Despite Hideyoshi's tremendous strength and the fear in which he is held, his position is far from secure.

He attempts to rearrange the daimyo holdings to his advantage, for example, reassigning the Tokugawa family to the conquered Kanto region and surrounding their new territory with more trusted vassals.

He also adopts a hostage system for daimyo wives and heirs at his castle town at Osaka and uses marriage alliances to enforce feudal bonds.

He imposes the koku system and land surveys to reassess the entire nation.

In 1590 Hideyoshi declares an end to any further class mobility or change in social status, reinforcing the class distinctions between cultivators and bushi (only the latter can bear arms).

He provides for an orderly succession in 1591 by taking the title taiko, or retired kanpaku, turning the regency over to his son Hideyori.

Only toward the end of his life does Hideyoshi try to formalize the balance of power by establishing the five-member Board of Regents (one of them Ieyasu), sworn to keep peace and support the Toyotomi, the five-member Board of House Administrators for routine policy and administrative matters, and the three-member Board of Mediators, who are charged with keeping peace between the first two boards.