Abstract
Sixty years have passed after the end of World War II and we have had many historical studies about postwar Japan. In addition, several studies from the viewpoint of modern legal history of Japan refer to this era. This article introduces studies about postwar revision as "the Study of the History of the Occupation Period" and researches into the origin of present legal system by legal scholars, to construct "Legal History of Postwar Japan" or "Legal History of Contemporary Japan". As a basis, this article makes a brief sketch of "Occupation and Control" of Japan after World War II and analyses of legal feature of "Potsdam Decree".
Research of enactment process of Constitution of Japan has been progressed in this field, through the activities of the Cabinet Commission on the Constitution in 1950's. In succession, because of declassification and regulation of both American and Japanese records, we have comparatively abundant results recently ; historical sketch with various viewpoints, substantial analysis of each article, diversified aspect of Occupant, criticisms against legitimacy of the research materials, etc. On the other hand, most of the legal fields barely start to reprint of Japanese records and use American records. This article introduces the present conditions of studies about legal reform according to the activity of Provisional Legislative Investigating Committee established in 1946.
Recently, "the Study of the History of the Occupation Period", especially about local system reform, educational reform, and economic reform show an active interest in process of enforcement of Occupation policy. To construct "Legal History of Postwar Japan" or "Legal History of Contemporary Japan", we have to react these trend with refined historical method, in connection with examination of "Reception of American Law" under Allied Occupation.
