Background
Tatsukichi Minobe was born on 7 May 1873 in Hyogo.
Tatsukichi Minobe was born on 7 May 1873 in Hyogo.
After completing the law course of Tokyo Imperial University, he studied in Germany.
In 1902 he became a professor of Tokyo University, a position that he held until his retirement in 1934. During this period, he lectured on the comparative history of legislation and later on matters pertaining to constitutions. In contrast to scholars such as Uesugi Shinkichi, who upheld the sovereignty of the emperor, he propounded the view that the emperor should be looked upon as an organ of the state, and this disagreement led to a long-range debate on the interpretation of the constitution. In 1911 Minobe became a member of the Japan Academy. At the time of the London Disarmament Conference in 1930, debate once more broke out over the question of the constitutional rights of the various high ministers, but Prime Minister Hamaguchi and his cabinet, adopting Minobe’s interpretation of the constitution, signed the Naval Treaty in spite of the objections of the naval chief of staff, a move that incurred the displeasure of the navy.
In 1932, Minobe became a member of the Upper House of the Diet. In 1935, a fellow member of the Upper House launched an attack upon him for his theory that the emperor should be regarded as an organ of the state. The incident developed into a serious political issue, his writings were banned. He resigned his seat in the Upper House, but this did not end the affair, and in 1936 he was attacked by a hoodlum and wounded slightly. In the years following, he continued to study and write on the subject of administrative law. In 1946, after the conclusion of the Pacific War, he became an advisor to the Privy Council. He participated in the deliberations concerning the drafting of a new constitution, but it is said that he did not approve of constitutional revision so long as Japan remained under the control of the Occupation forces.
His eldest son, Rybkichi, has been elected governor of Tokyo three times since 1967.