Activities as a Constitution evangelist.

As a promoter of the Constitution, Mr. ITO holds various lectures aimed at spreading the value of the Constitution in Japan. In addition to public speeches, he gives lectures for teachers and parents as part of children's education activities, lectures related to international human rights activities for trainees from abroad, as well as lectures and training for practitioners, such as attorneys, administrative lawyers (gyoseishoshi), certified public tax accountants (zeirishi) etc.

Mr. ITO holds lectures on such topics like "How to have a dream", "How to study in order to achieve your dream" etc., aimed at conveying the splendor of the Constitution to junior high and senior high school students.

Besides Japan, he also holds lectures about Constitution overseas, in Vietnam, Eritrea, Australia etc.


[Requesting a lecture by Makoto ITO]
Please send your inquiries by email to the following address:
Contact person: Shuto, Public Relations Office, Hogakukan Inc.

E-mail: y.shuto@itojuku.co.jp

Activities as the head of Ito Private Preparatory School

In order to foster lawyers and government officials able to achieve the principle of "respect for the individual", which is the founding philosophy of the Constitution, in 1995 Mr. ITO opened "Itojuku" (Ito Private Preparatory School), has been actively involved in teaching activities for over 35 years and currently serves as the school principal. Instead of offering guidance only to pass exams, Itojuku aims at cultivating human resources capable of using Constitution and law to contribute to society. We would like to contribute to the world by having Itojuku alumni to work where they could increase, even by little, the amount of happiness in the world.

The use of the old name "-juku" was motivated by the desire to create human resources that would bring change to Japan and to the world. The name was inspired by schools like Shoka Sonjuku and Tekijuku, which produced many patriots of the Meiji Restoration.

By providing first-class lectures and know-how to students with high aspirations via personal tutoring, we would like to foster the "power" represented by real lawyers and government officials capable of playing an active role for the interests of the citizens.

Activities as an attorney

The undertaken activities are broadly divided into two fields. The first field of activity includes initiatives to realize the real democracy.
Did you know that the value of your voting ballot is probably less than one vote? In many places there is a situation of inequality, in which value of a ballot depends on where a person lives. If we take a region with 100,000 residents per one Diet member as one vote, then in another region with 200,000 residents per one Diet member the value of a ballot is only half of that, which means inequality. In order to eliminate this inequality, the National Congress for promotion of “One Person, One Vote” was established. Being one of the founders, Makoto ITO, as an attorney, has carried out various activities to turn this country into a true democracy.

One of my activities is to represent the plaintiff in "One Person, One Vote" litigation (the so-called "lawsuit about malapportionment of the legislature seats"), to stand at the benches of the Supreme Court and regional High Courts around the country, as well as at the Grand Bench of the Supreme Court, and to seek invalidation of national elections held under vote disparity.

Another one is to widely spread, as a founder and administrative director of the National Congress for promotion of "One Person, One Vote", the importance of this issue in the society and to carry out, together with many other citizens, the grass-roots activities in order to resolve the problem.

The second field are activities to reestablish the rule of Constitution in national security.
In July 2014, Abe administration, by a Cabinet decision, changed the government interpretation of Article 9 of the Constitution and took a major step forward to accepting the exercise of the right to collective self-defense.
This should be properly done by a Constitutional amendment, after adequate discussion with the citizens. Being concerned about this situation, a group of 12 practitioners and experts in constitutional law, international law, security etc. established “Kokumin Anpo Hoseikon”, an organization that provides accurate information for all citizens to discuss security. As one of the members, I participate in discussions and publish the results for the citizens.

Also, in September 2015 a new security legislation was forcibly passed, despite being criticized as a constitutional violation by an overwhelming majority of constitutional scholars, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Director-General of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau and other experts, and despite the opposing voices of many citizens being raised all over the country.

Constitutionalism means that the government should obey the Constitution, however the security legislation undermines the idea of constitutionalism. In order to restore Constitutionalism I participated, as a lawyer striving to realize the value of the Constitution, in the creation of “Association for the lawsuit about unconstitutionality of security legislation” (an association of lawyer volunteers who filed the unconstitutionality lawsuit), and I act as in the litigation a plaintiff’s agent and as a co-delegate of the Association.