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is connected with the Constitution, the provisions relating to the said exercise of sovereign powers are mentioned in the Constitution, while those relating to the institution of a Regent are contained in the Imperial House Law. The question whether it is, or is not, advisable to institute a Regent under any particular circumstances shall be decided by the Imperial Family, and the matter lies in a region that admits of no interference of the subjects. The extraordinary cases, in which the Emperor is incapable of personally taking the reins of power, are of very rare occurrence; still, those rare cases not infrequently give rise to national commotions. In the Constitution of a certain country it is provided that both Houses of Parliament shall be convened and asked to vote upon the necessity of instituting a Regent. But such a practice is open to the objection that, as the decision of a matter of great importance to the Imperial Family is thus delegated to the will of the majority of the people, there would be a tendency to bring about degradation of Imperial dignity. It is for the purpose of respecting the character of the national policy of the country, and of guarding against the opening of a way to such a tendency, that the dispositions touching the institution of a Regency mentioned in the present article have been left to the determination of the Imperial House Law, and that no further provision is made in the present Constitution on the subject.

18. The expression ‘Japanese subject’ is here used to distinguish a Japanese from a foreign subject or citizen. Every Japanese subject shall be entitled to possess public as well as civil legal rights. It is consequently necessary to settle by law the conditions for being a Japanese subject. There are two ways by which an individual can be a Japanese subject: one is by birth, the other by naturalization, or by other effect of law.

The status of subjects shall be settled by a special law. But care has been taken to state this fact in the Constitution because the status of subjects or citizens is necessary for the enjoyment of civil rights in whole and of public rights. It will be seen that the provisions of the said special law are framed on the authority of the Constitution, and that such provisions are essentially related to the rights and duties of subjects as mentioned in the Constitution.

Public rights are the right of electing, that of being elected, that of being appointed to office, and so forth. In every country it is the common rule of public law that public rights shall be determined by the Constitution or by special law, and that they shall be enjoyed solely by native subjects or citizens, to the