Okuma left the government and started preparation for establishment of the National Diet, which had been targeted at 10 years later, and in March 1882, the next year, he set up the Constitutional Progressive Party with Azusa ONO and established Tokyo Senmon Gakko (present-day Waseda University) in Waseda.
野に下った大隈は10年後の国会開設に備え、翌1882年3月には小野梓とともに立憲改進党を結成、また10月、東京専門学校（現・早稲田大学）を早稲田に開設した。