Regarding the class system, the government advocated equality of all people, abolishing the hierarchy of samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants under the Edo Shogunate, and changing former samurai class to the warrior class and the rest of classes to commoner class, whereas they gave the privileges of nobility to former court nobles, feudal lords, and some of the Buddhist monks so as to put them under the control of the Ministry of the Imperial Household.
身分制度については、江戸幕府下の「士農工商」の別を廃止し、旧武士階級を士族、それ以外を平民とし、「四民平等」を謳う一方、旧公家・大名や一部僧侶などを新たに華族として特権的階級とすると同時に、宮内省の支配の下に置くことになった。