ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief discussion of the Diet under the Meiji Constitution of 1889, the role of the present Diet under the 1947 Constitution and examines the political functions it performs in the post-war political system. The imperial Diet was established in 1890 under the Meiji Constitution. Even though it is said that the Meiji political system was patterned after the Prussian model. The three major functions the pre-war Diet served were legitimization, political-role formation, and a kind of interest articulation. The most important accomplishment of the 1947 Constitution was the establishment of popular sovereignty. Interest representation in Diet is highly institutionalized in post-war Japan. As is well known, the liberal Democratic party (LDP) articulates the interests of business, particularly big business, and higher bureaucracy. The most important factor affecting the functioning of the Diet is Japan's hegemonic party system. The conservative LDP has controlled both houses of the Diet without interruption since its formation in 1955.
