ABSTRACT
BARON HOZUMI, the late president of the Privy Council and a leading jurist, once defined the fundamental principle of Japanese constitutional system as theocratico-patriarchal constitutionalism.1 Indeed, the most characteristic feature of her national polity is that the emperor reigns over and governs the state as the head of the vast Japanese family. This inherited power of the imperial throne is expressly confirmed in the first article of the Constitution which declares that “the Emperor of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal.”2 The emperor, to whom the Constitution attributes sacredness and inviolability,3 is the symbol of national unity.4
