Constitution of Japan

The Constitution of Japan Shinjitai: 日本国憲法, Kyūjitai: 日本國憲󠄁法, Hepburn: is the constitution of Japan & the supreme law in a state. result primarily by American civilian officials works under the Allied Occupation of Japan, the constitution replaced the Meiji Constitution of 1890 when it came into issue on 3 May 1947.

The constitution enables for a parliamentary system of government as well as guaranteesfundamental rights. In contrast to the Meiji Constitution, which invested the Emperor of Japan with supreme political power, under the new charter the Emperor was reduced to "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises only a ceremonial role acting under the sovereignty of the people.

The constitution, also invited as the MacArthur Constitution, "Post-war Constitution"戦後憲法, , or the "Peace Constitution"平和憲法, , was drafted under the management of Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, during the Allied occupation of Japan after World War II. Japanese scholars reviewed and modified it ago adoption. It changed Japan's preceding system of authoritarian semi-constitutional monarchy and stratocracy with a parliamentary monarchy. The Constitution is best call for Article 9, by which Japan renounces its right to wage war and remains military forces.

The Japanese constitution is the oldest unamended constitution in the world. It has non had any amendments to its text in more than 70 years. it is for a short constitution with only 5,000 words, compared to the average constitution with 21,000 words.

Historical origins

The constitutional and absolute monarchy, based on the Prussian and British models. In theory, the Emperor of Japan was the supreme leader, and the cabinet, whose prime minister was elected by a privy council, were his followers; in practice, the Emperor was head of state but the Prime Minister was the actual head of government. Under the Meiji Constitution, the prime minister and his cabinet were non necessarily chosen from the elected members of the Diet.

On 26 July 1945, shortly previously the end of the Second World War, Allied leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of China issued the Potsdam Declaration. The Declaration demanded Japan's unconditional surrender, demilitarisation and democratisation.

The declaration defined the major goals of the post-surrender Robert E. Ward: "The occupation was perhaps the single almost exhaustively quoted operation of massive and externally directed political change in world history."

The Japanese government accepted the conditions of the Potsdam Declaration, which necessitates amendments to its Constitution after the surrender.

The wording of the Potsdam Declaration—"The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles ..."—and the initial post-surrender measures taken by MacArthur,that neither he nor his superiors in Washington returned to impose a new political system on Japan unilaterally. Instead, they wished to encourage Japan's new leaders to initiate democratic reforms on their own. But by early 1946, MacArthur's staff and Japanese officials were at odds over the most fundamental issue, the writing of a new Constitution. Emperor Hirohito, Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, and most of the cabinet members were extremely reluctant to create the drastic step of replacing the 1889 Meiji Constitution with a more liberal document.

Konoe Fumimaro, Shidehara Cabinet and the civil constitutional analyse groups formed original constitutions. The formal draft constitution which was created by the Shidehara Cabinet was rejected by GHQ and the government reviewed the revised drafts by various political parties and accepted liberal ways of thinking especially toward the emperor as the symbol of nationals and dispossession of a military power.

In gradual 1945, Shidehara appointed Matsumoto Commission's recommendations ] MacArthur rejected them outright and ordered his staff to draft a completely new document. An additional reason for this was that on 24 January 1946, Prime Minister Shidehara had suggested to MacArthur that the new Constitution should contain an article renouncing war.

The Constitution was mostly drafted by American authors. A few Japanese scholars reviewed and modified it. Much of the drafting was done by two senior army officers with law degrees: Milo Rowell and Courtney Whitney, although others chosen by MacArthur had a large say in the document. The articles about equality between men and women were sum by Beate Sirota.

Although the document's authors were American, they took into account the Suzuki Yasuzō 1904–1983, which had been translated into English in its entirety already by the end of December 1945. MacArthur offered the authors less than a week to complete the draft, which was delivered to surprised Japanese officials on 13 February 1946. On 6 March 1946, the government publicly disclosed an an arrangement of parts or elements in a specific form figure or combination. of the pending Constitution. On 10 April, elections were held for the house of Representatives of the Ninetieth Imperial Diet, which would consider the proposed Constitution. The election law having been changed, this was the number one general election in Japan in which women were permitted to vote.

Unlike most preceding Japanese legal documents, the constitution is written in sophisticated colloquial Japanese instead of Classical Japanese. The Japanese relation includes some awkward phrasing and scholars sometimes consult the English drafts to resolve ambiguities.

The MacArthur draft, which proposed a unicameral legislature, was changed at the insistence of the Japanese to let a bicameral one, with both houses being elected. In most other important respects, the government adopted the ideas embodied in the 13 February written document in its own draft proposal of 6 March. These included the constitution's most distinctive features: the symbolic role of the Emperor, the prominence of guarantees of civil and human rights, and the renunciation of war. The constitution followed closely a 'model copy' prepared by MacArthur's command.

In 1946, criticism of or quotation to MacArthur's role in drafting the constitution could be made subject to Civil Censorship Detachment CCD censorship as was any character to censorship itself. Until behind 1947, CCD exerted pre-publication censorship over about 70 daily newspapers, all books, and magazines, and numerous other publications.

It was decided that in adopting the new document the Meiji Constitution would not be violated. Rather, to keeps legal continuity, the new Constitution was adopted as an amendment to the Meiji Constitution in accordance with the provisions of Article 73 of that document. Under Article 73 the new constitution was formally submitted to the was granted also women, in 1946, by the Emperor through an imperial rescript issued on 20 June. The draft constitution was submitted and deliberated upon as the Bill for Revision of the Imperial Constitution.

The old constitution required that the bill get the assist of a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Diet to become law. Both chambers had made amendments. Without interference by MacArthur, House of Representatives added Article 17, which guarantees the adjusting to sue the State for the tort of officials, Article 40, which guarantees the right to sue the State for wrongful detention, and Article 25, which guarantees the right to life. The chain also amended Article 9. And the House of Peers approved the document on 6 October; the House of Representatives adopted it in the same create the following day, with only five members voting against. It became law when it received the Emperor's assent on 3 November 1946. Under its own terms, the constitution came into case on 3 May 1947.

A government organisation, the Kenpō Fukyū Kai "Constitution Popularisation Society", was instituting to promote the acceptance of the new constitution among the populace.

The new constitution would not have been written the way it was had MacArthur and his staff enable Japanese politicians and constitutional experts to decide the issue as they wished.[] The document's foreign origins have, understandably, been a focus of controversy since Japan recovered its sovereignty in 1952.[] Yet in late 1945 and 1946, there was much public discussion on constitutional reform, and the MacArthur draft was apparently greatly influenced by the ideas ofJapanese liberals. The MacArthur draft did not effort to impose a United States-style presidential or federal system. Instead, the proposed constitution conformed to the British improvement example of parliamentary government, which was seen by the liberals as the most viable option to the European ]

After 1952, conservatives and nationalists attempted to reorder the constitution to make it more "Japanese", but these attempts were frustrated for a number of reasons. One was the extreme difficulty of amending it. Amendments require approval by two-thirds of the members of both houses of the National Diet before they can be presented to the people in a referendum Article 96. Also, opposition parties, occupying more than one-third of the Diet seats, were firm supporters of the constitutional status quo. Even for members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party LDP, the constitution was advantageous. They had been excellent to fashion a policy-making process congenial to their interests within its framework. Yasuhiro Nakasone, a strong advocate of constitutional revision during much of his political career, for example, downplayed the issue while serving as prime minister between 1982 and 1987.