Minobe Tatsukichi

Minobe Tatsukichi (born May 7, 1873, Hyōgo prefecture, Japan—died May 23, 1948, Tokyo) was a legal expert who reinterpreted the position of the imperial institution within the Japanese constitution as that of an “organ of state.” This view of the emperor, who until that time had been considered the divine embodiment of the state, greatly altered Japanese political theory.

After doing graduate work in Germany, Minobe became a law professor at Tokyo University. He utilized German legal theory to set forth the view that the emperor, although symbolizing the unique character of the Japanese state as the nationalists claimed, was still merely the highest organ of the state invested with the authority to carry out the nation’s executive functions. This idea in effect made the emperor subject to the laws of the state; imperial authority was no greater than that of elected organs of the government. In fact, Minobe maintained, true sovereign power could be vested only in the people. This argument weakened the sanction for autocratic rule (in the name of the emperor) and produced a theoretical basis for the growing democratic movement.

Since Minobe’s works were prescribed reading for the government civil-service examinations required for higher bureaucratic positions, almost all leading officials held his views. Nevertheless, as Japan prepared for war in the xenophobic atmosphere of the 1930s, his theories came under increasing criticism from these same bureaucrats. In 1932 he retired from the university and was elevated to the House of Peers. Three years later nationalistic pressure forced him to resign. His books were then banned until the end of World War II.

After the war Minobe opposed the new U.S.-sponsored constitution on the grounds that it had reduced the emperor’s power too much, making the imperial institution only a symbol of the state.