On July 14, 1871, the Meiji government summoned the domain governors who were in Tokyo and issued the edict abolishing the domains, the haihan chiken . The governors who were still in their domains received the same order.
The decision had been settled before. According to the encyclopedia Nihon Daihyakka Zensho, men from Satsuma and Chōshū in the government, among them Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, agreed on the step in early July and prepared it in secret. Sanjō Sanetomi and Iwakura Tomomi then gave their consent. Another encyclopedia names younger reformers, among them Yamagata Aritomo and Inoue Kaoru, who won over Kido, Ōkubo Toshimichi and a hesitant Saigō.