At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied forces, led by the United States with contributions from Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. This presence of foreign occupation was the first time that the island-nation was occupied by a foreign power since its unification. The Treaty of San Francisco signed on September 8, 1951 marked the end of the Allied occupation and subsequently entered into force on April 28, 1952, when Japan again became a State, now conditionally independent. The consequences of this occupation were:
Disarmament: The post-war Japan Constitution adopted under Allied supervision including a "Peace Clause" (article 9), which waived the war and prohibited Japan from maintaining any armed force. The purpose of this clause was to prevent the country from becoming an aggressive military power again; however, during the following decade, the United States was pressuring Japan to rebuild its army as a bulwark against communism in Asia after the Chinese civil war and the Korean war, which is why Japan established the Self-Defense Forces.Democratization: In 1946, the Diet ratified a new Constitution of Japan that closely followed a "model copy," prepared by the authorities responsible for the occupation (and American authors), and was promulgated as an amendment to the former Meiji-style Constitution Prussian. The new Constitution guaranteed fundamental freedoms and civil liberties, gave women the right to vote, abolished the nobility and, perhaps most importantly, made the emperor the symbol of Japan, excluding it from politics. Shintoism was abolished as an official religion and Christianity reappeared publicly for the first time in decades. On April 10, 1946, general elections were held that had a concurrence of 78.52% among men and 66.97% among women and that gave Japan its modern Prime Minister, Shigeru Yoshida, of the Liberal Party.Educational reform: Before and during the war, Japanese education was based on the German system with Gymnasium and universities for students after elementary school. During the occupation, the Japanese secondary education system was changed to incorporate three-year high schools (junior high and senior high) similar to those in the United States: the first one became mandatory and the second remained optional.
