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56-636: In March 1879, the precursor of the position, the Secretary-General of the Cabinet, was created. From 1885, it was included as part of the cabinet system, and the position was known in Japanese as 内閣書記官長 ( naikaku-shokikan-chō ) . The modern position was created on May 3, 1947, shortly after the passage of the Constitution of Japan , and elevated to ministerial status in 1966. Since 1947,

112-541: A parliamentary system and three branches of government, with the National Diet (legislative), Cabinet led by a Prime Minister (executive), and Supreme Court (judicial) as the highest bodies of power. It guarantees individual rights, including legal equality ; freedom of assembly , association , and speech ; due process ; and fair trial . In contrast to the Meiji Constitution, which invested

168-460: A 'model copy' prepared by MacArthur's command. Popular sovereignty Popular sovereignty is the principle that the leaders of a state and its government are created and sustained by the consent of its people, who are the source of all political legitimacy. Popular sovereignty, being a principle, does not imply any particular political implementation. Benjamin Franklin expressed

224-490: A cabinet meeting on the following day. After Shidehara Cabinet decision, Jōji Matsumoto aimed to draft a Japanese government bill based on the MacArthur Draft, and the draft was completed on 2 March of the same year. On 4 March Jōji Matsumoto presented the draft to Whitney, but GHQ noticed that there were differences between the MacArthur Draft and the 2 March Draft. In particular, the 2 March Draft did not include

280-408: A draft created under his own supervision, which was reviewed and modified by the scholars before its adoption. Also known as the "MacArthur Constitution", "Post-war Constitution" ( 戦後憲法 , Sengo-Kenpō ) , or "Peace Constitution" ( 平和憲法 , Heiwa-Kenpō ) , it is relatively short at 5,000 words, less than a quarter the length of the average national constitution. The constitution provides for

336-464: A legitimate social order emerges only when liberties and duties are equal among citizens binds the social contract thinkers to the concept of popular sovereignty. An earlier development of the theory of popular sovereignty is found among the School of Salamanca (see e.g. Francisco de Vitoria (1483–1546) or Francisco Suarez (1548–1617)). Like the theorists of the divine right of kings and Locke,

392-500: A multitude of institutional possibilities. In each case, however, popular sovereignty assumes the existence of some form of popular consent, and it is for this reason that every definition of republican government implies a theory of consent. The American Revolution marked a departure in the concept of popular sovereignty as it had been discussed and employed in the European historical context. American revolutionaries aimed to substitute

448-558: A preamble, and a heated argument ensued. Finally, adjustments were made by the Japanese government and GHQ, and the draft was completed on 6 March. On 6 March 1946, the government publicly disclosed an outline 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

504-415: A touching-up of the Meiji Constitution". 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. As the momentum for constitutional amendment increased, interest in the constitution increased among

560-539: Is a violation of the Constitution. Article 9. 1)    Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. 2)   In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of

616-412: Is an idea that dates to the social contract school represented by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778). Rousseau authored a book titled The Social Contract , a prominent political work that highlighted the idea of the " general will ". The central tenet of popular sovereignty is that the legitimacy of a government's authority and of its laws

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672-400: Is based on the consent of the governed . Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau all held that individuals enter into a social contract, voluntarily giving up some of their natural freedom, so as to secure protection from the dangers inherent in the freedom of others. Whether men are seen as naturally more prone to violence and rapine (Hobbes) or to cooperation and kindness (Rousseau), the idea that

728-546: Is the supreme law of Japan . Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II , it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meiji Constitution of 1889. The constitution consists of a preamble and 103 articles grouped into 11 chapters. It is based on the principles of popular sovereignty , with the Emperor of Japan as

784-576: The Empire of Japan , propagated during the reign of Emperor Meiji ( r.  1867–1912 ). It provided for a form of mixed 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

840-593: The United Kingdom (Prime Minister Winston Churchill ), and the Republic of China (President Chiang Kai-shek ) issued the Potsdam Declaration . The Declaration demanded Japanese military's unconditional surrender , demilitarisation and democratisation . The declaration defined the major goals of the post-surrender Allied occupation : "The Japanese Government shall remove all obstacles to

896-522: The GHQ dignitaries. It is analyzed that it was reflected in the GHQ proposal. 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 written by Beate Sirota . MacArthur gave

952-454: The GHQ headquarters on 4 October 1945. Although the GHQ later denied this fact, citing a mistake by the Japanese interpreter, diplomatic documents between Japan and the U.S. state that "the Constitution must be amended to fully incorporate liberal elements". "At the meeting, the General told Konoe that the Constitution must be amended". In this regard, it can be said that the GHQ granted Konoe

1008-426: The Japanese to allow a bicameral one, with both houses being elected. In most other important respects, the government adopted the ideas embodied in 13 February 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

1064-473: The Meiji Constitution, their drafts included the principle of popular sovereignty, which grants sovereignty to the people and regards the Emperor as a symbol of the people. The Constitutional Study Group submitted a draft to the Prime Minister's Office on 26 December 1945. On 2 January 1946, GHQ issued a statement that it would focus on the content. Toyoharu Konishi states that the GHQ may have included

1120-650: The Office of the Minister of the Interior was about to be abolished, he decided to submit a proposal for amendment before then. Konoe's proposal reflected the wishes of the GHQ and was very liberal in content, including "limitation of the imperial prerogative," "independent dissolution of the Diet," and "freedom of speech," but it was never finally approved as a draft, and Konoe committed suicide by poisoning himself. After this,

1176-700: The Prime Minister was the actual head of government. Under the Meiji Constitution, the prime minister and his cabinet were not accountable to the elected members of the Imperial Diet , and increasingly deferred to the Imperial Japanese Army in the lead-up to the Second Sino-Japanese War . On 26 July 1945, shortly before the end of World War II , Allied leaders of the United States (President Harry S. Truman ),

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1232-549: The Salamancans saw sovereignty as emanating originally from God . However, unlike the divine right theorists and in agreement with Locke, they saw it as passing from God to all people equally, not only to monarchs . Republics and popular monarchies are theoretically based on popular sovereignty. However, a legalistic notion of popular sovereignty does not necessarily imply an effective, functioning democracy . A party or even an individual dictator may claim to represent

1288-584: The Soviet Union, China, Australia and other allies to occupy and control Japan, and its authority was higher than that of GHQ. MacArthur learned that the Far Eastern Commission was interested in constitutional amendment, and thought that constitutional authority could be transferred to the Far Eastern Commission after the commission was established. Therefore, he might be eager to end the constitutional issue with unlimited authority before it

1344-489: The aim of the preceding paragraph," was added to paragraph 2 by Hitoshi Ashida without the diet deliberations. Although the reason is not clear, this addition has led to the interpretation of the Constitution as allowing the retention of force when factors other than the purpose of the preceding paragraph arise. Even now, there is a great debate over whether force for self-defense, such as the Self Defense Forces,

1400-410: The authority to amend the Constitution was completely transferred to Shidehara's cabinet. In late 1945, Shidehara appointed Jōji Matsumoto , state minister without portfolio, head of a blue-ribbon committee of Constitutional scholars to suggest revisions. The Matsumoto Committee was composed of the authorities of the Japanese law academia, including Tatsuki Minobe (美濃部達吉), and the first general meeting

1456-736: The authority to amend the Constitution. However, at this point, the Higashikuninomiya Cabinet was succeeded by the Shidehara Cabinet, and Jōji Matsumoto, the then Minister of State, stated that the Cabinet should be the only one to amend the Constitution, and the Constitutional Problems Investigation Committee was established. In other words, there was a conflict between the Konoe and Shidehara cabinets as to who should take

1512-584: The authors less than a week to complete the draft, which was presented to surprised Japanese officials on 13 February 1946. MacArthur initially had a policy of not interfering with the revision of the Constitution, but from around January 1946, he made a statement to the Constitutional Draft Outline of the Constitutional Study Group and activated movements related to the Constitution. There are various theories as to

1568-449: The concept when he wrote that "In free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns". In Defensor pacis , Marsilius of Padua advocated a form of republicanism that views the people as the only legitimate source of political authority. Sovereignty lies with the people, and the people should elect, correct, and, if necessary, depose its political leaders. Popular sovereignty in its modern sense

1624-778: 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 , suggest that neither he nor his superiors in Washington intended 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

1680-567: The doctrine of popular sovereignty receives particular emphasis in American history, notes historian Christian G. Fritz's American Sovereigns: The People and America's Constitutional Tradition Before the Civil War , a study of the early history of American constitutionalism. In describing how Americans attempted to apply this doctrine prior to the territorial struggle over slavery that led to the Civil War, political scientist Donald S. Lutz noted

1736-467: The emperor with supreme political power, under the 1946 constitution his role in the system of constitutional monarchy is reduced to "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people", and he exercises only a ceremonial role under popular sovereignty. Article 9 of the constitution renounces Japan's right to wage war and to maintain military forces. Despite this, it retains a de facto military in

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1792-552: The form of the Self-Defense Forces and hosts a substantial U.S. military presence . Amendments to the constitution require a two-thirds vote in both houses of the National Diet and approval in a referendum , and despite the efforts of conservative and nationalist forces to revise Article 9 in particular, it remains the world's oldest un-amended constitution. The Meiji Constitution was the fundamental law of

1848-574: The freely expressed will of the Japanese people a peacefully inclined and responsible government" (Section 12). The Allies sought not merely punishment or reparations from a militaristic foe, but fundamental changes in the nature of its political system. In the words of a political scientist Robert E. Ward : "The occupation was perhaps the single most exhaustively planned operation of massive and externally directed political change in world history." The Japanese government, Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki 's administration and Emperor Hirohito accepted

1904-403: The initiative in constitutional amendment. However, this conflict ended with Konoe being nominated as a candidate for Class A war criminal due to domestic and international criticism. To begin with, Konoe was able to have the initiative to amend the Constitution because he had been assigned full-time by the GHQ to amend the constitution, although he was not an unappointed minister when the cabinet

1960-1170: The longest-serving chief cabinet secretary in history, having overtaken the previous record of 1,289 days in office set by Fukuda on July 7, 2016. The current chief cabinet secretary is Yoshimasa Hayashi , who took office on December 14, 2023.     Liberal (1945)     Socialist     Democratic (1947)     Democratic Liberal     Liberal (1950)     Democratic (1954)     Liberal Democratic     Liberal Democratic     Japan New Party     New Party Sakigake     Japan Renewal Party     Socialist     Democratic     Liberal Democratic Constitution of Japan Naruhito [REDACTED] Fumihito [REDACTED] Shigeru Ishiba ( LDP ) Second Ishiba Cabinet ( LDP – Komeito coalition ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Fukushiro Nukaga Kōichirō Genba [REDACTED] Masakazu Sekiguchi Hiroyuki Nagahama Saburo Tokura Kazuo Ueda The Constitution of Japan

2016-444: 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 take the drastic step of replacing the 1889 Meiji Constitution with a more liberal document. Former prime minister Fumimaro Konoe , Shidehara Cabinet and the civil constitutional study groups formed original constitutions. The formal draft constitution, which

2072-542: The office of Chief Cabinet Secretary has been regarded as a stepping stone to the post of Prime Minister. The first chief cabinet secretary to become Prime Minister was Ichirō Hatoyama , who served in the position under Tanaka Giichi . Since then, eight other former chief cabinet secretaries have become prime ministers, most recently Shinzō Abe , Yasuo Fukuda , and Yoshihide Suga . Yoshihide Suga , who later became Prime Minister of Japan , served as Chief Cabinet Secretary under Shinzo Abe for nearly eight years, making him

2128-489: The opinion of the Constitutional Study Group in the draft, reflecting the situation in the United States, where people disregarded popular sovereignty at that time. Also, regarding the symbolic emperor system, since the members of the Constitutional Study Group came into contact with the GHQ dignitaries earlier than the drafting of the guidelines, the Constitutional Study Group proposed the symbolic emperor system through

2184-496: The people as a sovereign—and had clear 17th- and 18th-century intellectual roots in English history. In the 1850s, in the run-up to the Civil War, Northern Democrats led by Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan and Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois promoted popular sovereignty as a middle position on the slavery issue. It said that actual residents of territories should be able to decide by voting whether or not slavery would be allowed in

2240-506: The people. In fact, not only political parties but also private organizations have announced draft constitutional amendments. The most famous of these is the outline of the draft constitution by the Constitution Study Group. The Constitutional Study Group was established on 29 October 1945 to study and prepare for the establishment of the Constitution from a leftist approach. While many political party drafts only added to

2296-632: The reason. Kenzo Yanagi mentioned the memorandum of Courtney Whitney, who was the director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of the General Headquarters, on 1 February 1946 as a reason for the attitude change. In the memorandum, it is mentioned that the Far Eastern Commission was about to be established. The Far Eastern Commission is the supreme policy-making body established by the United States, Great Britain,

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2352-458: The revival and strengthening of democratic tendencies among the Japanese people. Freedom of speech , of religion , and of thought , as well as respect for the fundamental human rights shall be established" (Section 10). In addition, "The occupying forces of the Allies shall be withdrawn from Japan as soon as these objectives have been accomplished and there has been established in accordance with

2408-399: The sovereignty in the person of King George III , with a collective sovereign—composed of the people. Thenceforth, American revolutionaries generally agreed with and were committed to the principle that governments were legitimate only if they rested on popular sovereignty – that is, the sovereignty of the people. This was often linked with the notion of the consent of the governed—the idea of

2464-400: The state will not be recognized. Unlike most previous Japanese legal documents, the constitution is written in modern colloquial Japanese instead of Classical Japanese . The Japanese version 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

2520-614: The subordination of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers". Koseki interprets this statement as the GHQ's indirect rule through the Emperor and the Japanese government, rather than direct rule over the Japanese people. In other words, GHQ regarded the Emperor Hirohito not as a war criminal parallel to Hitler and Mussolini but as one governance mechanism. The Japanese government at the end of World War II

2576-577: The symbol of the state; pacifism and the renunciation of war; and individual rights . Upon the surrender of Japan at the end of the war in 1945, Japan was occupied and U.S. General Douglas MacArthur , the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers , directed prime minister Kijūrō Shidehara to draft a new constitution. Shidehara created a committee of Japanese scholars for the task, but MacArthur reversed course in February 1946 and presented

2632-644: The territory. The federal government did not have to make the decision, and by appealing to democracy, Cass and Douglas hoped they could finesse the question of support for or opposition to slavery. Douglas applied popular sovereignty to Kansas in the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which passed Congress in 1854. The Act had two unexpected results. By dropping the Missouri Compromise of 1820 under which said slavery would never be allowed in Kansas, it

2688-504: The variety of American applications: To speak of popular sovereignty is to place ultimate authority in the people. There are a variety of ways in which sovereignty may be expressed. It may be immediate in the sense that the people make the law themselves, or mediated through representatives who are subject to election and recall; it may be ultimate in the sense that the people have a negative or veto over legislation, or it may be something much less dramatic. In short, popular sovereignty covers

2744-409: The will of the people and rule in its name, which would be congruent with Hobbes's view on the subject. Most modern definitions present democracy as a necessary condition of popular sovereignty. Judge Ivor Jennings called the notion that governments are the creation of the consent of its people "ridiculous", as "the people cannot decide until somebody decides who are the people". The application of

2800-612: Was a major boost for the expansion of slavery. Overnight, outrage united anti-slavery forces across the North into an "anti-Nebraska" movement that soon was institutionalized as the Republican Party , with its firm commitment to stop the expansion of slavery. Also, pro- and anti-slavery elements moved into Kansas with the intention of allowing or banning slavery, which led to a raging state-level civil war, known as " Bleeding Kansas ". Abraham Lincoln targeted popular sovereignty in

2856-485: Was changed. However, due to domestic and foreign criticism of Konoe, the GHQ announced on 1 November that Konoe had not been appointed to amend the Constitution and that he had no authority to lead the amendment of the constitution since the cabinet had changed. At that time, Konoe belonged to the Office of the Minister of the Interior, which was in charge of politics related to the Imperial Household, but since

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2912-493: 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. After World War II, the Allied Powers concluded an "Instrument of Surrender" with Japan, which stated that "the Emperor and the Government of Japan shall come under

2968-527: Was founded. On 18 February, the Japanese government called on the GHQ to reconsider the MacArthur Draft, which is significantly different from the Matsumoto Draft, but Whitney rejected the proposal on 20 February. On the contrary, he asked the Japanese government for a reply within 48 hours. Then, Prime Minister Shidehara met with MacArthur on 21 February and decided to accept the MacArthur draft by

3024-576: Was held on 27 October 1945. Jōji Matsumoto presented the following four principles of constitutional amendment to the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives in 1945. Four principles of constitutional amendment The Matsumoto Committee has prepared a constitutional amendment outline based on these principles. The Matsumoto Commission's recommendations ( ja:松本試案 ), made public in February 1946, were quite conservative as "no more than

3080-494: Was organized by Higashikuni Cabinet (Prime Minister Prince Naruhiko Higashikuni ), with Fumimaro Konoe , who had served as the prime minister during the Manchurian Incident in 1931, as a minister without portfolio. The trigger of constitutional amendment was from GHQ General MacArthur's word to Fumimaro Konoe. After an unsuccessful first visit on 13 September 1945, Fumimaro Konoe paid another visit to MacArthur at

3136-703: Was the first general election in Japan in which women were permitted to vote . In the process of passing through the House of Representatives in August 1946, the draft of the Constitutional Amendment was modified. This is called the Ashida Amendment, since the chairman of the committee at the time was Hitoshi Ashida. In particular, Article 9, which refers to the renunciation of armed forces, was controversial. The phrase "In order to accomplish

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