MINOBE TATSUKICHI

Minobe Tatsukichi was born in Zaimoku-machi, Takasago-cho, in 1873. He graduated with a degree in law from Tokyo University and studied in France, Germany and England. After that he became a professor at Tokyo University and gave lectures on the Constitution of Japan.

He was elected a member of the House of Counselors of Japan in 1918,but he was denounced because he held a strongly different view of the Imperial System. This caused a sensation nationwide in February, 1925. After this his books on the Constitution and his opinions were banned and he resigned as a member of the House of Counselors.

After World War 2, he collected materials on the Constitution of the countries in which he had studied, and contributed to the amendment to the Constitution of Japan. Therefore he was appointed to the Privy Council in 1936. Now there is the Minobe Collection of books consisting of more than one hundred volumes, in the Takasago Community Center.

The ex-Governor of Tokyo, Minobe Ryokichi, was Minobe Tatsukichi's eldest son.