Minobe Tatsukichi

Minobe Tatsukichi

Minobe Tatsukichi ( Japanese 美濃 部 達吉 ; * May 7, 1873 in Hyōgo Prefecture ; † May 23, 1948 ) was a Japanese constitutional lawyer and specialist in administrative law . He played an important role in the creation of the Japanese constitution .

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Minobe Tatsukichi studied at the Imperial University of Tokyo . After a short period in the Ministry of the Interior, he continued his studies in Europe. In 1902 he returned to Japan and taught as a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo.

His theory, which saw the Tennō (at the time of the Shōwa-tennō Hirohito ) as a state organ , not as a divine embodiment of state power, caused a controversy with Uesugi Shinkichi about the superior position of the emperor in the system of government. Until the 1930s his theory had many supporters in the ranks of the civil service. But it also attracted the indignation of the military and the right-wing camp. In the increasingly militaristic mood of the prewar period, they succeeded in banning his writings in 1935 and forcing him to resign from the House of Lords on charges of lese majesty (cf. Kokutai ).

Minobe was seen as a supporter of a liberal interpretation of the Meiji constitution and democratization.

From 1924 to 1927 he was head of the law faculty at the Imperial University. He did not finally leave this until 1934. From 1911 to 1935 he was also an advisor to the Japanese legislature and worked on several laws. From 1932 until his quasi-exclusion in 1935 he was a member of the upper house of the Japanese Parliament . He also taught at Hitotsubashi University .

After he lost the Second World War he benefited from this opposition role and from October 1945 he was actively involved in drafting the new Japanese constitution as an advisor to the “Committee for the Investigation of Constitutional Problems”. In 1946 he became a member of the Secret Council.

Of his numerous writings, mention should be made of the “Interpretation of the Constitution” (憲法 撮要, Kempō satsuyō) from 1923, which was banned because of its statement on the position of the Tennō, and the “Principles of the Japanese Constitution” (日本国 憲法 原 論, Nihonkoku kempō genron), which appeared in 1948.

His son Minobe Ryōkichi was governor of Tokyo Prefecture between 1967 and 1979 .

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• S. Noma (Ed.): Minobe Tatsukichi . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 9715.
• Japanese government website on major figures in constitutional history

1. ↑ 法学 研究 科 の 特色 . (No longer available online.) Law School, Hitotsubashi University, archived from the original on March 5, 2012 ; Retrieved July 16, 2012 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Minobe is the family name, Tatsukichi the first name.