Constitution of Japan

The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan, written primarily by American civilian officials during the postwar occupation, adopted on 3 November 1946 and effective from 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meiji Constitution of 1889. It rests on the principles of popular sovereignty, with the Emperor as symbol of the state, renunciation of war, individual rights and prohibition of state religion, and Article 9 renounces Japan's right to wage war and maintain military forces, though the country retains the Self-Defense Forces. It provides for a parliamentary system with the National Diet as the legislature, a Cabinet led by a Prime Minister as the executive, and the Supreme Court as the judiciary, guaranteeing legal equality and freedoms of assembly, association and speech. Amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Diet plus approval in a referendum, and despite conservative efforts to revise Article 9 it remains the world's oldest unamended supreme constitutional text.