Foreword
The Constitution of Japan was promulgated on November 3, 1946 and became effective on May 3, 1947. Having received the approval of the Japanese Diet, it is the basis of a new era in Japanese government.
Several unsuccessful attempts had been made since Japan’s surrender to the Allied powers to revise the “Meiji” Constitution of 1889, Finally the first draft of the new Constitution was made public on March 6, 1946, and appeared in revised form as of April 22, 1946 (see Department of State publication 2671, Far Eastern Series 17, p. 117). The present Constitution is an outgrowth of that draft.
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