ABSTRACT
After very reluctantly accepting the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) draft, the Japanese government finally set about making a "Japanese draft" modeled on SCAP's version. It is fitting to refer to this as a "Japanese draft". That is, it is usually said that the government draft was a "translation" of the SCAP draft. The initial, partial Japanese translation of the American draft, produced by Matsumoto Joji, was presented to the cabinet on February 22, 1946. The SCAP draft provides for succession to the throne in accordance with such "Imperial House Law as the Diet may enact". The Imperial House Law is enacted by the people's representatives in the Diet; that is, it is a statute. In the Japanese draft the words "enacted by the Diet" are missing. The Japanese government emerged from a "long tunnel" some twenty days after February 13 and somehow struggled along toward the publication of a draft constitution.
