Japan's Commission on the Constitution

The Final Report

John M. Maki

• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780295804019
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Japan's Commission on the Constitution: The Final Report

PART ONE

The Establishment and Organization of the Commission

1. The Establishment

THE CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN was promulgated on 3 November 1946 and went into effect on 3 May 1947. At the time, however, different sectors of the populace had complex attitudes toward the Constitution. The people in general welcomed it, supporting it as a guide for the reconstruction of Japan, but from the outset there was an undercurrent of feeling that some day it should be subjected to review by the freely expressed will of the people because it had been enacted under the special circumstances of the Allied occupation.

In December 1946, immediately after the promulgation of the Constitution, the Committee for the Popularization of the Constitution was established. It was designed to carry out an educational movement that would spread the spirit of the Constitution, allowing it to permeate the lives of the people. The committee forthwith inaugurated the movement throughout the country.

In addition to the above circumstances within the country there were certain complex factors from outside. In October 1946, even before the promulgation of the Constitution, the Far Eastern Commission made the policy decision that between one and two years after the new Constitution went into effect both the National Diet and the commission itself would review it. This decision was transmitted to the Japanese government by General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in January 1947. As provided therein Director Suzuki Yoshio of the Office of Justice of the Ashida cabinet received a suggestion from SCAP regarding constitutional review in August 1948, a little over a year after the Constitution had gone into effect. Suzuki transmitted an intention of review to the speakers of both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors and ordered a study to be made in the Office of Justice. However, the administrative officials of both houses and the justice authorities brought the internal studies to a halt.

In April 1949, before the lapse of the two years provided for in the FEC policy decision, Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives that the government had no intention of revising the Constitution. The FEC in May 1949 also decided that it would not approve a decision to require a revision of the Constitution.

The international situation arising from the outbreak of the Korean conflict in June 1950 and the resultant establishment of the National Police Reserve in August gave rise to the controversy over the security problem. Since that time the review of the Constitution and the question of the need for its revision, both centering on the security issue, have become quite controversial.

In April 1952 the peace treaty came into effect, and the country regained its independence. Since that time the question of how the Constitution should be treated has become a central issue, and the general review of the Constitution and the necessity for revision have been topics of lively debate.

Between the summers of 1953 and 1954 negotiations involving the Mutual Security Assistance Agreement between Japan and the United States were started. Both inside and outside the Diet, the controversy over the security issue and the related constitutional question has become bitter, particularly because of the statements by Prime Minister Yoshida and President Shigemitsu Mamoru of the Progressive Party at the nineteenth regular session of the Diet relating to the strengthening of self-defense capability, the drafting of a long-range national defense plan and the establishment of the Self-Defense Forces, plus the deliberations at the same session on the ratification of the MSA Agreement, the law establishing the Self-Defense Forces and the Official Secrets Law.

During the above period developments indicated clearly that the constitutional question had suddenly and clearly become a political confrontation. The Liberal Party was revived by Hatoyama Ichirō after a conference between him and Prime Minister Yoshida in November 1953, and in the following March the Liberals set up a Committee on Constitutional Investigation. This committee arrived at the following conclusion at a plenary meeting in September of the same year: “The Constitution of Japan must be completely revised in view of both its content and the process of its enactment.” The same party, a month later, in its new policy platform made clear the following intention: “Because the present Constitution must be revised to conform with national conditions, an authoritative public investigative body should be established to prepare for it.” The Committee on Constitutional Investigation then released in November “An Outline Revision of the Constitution of Japan” with an appended “Reasons for General Revisions.”

The Progressive Party had already set forth constitutional review as part of its policy at the time of its founding, but at its party convention in January 1954 it passed the following resolution: “We recognize the necessity for a thorough review of the Constitution of Japan both because of the circumstances surrounding its enactment and because of experience with it since it came into effect. First, our party will establish its own investigative committee for constitutional review which will carry out a thorough study. At the proper opportunity a Constitutional Revision Commission will be established by law. It should draft a complete plan, which should then be submitted to the constitutionally established procedures for such matters.” As a result, in the following April the Progressive Party Constitutional Investigation Committee was established. This committee then announced at a plenary session in September “An Outline of Problems of the Present Constitution” after passing another resolution that had essentially the same wording as the one above.

On the other side, the Left-wing Socialist Party in January 1954 approved its platform on the process of the establishment of socialistic authority which stated among other things: “On the basis of the absolute majority established in the Central Committee we shall revise the Constitution in accordance with the basic principles of socialism, establishing the national or public ownership of basic industries and setting up judicial and administrative organs and the machinery of education, newspapers, publishing, broadcasting, and so forth, in accordance with socialist objectives.” Simultaneously they made clear that they would struggle “to prevent rearmament, to dissolve security and defense forces, and to protect the peace Constitution.”

In addition, the progressive political parties such as both the Left- and Right-wing Socialists, the Labor-Farmer Party, and such other progressive forces as the labor federations set about creating popular organizations to oppose constitutional revision and to protect the peace Constitution. In January 1954 the Society for the Protection of the Peace Constitution which had started the previous August was dissolved and the People’s Federation for the Protection of the Constitution was formed. The federation then approved a platform that stated its practical goals as follows: “In opposition to the plans of the conservative and reactionary forces to weaken the Constitution we shall awaken and organize a broad public opinion to protect the peace Constitution, going beyond faction, ideology, and doctrine. As the first step, we shall turn back by the power of public opinion the plans to weaken the Constitution. We shall then secure the strength in the Diet to defeat any Diet bill for revision. Finally, by means of the final popular vote we shall bury any proposal to weaken the Constitution.”

In November 1954 the Left- and Right-wing Socialist parties and the Labor-Farmer Party issued the joint statement “Arguments against Constitutional Revision.” This was a declaration of intent to oppose completely the proposals for revision from the Liberal and Progressive parties.

In the same month the Japan Democratic Party was formed through the joining of the Progressive and Japan Liberal parties and the Hatoyama [Ichirō] and Kishi [Nobusuke] factions which had left the Liberal Party. At the time the following item was decided on as a part of the platform: “In view of the circumstances of its enactment and of the results of its operation the Constitution of Japan shall be renovated, after consulting the opinions of all levels of the people, carefully examining its content, and firmly maintaining the principles of pacifism and democracy. To this end the National Diet shall establish by law a deliberative commission on the Constitution.”

In December the first Hatoyama cabinet was created on the basis of this party, and in January 1955 Prime Minister Hatoyama in his administrative policy speech before the twenty-first regular session of the Diet made the following statement: “In regard to the Constitution which is the fundamental law of the land, revision is necessary in order to bring it into accord with national conditions because of both the circumstances of its enactment and the results of its operation. To this end I believe that a nonpartisan constitutional investigative and deliberative body should be established in the Diet, involving the participation of men of learning and experience and representatives of other sectors of the nation and that a bill to this effect should be drafted after careful deliberation.”

Meanwhile, in December 1954 the Japan Democratic Party had also advocated the establishment of a similar nonpartisan body in the Diet. In the general election of February 1955 the question of constitutional revision was one source of debate between the conservative and progressive groups. In this election the Japan Democratic Party emerged on top. But on the other hand the progressive parties ended in command of more than a third of the seats in the House of Representatives.

In March 1955 the twenty-second special session of the Diet was opened and the second Hatoyama cabinet was appointed. The Japan Democratic Party, the party in power, cooperated with the Liberal Party, which shared its views on the constitutional revision question, and they revised their previous attitudes regarding the establishment of a constitutional investigative and deliberative body in the Diet. In June 1955 they announced their “Outline of a Law for a Commission on the Constitution,” which called for the establishment of the proposed body in the cabinet. Then the government party on a motion by Representative Kiyose Ichirō and four colleagues presented also in June to the House of Representatives the “Bill for the Commission on the Constitution” (House Bill No. 31), calling for the establishment of the commission in the cabinet as proposed in the above outline.

This bill was immediately referred to the House of Representatives’ Committee on the Cabinet. In view of its importance, Representative Kiyose explained the reasons behind the bill at a plenary session of the House of Councilors on 4 July 1955 and on the following day to a similar session of the House of Representatives. Then on 27 July Representative Furui Yoshimi explained the reasons for the bill to the House of Representatives’ Committee on the Cabinet. The following day the bill went through the committee and was sent to the floor of the house. After debate it was passed by a vote of 238 to 129 and sent on to the House of Councilors.

In the upper house it was immediately referred to the Committee on the Cabinet and on the final day of the session, 30 July, Representative Kiyose again explained the reasoning behind it, but it was not considered. At this point Councilor Toyota Masataka of the Ryokufūkai [Green Breeze Society] moved in the committee that in view of the progress of the deliberations on the bill and of its importance it be entrusted to deliberations during the period of adjournment. The motion was approved, but because of confusion in the proceedings of the house’s Steering Committee the session came to an end and deliberations on the bill were not completed.

Meanwhile, in May 1955 the League for an Independent Constitution was established with the hope of “achieving as rapidly as possible an independent constitution for Japan based on the new constitutional thought of the post–World War II period.” Also, in July 1955 the League of Diet Members for an Independent Constitution was formed with the aim of “creating a great popular movement through an appeal to the people on the necessity for achieving an independent constitution in order to create a new Japan with the pride of an independent people and to contribute to world peace.” This organization in August 1955 approved a resolution to pass a law rapidly at the next Diet session for a commission on the Constitution.

Furthermore, the People’s Federation for the Protection of the Constitution filed a report to the authorities as a political organization prior to the general election of February 1955 and had started a political movement during the election itself.

In October 1955 the right and left wings of the Socialist Party joined together and formed the Japan Socialist Party (JSP). Then in the next month the Japan Democratic Party and the Liberal Party came together similarly and formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

When the LDP was established it decided on the following plank in its platform: “We plan an independent revision of the Constitution, firmly maintaining the principles of pacifism, democracy, and respect for fundamental human rights.” At the same time it also decided, as both general and urgent policy, that, “in order to revise independently, in accordance with both the free will of the people and national conditions, the present Constitution which was enacted under the occupation, a constitutional commission will be established by law which will prepare a draft of a revised Constitution.”

In the same month the twenty-third special session of the Diet was opened and the third Hatoyama cabinet created. In December, Prime Minister Hatoyama before both houses of the Diet in his keynote address asserted that he would like to establish in the cabinet an investigative commission for constitutional revision. The LDP in the same month also established the LDP Constitutional Investigation Committee.

In January 1956 when the twenty-fourth regular session of the Diet was reopened, Prime Minister Hatoyama in his administrative policy speech expressed the intent that “in order to advance the preparations for the creation of an independent constitution by an autonomous Japanese people we shall establish a constitutional commission in the cabinet and carefully examine the constitution.” Then on 11 February 1956 sixty LDP members, including Kishi Nobusuke, presented to the House of Representatives “A Bill for a Constitutional Investigative Commission” (House Bill No. 1). This was almost identical with the bill [House Bill No. 31] introduced at the twenty-second session as described above.

On 16 February a plenary session of the House of Representatives heard Representative Yamasaki Iwao explain the bill. After interpellations it was referred on the following day to the House’s Committee on the Cabinet. On 21 February Representative Yamasaki again presented the reasons for the bill to the committee. Deliberations continued until 23 March, and on that day the bill was approved as originally drafted, and sent to the floor of the house. On 16 March a public hearing was held, and the opinions of Kamikawa Hikomatsu, Nakamura Akira, and Kaino Michitaka were heard.

Finally on 29 March in plenary session the bill was passed by a vote of 239 to 139 and on the same day was sent on to the House of Councilors.

On 20 February Representative Yamasaki Iwao explained the reasons for the bill in a plenary session of the House of Councilors and after interpellations it was referred to the Committee on the Cabinet for preliminary examination. On 23 February Representative Yamasaki appeared before the committee to discuss the reasons for the bill again. After the same bill had passed the House of Representatives it was deliberated on from 23 April to 9 May. On 7 May Kishi Kuramatsu, Ōnishi Kunitoshi, Tagami Jōji, and Suzuki Yoshio appeared as consultants to express their opinions.

On 10 May t...