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on any matter other than what is contained in the project submitted to it. It is further to be inferred that the Diet is not allowed to evade the restriction of the present article by voting a law that may directly or indirectly affect any of the principles of the present Constitution.
74. While the vote of the Diet is necessary for any amendment of the Constitution, a modification of the Imperial House Law alone needs no submission to it, for the Imperial House Law is one that has been settled by the Imperial Family concerning their own affairs, and bears no relation to the reciprocal rights and duties of the Emperor or of his subjects towards each other. A rule by which a modification of the Imperial House Law is required to be submitted to the Imperial Family Council, and also to the Privy Council, ought to be mentioned in the Imperial House Law itself, but need have no mention in the Constitution. Such provision is accordingly omitted in the present article. But should modification of the Imperial House Law be suffered to either directly or indirectly bring about any alteration of the present Constitution, the foundations of the latter would not be free from exposure to destruction. Accordingly, in the present article care has been taken to establish a special safeguard for the Constitution.
75. The institution of a Regency is an extraordinary measure, and not an ordinary matter. Thus, although a Regent is entitled to exercise the right of reigning over and of governing the country just as if he were Emperor indeed, yet he is not allowed to exercise any power of decision concerning a modification either of the Constitution or of the Imperial House Law. For the fundamental laws of State and of the Imperial House being of far greater importance than the office of Regent, which is in its nature provisional, no personage other than the Emperor has the power of effectuating the great work of making an amendment to any of them.
76. It is provided in the present article, not only that existing laws, ordinances, and regulations, shall possess binding force, but also that such enactments as are required by the Constitution to be promulgated in the form of laws shall possess the same force as laws. When it becomes necessary in the future to make amendments of such enactments, the amendments are to be carried out as laws, notwithstanding that the original enactment in question had been promulgated in the form of ordinance or of notification.