Tatsukichi Minobe

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Tatsukichi Minobe (美濃部 達吉, Minobe Tatsukichi, May 7, 1873 – May 23, 1948) was a Japanese statesman and scholar of constitutional law.[1] His interpretation of the role of the monarchy in the pre-war Empire of Japan was a source of considerable controversy in the increasingly radicalized political environment of Japan in the 1930s.

His wife was the daughter of

Dairoku Kikuchi, and his son Ryokichi Minobe
was governor of Tokyo (1967–1979).

Biography

Minobe was born in

Home Ministry, and was sent for further studies to Germany, France and the United Kingdom
, returning to Japan in 1902 to take up a position as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University.

In 1912, Minobe published a work on constitutional interpretation, which came to be known as the “emperor organ theory”. Per Minobe, the “State”, or

Diet of Japan if Japan were not to end up with a dual government in which the military would become completely independent and above the rule of law
and unaccountable to civilian authority.

From 1924 to 1927, Minobe was the Director of the Faculty of Law at Tokyo Imperial University. From 1911 for 34 years, he was also a counselor in the Bureau of Legislation where he participated in the enactment of several laws. He entered the

House of Peers
by appointment in 1932.

Minobe’s interpretation of the constitution was generally accepted by bureaucrats and even imperial household until the 1930s, although it had been challenged from the beginning by imperial absolutists such as

Shinkichi Uesugi, who held that the emperor was, by definition, the personification of the State itself, and therefore politically unaccountable for his actions, however arbitrary, as defined in Article 3 the Meiji Constitution
.

Minobe before Diet, 1935

In the increasingly militant environment of the 1930s, Minobe’s liberal interpretation of the role of the emperor came under attack from military officers and ultranationalists increasingly disillusioned by

emperor worship and national chauvinism.[5]

Following the surrender of Japan after World War II, Minobe was active as an advisor in the creation of the post-war Constitution of Japan, as well as an advisor to the Privy Council.[6] He died in 1948.

Notes

  1. ^ Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Ōmi" in Japan Encyclopedia, p. 638, p. 638, at Google Books.
  2. ^ Bix. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. pages 79-80
  3. ^ Bix. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. page 287
  4. ^ [1] Time Magazine, April 22, 1935
  5. ^ Bix. Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan. page 290-291
  6. ^ [2] National Diet Library Bio

References
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