Complete Works on Japanese Legislation Kokka-Baisho-ho (The State Redress Act [1947])

As a part of the Complete Works on Japanese Legislation (Shinzansha Publishers Co., Ltd.) series, this book compiles, organizes, and analyzes materials related to the legislation of the State Redress Act established in 1947. Given the timing of the law’s establishment immediately after the end of the World War II, collection of materials regarding the legislative process was not easy. Typically, before a bill is submitted to the Cabinet for decision, an outline or framework of the bill is discussed by a deliberative council or other such body, and records of the proceedings of this body serve as the primary source for understanding the legislative process. In the case of the State Redress Act, although it is known the bill was drafted by the second subcommittee of the Deliberative Council on the Legal System, given the timing immediately after the end of the war, it is not clear whether or not a record of the proceedings was even created. Even if such a record had been created, it was neither saved by the government nor transferred to the control of the National Archives of Japan. For this reason, it was necessary to find other materials related to the drafting of the bill. These materials were also not systematically saved by the government. Thus, the legislative processes had to be pieced together based on examination of documents donated by individuals who had been involved in the creation of the bill.
 
Particularly useful in this endeavor were the “Sakae Wagatsuma materials” donated to the Center for Modern Japanese Legal and Political Documents (Faculty of Law, University of Tokyo Graduate Schools for Law and Politics) by Dr. Sakae Wagatsuma, who was a member of the second subcommittee of the Deliberative Council on the Legal System, and the “Fumio Ozawa materials” donated to the Ministry of Justice Library by Fumio Ozawa, who served as an administrative official of the Ministry of Justice. As these materials were originally the personal possessions of these two individuals, many contain handwritten notes. Insofar as these notes are also useful for understanding the legislative process, they are also included in the book along with the materials themselves.
 
During the period of Allied Occupation, approval of the GHQ was required before a bill submitted to the Cabinet could be introduced in the National Diet. Accordingly, the State Redress Act was explained to the GHQ on numerous occasions. Records of the proceedings (Q&A) on these occasions were also found in Japan. Speculating, however, that more detailed materials might exist in the US, the author visited the Maryland branch of the National Archives, where I discovered systemically organized materials related to Japan’s State Redress Act preserved on microfilm. This book, thus, also compiles these materials held by the National Archives of the United States. Section II in Chapter 2 of the book compiles records of deliberations by the National Diet on the State Redress Act. These are valuable to understanding the legislative process insofar as they reveal the high quality of the deliberation on the bill in the National Diet and the fact that the bill was revised by the House of Councillors and that the revision to Article 3 of the Act was approved by the judicial committee of the House of Councillors. Section IV of the book includes relevant “Tatsuo Sato materials” held in the Modern Japanese Political History Materials Room of the National Diet Library as well as records of round table discussions on the State Redress Act attended by Fumio Ozawa (who supervised the drafting of the bill) and a short article on the drafting process by Dr. Jiro Tanaka, who was a member of the second subcommittee of the Deliberative Council on the Legal System. Section V of the book includes reference materials used by the government in the drafting of the State Redress Act.
 

(Written by UGA Katsuya, Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics / 2018)