ABSTRACT
The Committee to Study Constitutional Problems was created by the Shidehara cabinet on October 25, 1945. The purpose was not to initiate the process of revising the constitution, for the work of constitutional reform had, started in earnest in the Office of the Privy Seal. The Committee to Study Constitutional Problems, whose principal members held almost identical views on the issue of revising the constitution, proceeded ahead under the leadership of the "brilliant" and "confident" Matsumoto. The committee held general meetings in which all members and advisers participated, and investigation or study sessions in which only the members participated. On February 1, when the cabinet was engaged in this examination of drafts, Mainichi Shinbun published on its front page the full text of the "Provisional Draft of the Committee to Study Constitutional Problems". In response to this shocking report, Matsumoto quickly denied at the special cabinet meeting that day that this was the committee's draft.
