Japanese Constitutional Revisionism And Civic Activism

Since the adoption of the 1947 Constitution of Japan, the document has become a contested symbol of contrasting visions of Japan. Japanese Constitutional Revisionism and Civic Activism is a volume which examines the history of Japan’s constitutional debates, key legal decisions and interpretations, the history and variety of activism, and activists’ ties to party politics and to fellow activists overseas.

This 1989 Yoshino Sakuzo Prize-winning book is essential reading for understanding Japan's postwar constitution, political and social history and foreign policy. The most complete English account, it analyzes the dramatic events of 1945-1946 that led to the birth of Japan's new constitution. Bibliography. Notes. Index.

In 1945 Emperor Hirohito signed Japan's unconditional surrender to the United States and its allies. Tackling a timely subject this work takes the controversial stand that the constitution of Japan was not imposed as a document of defeat.

A primary-resource anthology of Japanese viewson Constitutional reform with vital insights from standard andnon-standard players alike

Modern social movements frequently serve as a space to voice concerns in a supportive and collective context and thus are an important venue for individuals to learn how to speak up for themselves. With the rise of new generations and advancement of technology such as digital networks, contemporary Japanese social movements and activism have transformed significantly in recent years, now with more flexibility and less reliance on ideology and institutional foundations. The new patterns provide individuals different spaces and ways to get involved in “politics,” which have shed the traditional settings and expectations. This transformation carries both advantages and risks. In Alternative Politics twelve original ethnographic studies illustrate how social movements are creating new alternatives for Japan in the current century. The term “alternative” has a double meaning. First, it refers to forms of political engagement that are outside the standard politics of political parties and institutional forums. Second, it engages with contemporary movements seeking an alternative politics that is culturally specific and historically embedded, an alternative to past periods of activism in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s often characterized as tainted, and causing the decline of social movement activity for nearly two decades. The introduction written by Slater and Steinhoff places the volume in historical, social, and methodological context and analyzes the main characteristics of the new social movements. Each chapter provides a rich description of a particular movement active between 1990 and 2020, showing what the participants wanted to achieve, how they tried to distance themselves from earlier movements, and how they used new social media and other innovations to do so. The accounts preserve the immediacy of the period when the fieldwork was conducted, but each end with a postscript bringing the movement up to date. Engagingly written by an international community of Japan specialists committed to doing extended fieldwork with small social movement groups, Alternative Politics will appeal to social scientists interested in activism and Japan specialists in various disciplines, as well as undergraduates in a wide range of courses.

Japan in the Heisei Era (1989–2019) provides a retrospective and multidisciplinary account of a society in flux. Featuring analyses from leading scholars around the globe, this textbook examines the evolving contexts of Japan throughout the Heisei era and how longstanding verities and values have been called into question. Asking what this holds for Japan’s future relations with the world and within its own communities, chapters delve beneath the layers of a complex and increasingly diverse society, exploring topics including simmering ethnonationalism, economic torpor, political stagnation, and cultural dynamics. Features of this textbook include: • Analysis of key social issues ranging from immigration, civil society, press freedom, politics, labour and the economy, to diversity, the marginalisation of women, Shinto, and Aum Shinrikyo • Evaluation of the legacy of Emperor Akihito on war memory, the imperial institution, art, regional relations, and constitutional revision • Multidisciplinary insights from both the social sciences and humanities • Rich illustrations for visual analysis of developments in contemporary Japanese literature, film, art, and pop culture Providing students with dynamic analyses of how contemporary Japanese society continues to transform, this textbook is essential reading for students of Japanese Studies, including Japanese culture, society, history, and politics.

Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law offers the first comprehensive account of the entanglements of Buddhism and constitutional law in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, Bhutan, China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. Bringing together an interdisciplinary team of experts, the volume offers a complex portrait of “the Buddhist-constitutional complex,” demonstrating the intricate and powerful ways in which Buddhist and constitutional ideas merged, interacted and co-evolved. The authors also highlight the important ways in which Buddhist actors have (re)conceived Western liberal ideals such as constitutionalism, rule of law, and secularism. Available Open Access on Cambridge Core, this trans-disciplinary volume is written to be accessible to a non-specialist audience.

This book analyzes the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945–1952). It begins by explaining why Japan spent roughly fifty years building its own colonial system and declaring war on China and the Western Allies, only to decide after military defeats, two atomic bombings and the Soviet declaration of war, to surrender before being invaded. It goes on to describe the controversial issues surrounding the conduct of the Occupation forces, the largely American reform proposals and the shifts in policy as the Cold War developed. Particular emphasis is placed on women’s issues, the Japanese and American reactions to President Truman’s decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur, the tensions surrounding the requirement that the Japanese allow US military bases to stay in Japan and the still ongoing debate over the American decision to drop two atomic bombs on Japan. Despite all this, the book concludes that particularly when compared with later Allied nation building efforts in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq and the current state of US politics, the Occupation experience was, on the whole, a relatively positive one for both the Japanese and the US-Japan alliance.