Imperial Sovereignty

Under the Meiji Constitution, the Emperor was designated as the holder of sovereign authority and declared to be sacred and inviolable. In constitutional theory, an interpretive divide emerged over the locus of sovereignty between the Emperor Sovereignty Theory, which held that the Emperor was the bearer of supreme governing authority, and the Emperor-as-Organ Theory, which regarded the Emperor as an organ of the state through whom sovereign authority was exercised. Following the 1935 Emperor-as-Organ Theory Incident and the subsequent issuance of the government's Kokutai Meichō ("Clarification of the National Polity") Statement, the Emperor-as-Organ Theory was officially repudiated. These developments are also discussed in connection with the formation of Japan's wartime regime.

Under the postwar Constitution, the Emperor is defined as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the People." The Emperor's position derives from "the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power," and the Emperor possesses no powers relating to government.