Editing Kijūrō Shidehara (section)

==Premiership (1945–1946)==
{{seealso|Shidehara Cabinet}}
[[File:Prime-Minister-Kijuro-Shidehara.png|thumb|Kijūrō Shidehara]]
[[File:Kijūrō Shidehara Cabinet 19451009.jpg|thumb|9 October 1945, with ministers of the Shidehara Cabinet]]
At the time of Japan's surrender in 1945, Shidehara was in semi-retirement. However, largely because of his pro-American reputation, he was appointed to serve as Japan's first post-war prime minister, from 9 October 1945 to 22 May 1946. Along with the post of prime minister, Shidehara became president of the [[Japan Progressive Party|Progressive Party]] (''Shinpo-tō'').

Shidehara's cabinet appointed a non-official committee to look into the question of drafting a new constitution for Japan in line with General [[Douglas MacArthur]]'s policy directives, but the draft was vetoed by the [[Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers|occupation authorities]]. According to MacArthur and others, it was Shidehara who originally proposed the inclusion of [[Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan]], a provision which limits Japan's ability to wage war. Shidehara, in his memoirs ''Gaikō gojūnen'' ("Fifty-years Diplomacy", 1951) also admitted to his authorship, and described how the idea came to him on a train ride to Tokyo. Already when he was ambassador in Washington, he had become acquainted with the idea of 'outlawing war' in international and constitutional law. One of his famous sayings was: "Let us create a world without war (''sensō naki sekai'') together with the world-humanity (''sekai jinrui'').”

However, his supposed conservative economic policies and family ties to the Mitsubishi interests made him unpopular with the leftist movement.

The Shidehara cabinet resigned following Japan's first postwar election, when the [[Liberal Party (Japan, 1945)|Liberal Party]] of Japan captured most of the votes. [[Shigeru Yoshida]] became prime minister in Shidehara's wake.

Shidehara joined the Liberal Party a year later, after Prime Minister [[Tetsu Katayama]] formed a [[socialism|socialist government]]. As one of Katayama's harshest critics, Shidehara was elected speaker of the [[House of Representatives (Japan)|House of Representatives]]. He died in this post in 1951.