Tokujiro Kanamori

Tokujiro Kanamori

Tokujiro Kanamori (金森 徳次郎, Kanamori Tokujirō, March 17, 1886 – June 16, 1959) was a Japanese politician. He was a major figure in the implementation of the postwar Japanese Constitution.

Kanamori was born in 1886 in Aichi Prefecture. He graduated from Tokyo University in 1912 with a degree in Law, and started work for the Ministry of Finance. In 1924, he was appointed as Director of the new Cabinet Legislation Bureau (the first person to hold this post) and he subsequently became Director-General of the Bureau a decade later. He was, however, pressured into resigning only two years later, due to sympathies with the controversial "Emperor Organ" theory proposed by Tatsukichi Minobe.^[1][2] Nevertheless, he remained a respected constitutional scholar, who had published several books on the Meiji Constitution.^[3] He was consulted on the wording of the new constitution by Toshio Irie.

His election to the House of Peers in 1946 marked the start of his return to politics. He was elected as Minister of State in the first cabinet of Shigeru Yoshida, and in this capacity argued forcefully in favour of the new postwar constitution.^[1][2] In the course of 114 days of debate, Kanamori responded to over a thousand questions, with extensive responses that took up to one and a half hours.^[4] After the implementation of the new legislation, Kanamori helped to form the Kenpō Fukyū Kai (Constitution Popularization Society) in December 1946, and published books and tracts to spread awareness of the new laws throughout the population.^[5][6]

In 1948 he became the first librarian of the National Diet Library, a post he held until his death in 1959.^[2][7]

References

1. "Kanamori, Tokujiro". Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures. National Diet Library of Japan. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
2. "Historical Figures". Birth of the Japanese Constitution. National Diet Library of Japan. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
3. Ray A. Moore Professor of History and Asian Studies Amherst College; Donald L. Robinson Charles N. Clark Professor of Government and American Studies Smith College (13 September 2002). Partners for Democracy : Crafting the New Japanese State under MacArthur: Crafting the New Japanese State under MacArthur. Oxford University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-19-803444-5. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
4. Kyoko Inoue (1 February 1991). MacArthur's Japanese Constitution. University of Chicago Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-226-38391-0. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
5. "The Story of the New Constitution for Boys and Girls". World Digital Library. Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2013.
6. "Juvenile Books and Publications on the New Constitution". Birth of the Constitution of Japan. National Diet Library of Japan. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
7. Francis X. Blouin; William G. Rosenberg (2007). Archives, Documentation, and Institutions of Social Memory: Essays from the Sawyer Seminar. University of Michigan Press. p. 387. ISBN 978-0-472-03270-9. Retrieved 23 May 2013.