ABSTRACT
The first person to suggest the revision of the Japanese Constitution was General Douglas MacArthur. On September 13,1945, Prince Konoe Fumimaro, prime minister three times before the war and minister without portfolio in the first postwar Higashikuni cabinet, made his way to the Customs Building near Yokohama Harbor, where MacArthur's general headquarters (GHQ) was located. On October 9, Konoe had an audience with the emperor to explain events of recent days, and at noon on October 11 received as planned his appointment as special assistant in the Office of the Privy Seal. Konoe and Sasaki eventually commenced work on their draft on October 22, 1945. Konoe's ideas for constitutional reform revealed quite by accident the premodern nature of Japan's scholarship on constitutional law. MacArthur's meeting with Konoe and suggestion that he take the lead in revising Japan's constitution was the first indication of probing by both sides.
