Japan's postwar constitution

Japan's postwar constitution took effect on May 3, 1947. It makes the emperor 'the symbol of the State' with no governing powers, places sovereignty in the people, guarantees basic rights, gives women equal rights, and in Article 9 renounces war and the use of force as a means of settling disputes. It has never been amended.¹²

After Japan's surrender in 1945 the Allied occupation, led by General Douglas MacArthur, wanted to replace the 1889 Meiji Constitution, which had made the emperor sovereign and left the military outside civilian control. A Japanese government committee produced a draft that changed little, and MacArthur rejected it. In February 1946 a team in the occupation's Government Section, under Courtney Whitney and Charles Kades, wrote a model text in about a week. Japanese officials then reworked it, and the Diet approved it in late 1946, promulgating it on November 3.¹²

Among the drafters was Beate Sirota, a 22-year-old Austrian-born American who had grown up in Tokyo; she helped write the clauses on women's equality. Article 9 has been debated ever since. Japan created Self-Defense Forces in 1954, and governments have reinterpreted the article, most notably in 2014 to 2015 to allow limited collective self-defense. Supporters see the constitution as the basis of postwar peace and democracy, while critics see it as imposed. Opinion polls show the public is split over changing it.¹