State Shintō (国家神道, Kokka Shintō) is a neologism introduced during the Occupation of Japan in 1945 to identify certain aspects of Japanese patriotism as "religious". The Meiji Constitution adopted a separation of church and state based on the Prussian model, but the American-authored Shinto Directive redefined this separation and privatized some elements of the Japanese government, creating the concept of "State Shinto".