MIYAZAWA Toshiyoshi

Toshiyoshi Miyazawa (1899–1976) was a constitutional scholar who served as a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and the University of Tokyo and had a significant influence on the interpretation and study of the postwar Constitution of Japan.

Miyazawa served as a member of the Constitutional Problems Investigation Committee, commonly known as the Matsumoto Committee, established in 1945. He is known for his involvement in drafting the “Miyazawa Draft A,” a proposal that was relatively liberal in content compared with other proposals within the committee. On February 1, 1946, the Mainichi Shimbun published a draft with content almost identical to the “Miyazawa Draft A” on its front page under the headline “Draft Proposal by the Constitutional Problems Investigation Committee.” The newspaper characterized the draft as “conservative” and “maintaining the status quo.” Other newspapers also took a critical stance toward the government and the Matsumoto Committee, and this scoop is generally regarded as having prompted GHQ to abandon the Japanese government’s effort to draft a constitutional revision on its own and instead undertake the preparation of its own draft constitution.

After the war, Miyazawa continued his systematic study of the Constitution of Japan as a professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Tokyo, helping to establish the foundations of postwar constitutional scholarship in Japan. He also introduced the fundamental principles of the Constitution of Japan, including popular sovereignty and fundamental human rights, to a broad general audience through works such as An Introduction to the New Constitution (Atarashii Kenpō no Hanashi), published in 1947.