ABSTRACT

Japan was the first industrialized democracy in the non-western world. Following its defeat in World War II, the American Occupation (1945–52) insinuated not only a democratic political system, but a democratic society and culture to support and maintain it: the emperor who had not so long embodied divinity was now reduced to a mere symbol; the armed forces were dismantled; the former Meiji constitution was completely revised and officially adopted in 1946; and the Diet was to be the Japanese parallel of western parliaments.