Judicial Review in Japan History and Prospects

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the history and to evaluate the operation of the Japanese system of judicial review. Judicial review, or the practice of permitting the courts to act on the constitutionality of laws, orders, regulations or official acts is a recent development in Japan, dating only from 1947 when the Japanese Government, under the influence of the American Occupation, incorporated the principle into its new constitution--the so-called Showa Constitution. The Meiji Constitution, which had been the fundamental law of the land from 1889 to 1947, did not recognize this principle. Thus, the Japanese have had only a modicum of experience with judicial review, and it may be many more years before its impact on their judicial system and on their culture can be properly evaluated. Since the right of judicial review was given to the Showa Constitution (Chap. VI, Article 81), and since the latter embodied the reforms that the American Occupation wished to see adopted in Japan, including the Supreme Court in the strengthening of judiciary, it may be well to examine the first the history of the Showa Constitution.