In the Showa period, Tatsukichi MINOBE and the Bureau of Shinto shrines considered that shrine veneration was one of the constitutional duties of subjects, but it was not issued as a formal constitutional interpretation by the prewar Ministry of Home Affairs.
昭和に入ってから美濃部達吉や神社局には神社崇敬を憲法上の臣民の義務ととらえる姿勢があったが、内務省の公式の憲法解釈として発せられることはなかった。