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principles by which We are to be guided in Our conduct, and to point out to what Our descendants and Our subjects and their descendants are for ever to conform.

The rights of sovereignty of the State We have inherited from Our ancestors, and We shall bequeath them to Our descendants; neither We nor they shall in future fail to wield them in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution hereby given and granted.

We now declare that We will protect and respect the security of the rights and of the prosperity of Our people, and secure to them the complete enjoyment of the same within the extent of the provisions of the present Constitution and of the law.

The Imperial Diet shall first be convoked for the 23rd year of Meiji, and the time of its opening shall be the date when the present Constitution comes into force.

When in the future it may become necessary to amend any of the provisions of the present Constitution, We or Our successors shall assume Our right of initiative, and submit a project for the same to the Imperial Diet. The Imperial Diet shall pass its vote upon it, according to the conditions imposed by the present Constitution, and in no other wise shall Our descendants or Our subjects be permitted to attempt any alteration thereof.

Our Ministers of State, on Our behalf, shall be held responsible for the carrying out of the present Constitution, and Our present and future subjects shall for ever assume the duty of allegiance to the present Constitution.

We, the successors to the prosperous Throne of Our predecessors, do humbly and solemnly swear to the Imperial Founder of our House and to Our other Imperial ancestors, that, in pursuance of a great policy coextensive with the heavens and with earth, We shall maintain and secure from decline the ancient form of government.

In consideration of the progressive tendency of the course of human affairs, and in parallel with the advance of civilization, We deem it expedient, in order to give clearness and distinctness to the instructions bequeathed by the Imperial Founder of Our House and by Our other Imperial ancestors, to establish fundamental laws formulated into express provisions of law, so that, on the one hand, Our Imperial posterity may possess an express guide for the course they are to follow, and that, on the other, Our subjects shall thereby be enabled to enjoy a wider range of action in giving Us their support, and that the