Documents with Commentaries Part 1 Military Defeat and Efforts to Reform the Constitution
This constitutional reform proposal, dated October 3, 1945, was crafted by Teiji Yabe, a professor at the Imperial University of Tokyo, at the request of Sokichi Takagi, the Deputy Chief Secretary of the Higashikuni Cabinet and a former Rear Admiral in the Japanese navy. Yabe, a political scholar, would later become Vice Chairman of the Cabinet's Constitutional Investigation Committee. Prior to the war, he had been a member of the "Showa Research Group," the political research organization that had acted as the think tank guiding Fumimaro Konoye. The Yabe proposal evolved from the position that "this is an opportunity to reform the Constitution of our own will," to initiate a governmental system that reflected a popular mandate based on the "Rule" (Reign) of the Emperor, and was intended to steer the system of governance under the Meiji Constitution towards a parliamentary cabinet system.
| Actual Title of Source | Kenpo Kaisei Hoan (Chukan Hokoku) Yabe Kyoju An Showa Niju, Ju, San |
|---|---|
| Date | October 3, 1945 |
| Document Number | Diplomatic Records A' 3.0.0.2-2 "Certain Examination Materials Regarding Reforms to the Imperial Constitution (Volume 2)"<GAI-1, Reel No. A'-0092> |
| Repository (reproduction) | National Diet Library |
| Repository | Ministry of Foreign Affairs |
| Note | Microfilm |
