INTRODUCTION

Making laws is an essential function of Parliament. A ‘law,' according to the most widely
agreed definition is an obligatory command expressed in a Bill that has been discussed and
enacted in the specified format by a duly appointed legislature or Parliament and consented to
by the Head of State, and is obligatory on all citizens, and which the courts entrusted with
maintaining respect for the law are obligated to implement. Any ordinance, order, bye-law,
rule, regulation, notification, custom, or usage that has the force of law is referred to as a
"law." Bills are used to present all legislative proposals to Parliament.

A Bill is a drafted statute, and no Bill could become law unless it has been endorsed by both
Houses of Parliament and the President's accede. A Bill becomes law once it is endorsed by
Parliament and signed by the President of the United States. Laws are intended to bring about
an integrated society, to alleviate public difficulties as much as practicable, to curb social,
political, and economic evils, and to smoother the path to ensuring justice in a welfare state.

The framework of legislation necessitates a high level of competence on the behalf of those
involved in the initiation and drafting of laws. It also requires foresight and capability on the
part of lawmakers, who must be able to look beyond the words written to guarantee that the
suggested legislation is beneficial to society, free of oppressive bias, easily understandable by
people of ordinary intelligence, and free of loose threads or loopholes for trouble.

Following World War II, Japan's present Diet was created in 1946. The Diet was established
as the highest institution of state authority and the sole legislative organ of the state
underneath the post war Constitution.

GENERAL CHARACTERSTICS OF THE LAW-MAKING PROCESS

The law-making process is a type of government activity that aims to create (or revise) legal
norms. The word "law" has two connotations. It may refer to either positive law (legislation
or acts passed by government bodies) or natural law (Recht, Droit).   Furthermore, the term
"law" will be defined in a limited sense to include acts of legislative bodies and statutes.
Simultaneously, no study of the legal system would be complete without an evaluation of the
impact of natural law on the legal system.

The procedure of transforming a law concept into a law is known as law-making. Acts of
legislative bodies (statutes), acts of executive bodies (they go by various names – orders,
instructions, and so on), and finally judicial precedents and legal traditions are all origins of
law.  Each sources of law's lawmaking has its own characteristics. The creation of legal
customs, for example, varies from the creation of legislative acts. The repetition of a norm
over a prolonged period of time forms a legal custom. The state does not take the lead in this
process; instead, it simply approves the established norm.

This is a complicated legislative process. A state is the driving force behind it. It lends the
force of law to the norms and encourages their enforcement through the use of its bodies. An
act that has been enacted is called a state act. A state can control the law-making process by
regulating it, planning it, and thereby influencing its growth. However, its activities must be
lawful and not capricious. A society's needs are not met by the law-making procedure as
experiments in the adoption of laws.

DIET: An Overview

History

The Imperial Diet, Japan's 1st contemporary legislature was created in 1890 as a result of the
1889 Meiji Constitution, the country's first modern constitution. The Emperor was granted a
wide spectrum of powerful authority under the Meiji Constitution. The House of Peers and
the House of Representatives were the two chambers that made up the Imperial Diet. The
Imperial Family, Peers, persons who incurred high taxes, and those nominated by the
Emperor made up the former. Members of the latter were chosen using a restricted franchise
system.

The existing Constitution was adopted on November 3, 1946, following World War II, and
took effect on May 3, 1947. Until the new Constitution took affect the Imperial Diet passed
election laws that complied with it. For the first instance, women were granted voting rights
when the House of Representatives Members Election Act was amended in 1945. On April
20 and 25, 1946, the new Constitution's first voting for both houses was conducted. The
Imperial Diet was disbanded when the new Constitution went into effect, and a new Diet was
formed. On May 20, 1947, the National Diet held its first session.

Structure

The House of Representatives of the Diet has 475 representatives, with 295 elected from
singular constituencies and 180 elected substantially from multiseat constituencies. There are
242 representatives in the House of Councillors, with 146 appointed from multiseat provinces
and 96 substantially appointed from multiseat districts. Members of the House of
Representatives have a four-year tenure unless such House is dissolved during that time. The
House of Councillors has a six-year term of office, with halves of the representatives
appointed every three years.

For the House of Representatives, voters should be twenty-five years old or more whereas for
the House of Councillors, persons must be thirty years old or older.  Both houses has a
Chairman and Vice-Chairman who serve for the duration of their periods as representatives
of the House Chairpersons are in charge of keeping the house in order, running sessions,
overseeing the house's administration, and representing the house.

Powers:

The Diet that is made up of the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors is the
State's main legislative body. The Cabinet is in charge of the executive branch. The Prime
Minister embodies the Cabinet, introduces bills to the Diet, speaks on generalized national
issues and foreign relations, and supervises and controls different administrative departments.
The Prime Minister is chosen amongst the representatives of the Diet by a Diet declaration in
Japan's parliamentary cabinet system.

The functions of the Diet, which are shared by its two houses, involve the following:

 Legislation is the process of making laws.

 Budgetary policies and other issues relating to national finances.
 Decision - making on whether or not international treaties should be signed.
 The Prime Minister's appointment.

Committees

Law bills, budgets, treaties, and petitions are all examined in depth by committees. They also
look into other issues which come under their purview. Sub-committees are often formed by
committees.

In order to seek the views of relevant parties or individuals of training and knowledge, a
committee should conduct public meetings on the regular budget and significant revenue
bills, and may do this on major bills of public interest. A committee may call a person to
stand before it to offer evidence if it is considered necessary for an efficient inquiry or probe.

As the presiding officer at sessions, the committee chairperson organises the committee's
hearings, keeps order, and signifies the committee. The chairperson has the authority to
summon committee meetings, to catalyse a judgment by holding a vote, to testify to the house
on the issues reviewed by the committee, to clarify the intent of a bill introduced by the house
to which the chairperson belonged in the other house, and to give views at other committee
meetings, among other things.

There are two types of committees: standing and special.

i. Standing Committees
There are 17 standing committees in the House of Representatives, consisting with 20
to 50 seats, and 17 standing committees in the House of Councillors, each with 10 to
45 representatives. At least one standing committee must be served by each Diet
member. Members of the committee are appointed by the speaker or president of the
house to which they adhere, and they serve till their tenure as members of the Diet
ceases.
Political parties or groups are assigned seats on each committee based on their
statistical power in the house, and the presiding officer appoints them based on the
parties' or groups' recommendations. Each standing committee's standards of
references involve a particular area of government administration, but they are not
necessarily the same as that of any one government ministry or organization.
The chairperson of the standing committees are theoretically nominated by each
house, but in practise, the speaker or the president selects them. Chairmanships are
distributed among the parties in both houses based on their sheer size.
ii. Special Committees
Each house has the authority to nominate a special committee to investigate issues
that the house deems important or which does not fall underneath the authority of any
standing committee. Representatives of a special committee are nominated by the
house in accordance to the percentage representative of political parties or groups in
the house, and they serve until the house decides on the matter related to the special
committee.
 A special committee's chairperson must be chosen from amongst the representatives,
and in practise, he or she is chosen by the committee on the basis of a motion of
proposal.

LAW MAKING PROCEDURE OF THE DIET

Members of the Diet, a Diet committee, or the Cabinet may present legislation. A legislative
bill submitted by members of the House of Representatives should have the backing of 20 or
even more legislators. The bill should be approved by 10 or more MPs in the House of
Councillors. Legislative bills enabling the approval of a budget, on the other hand, should
have the backing of 50 or even more House of Representatives members or 20 or even more
House of Councillors representatives

The House of Representatives receives bills first, although that isn't necessarily the same. The
House of Councillors, for instance, will obtain bills initially at the start of a Diet session; else,
the House might have had no bills to debate until the House of Representatives approved a
bill and submitted it to the House of Councillors. When a bill is introduced in a house, the
Chairperson of that house assigns it to the committee that has authority over it.

The committee members question the bill's authors, the minister of state in power, or other
government officials after obtaining the briefings on the bill from the representatives who
presented it or the minister of state in power. Unless the committee determines that it is not
needed, the bill is then voted on in committee and referred to the plenary session. A bill is
submitted to the other house after it has been passed by the plenary session of one house.
When the bill is passed by the other house, it becomes an act and is conveyed to the Emperor
through the Cabinet. The act should be signed by all state ministries and the Prime Minister.  
The Emperor then publishes the act in the official gazette and legitimises this within thirty
days.

In terms of the national budget, the Cabinet prepares one and assigns it to the Diet for
approval. The House of Representatives is the first to make the decision on it. If the House of
Councillors' budget decision varies from the House of Representatives' and thus no consensus
could be achieved in a joint committee of the both houses, or if the House of Councillors
refuses to make proper verdict inside thirty days of obtaining the House of Representatives'
budget, the House of Representatives' decision becomes the Diet's decision.
When the Cabinet sends a pact to the Diet for ratification, it goes through the same approval
procedure as a budget: it goes to the House of Representatives first, and the House of
Representatives has final authority.