democracies! Not a coincidence.
Mr Okuma is also extremely sceptical about the "change from the past", to which you attach so much pride. He asks you to explain what change there was if the Emperor remains the symbol of unity with his stated privileges under the constitution, which is merely a device to prolong the hegemony of the Meiji oligarchs.
Mr Okuma also reminds you that Japan is now strong and modernised economically and militarily. This is, after all, the 1890s.