Hozumi Yatsuka
was a Japanese scholar and lawyer. He was active in characterising the legal systems of the Japanese state, and his writings especially focused on the Meiji Constitution. Education Hozumi entered University of Tokyo at the age of nineteen after studying English for six years because many professors were foreigners who lectured in their own language. In 1883 after his graduation he entered the graduate school to continue his studies of political science. In August 1884 he went to Germany to study European institutional history and constitutional law. During his stay in Germany he studied at three universities: Heidelberg, Berlin and Strasbourg. In Strasbourg he studied under Paul Laband whose influence on Hozumi was profound. Laband was the foremost German representative of the school of legal positivism. In this usage positivism means an exclusive preoccupation with positive law, the law actually promulgated by a competent lawgiver. The central concept of Laband's theory was that of the legal personality of the state. He grounded sovereignty in this legal personality above and apart from its constituent members. Legal scholar in Japan In 1889 Hozumi returned to Japan and gradually shifted away from legal positivism, but he did not reject his positivist heritage outright.