抄録
Almost all the texts on Japanese constitutional law explain constitutionalism as "the modern constitutionalism" from an age of bourgeois revolution that created politics according to a written constitution, including the protection of human rights and civil liberties. This is the popular view about constitutionalism in Japanese constitutional studies. But, in the history of political thought, constitutionalism has a broader meaning i.e. "limited government" or one of the methods of "controlling the state", traced back to ancient Greece. Therefore, constitutionalism has little to do with the existence of a written constitution. So, In this essay, I will point out several problems that occur when taking about this popular view of constitutionalism within Japanese constitutional studies.
