Religious Juridical Persons Law. A statute of 1951 drafted by the Occupation administration (SCAP) which enabled all religious groups including Shinto shrines and sects to obtain corporate legal status as 'Religious Juridical Persons' (shukyo hojin). Various minor revisions have taken place since. The law was intended to overcome the inherited restrictions on religious freedom of the Meiji Constitution of 1889 and other legislation culminating in the repressive Shukyo dantai ho of 1939/1940. It replaced the temporary postwar Religious Corporations Ordinance of 1946. Because Shinto had been redefined as a religion in the Shinto Directive the Law applied to Shinto as well as all other religions.
A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. Brian Bocking.