DOCSLIB.ORG

'Japan': Prime Minister Abe's Political Rhetoric in Critical Perspective

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
'Japan': Prime Minister Abe's Political Rhetoric in Critical Perspective Bringing back ‘Japan’: Prime minister Abe’s political rhetoric in critical perspective. By: Chris G. Pope A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Social Sciences School of East Asian Studies 27 May 2017 Abstract The thesis provides a detailed analysis of prime minister of Japan, Abe’s, political rhetoric. Adopting a critical realist approach to the analysis of political discourse,Shinzō the thesis aims to identify how Abe sought to legitimate the substantial changes to the state, its international conduct, and relationship with its citizens, including the reinterpretation of Article 9 of the constitution, Japan’s so-called ‘Peace Clause’. Abe returned to office in December 2012 promising to ‘bring back’ Japan, but under this aegis, the Abe administration has enacted wholesale changes to Japan’s social security, national economy and security agenda. While many of these changes are examined throughout, the thesis adopts depoliticization theory as an analytical tool and explanatory factor to discuss the changes in Japanese politics by parsing depoliticization into governmental, societal, and discursive forms. The analysis demonstrates how Abe relied on discursive depoliticization to legitimate changes by implementing a mixed-methods approach to discourse analysis using text-mining software to identify salient areas of speech, frame analysis to further characterize them, and critical discourse analysis for the micro- analysis of text. The thesis argues that Abe effectively depoliticized politically divisive issues by relying on the neoliberal account of globalization to justify substantial changes to Japan’s security agenda, economy and social infrastructure. In order to reveal the process of depoliticization, the discursive analysis is supplemented with an analysis of two major foreign policy initiatives of the Abe administration, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and ‘Positive Pacifism’. These case studies enable us to conclude that, although Abe’s rhetoric is largely consistent with neoliberal doctrines, his administration’s actions reflect a neonationalist ideology and political realism aimed at expanding military and economic power to encircle China and increase Japan’s regional and international influence, while relying on depoliticizing tactics to legitimate the process of change underway. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Glenn D. Hook, for his contributions to this thesis. Throughout the three years undertaking this project, Professor Hook has been a constant source of inspiration and encouragement. He has graciously given me a number of extremely exciting and memorable opportunities to meet with truly remarkable academic and non- academic professionals, all of which has greatly contributed to this thesis and to me as an individual. In the last three years, there has never been any reason for a lack of drive and enthusiasm in my research and interests, and I owe a great deal of that to Professor Hook’s guidance, encouragement, and keen insight. I am truly grateful to him. I would also like to thank the Economic and Social Research Council for funding three years of the project. Without that funding, this thesis simply would not have been possible and so I am truly grateful. I am also extremely grateful to Professor Etsushi Tanifuji of Waseda University for including me into his weekly seminar for over a year while I was researching in Tokyo. Professor Tanifuji graciously treated me as one of his own students, taking the time to listen to my presentations and reports concerning the thesis as well as other research, offering very helpful suggestions and comments as well as providing extra reading material, which helped me further acquaint myself with Japanese academia. Thanks to Professor Tanifuji, I was able to live in Japan for the first time in over five years, which hugely benefited my spoken Japanese. Further, I would not have learned as much as I have about politics, media and academia in China, the United Kingdom and the United States without being able to attend his seminars and learn from him. For this, also, I would like to thank his researchteaching mestudents, about theirAya Kudō, exciting Yu research Haichun, projects. Rob Fahey, I wis andh them Kentarō all the Nagai best forin the chatting future. with me and I am grateful for the thoughts and suggestions from my internal examiner, Dr. Thomas McAuley and external examiner, Dr. Kweku Ampiah of the University of Leeds. In the School of East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, I would like to thank everyone. It is still a great department as it was during my undergraduate years. I would here like to thank Dr. Lily Chen who is my second supervisor. Dr. Chen kindly provided comments for some of the thesis and was always extremely helpful and constructive, and she also helped on the administrative side of the thesis tremendously. Additionally, a thank you to Lisa Knowles and others in the office, for their industrious help over administrative issues, Professor Hugo Dobson, who kindly lent me two books which I am still yet to return and who helped to administrate my Viva, and the language teachers, most particularly Ms. all Miyuki Nagai, who taught me Japanese in the first place. I would also like to thank iii those I had the fortune to talk with at the Graduate School of International Media, Communication and Tourism Studies at Hokkaido University, most particularly Professor Professor Miuri for their kind and extremely helpful contributionsYoshihiro. Further, Yamadathank you and to Nagashima and to Professor Hiroko Takeda of Dr. Bhubhindar Singhwho of kindly Nanyang gave Technologicalup a lot of their University time to give feedback on my thesis and other publicationsNagoya University when I visited them. Also, thank you for Dr. Ayako Tominari for meeting me in Tokyo to discuss the project and Dr. Ra Mason for advising me over my research period in Japan. I am thankful to those from the University of Tokyo and University of Duisburg-Essen who listened to me presenting a part of the thesis and provided insightful comments and feedback, particularly Professor Florian Coulmas. With this, I am also grateful for the feedback received on the thesis when attending a workshop in Sheffield, most particularly Professor Masaru Tamamoto of the World Policy Institute ū My thanks also to Professor Shigenori Tanaka and Professor Y ji Morikawa of Nagasaki University. Kansai University for helping me right at the ofbeginning Keio University of the Ph and.D. by, Professor among otherKōjirō things, Nabeshima kindly of providing me with useful material. In addition, a thank you to my colleagues and friends, Oana E. Kuznetov, Michinori Wakamatsu, Gao Binyu, James White, Aimee Richmond, Sharleen Estampador, Jill Dobson, Dmitry Filippov, Minami Suzuki, Jane Wallace, Myeongju Kim, Seongjo Kim, Marc Brazzill, and many others for their insight and good humour. I wish all of them the very best in the future. I would also like to thank Professor Christine Ji of the University of Sydney, Professor Libby Lester of the University of Tasmania, Dr. Kingsley Edney of the University of Leeds and, by no means least, Dr. Luli van der Does-Ishikawa of the University of Cambridge, with whom I have had the privilege to work and who have contributed to this thesis and other projects with helpful comments and suggestions. I am extremely grateful also to my family and friends in Rotherham and some now elsewhere for their support, and to the friends made during my undergraduate days at Sheffield, postgraduate at the University of Edinburgh and exchange year at Kobe University. Also, I am thankful to Professor Ronnie Cann at the University of Edinburgh and Dr. ter at the University of Sheffield for their letters of recommendation for the Ph.D. at SheNicholasffield. Again, Tran all the best in the future. And last but not least, a thank you to my wife, Jiejun Li Pope, who because of me has been forced to put up with so much in these last three years, she makes a Ph.D. look easy. iv Abbreviations 3.11 (which occurred on 3 March 2011) Advisory Panel TheAdvisory Great Panel Tōhoku on Earthquakethe Reconstruction and Fukushima of the Legal Nuclear Basis Disaster for Security AIIB Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Ass B7 Business Seven, comprising business associates from each G7 member state BFAASEAN Boaoociation Forum of for South Asia East Asian Nations BOJ Bank of Japan BRICS Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa CDS Critical Discourse Studies CI Causal Interpretation CL Critical Linguistics CLM Complete Link Measure COA Co-Occurrence Analysis CR Critical Realism CS Cosine Similarity CSD Collective Self-Defence DPJ The Democratic Party of Japan1 DPRK Democratic People’s Republic of ED Euclidean Distance EEU Eurasian Economic Union Korea (‘North Korea’) EEZs Exclusive Economic Zones EPA Economic Partnership Agreement EU European Union FTAAP Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific G20 Group of Twenty G7 Group of Seven GAD Group Average Distance GOJ Government of Japan HCA Hierarchical Cluster Analysis HSTGNP HegemonicGross National Stability Product Theory IMF International Monetary Fund IAIs Independent Administration Initiatives IPE International Political Economy IR International Relations IRAPA Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association IRE International Relations and Economics (frame) IS International
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 2013-JCIE-Annual-Report.Pdf
    Table of Contents 2011–2013 in Retrospect .................................................................................................................................3 Remembering Tadashi Yamamoto ............................................................................................................6 JCIE Activities: April 2011–March 2013 ........................................................................................................9 Global ThinkNet 13 Policy Studies and Dialogue .................................................................................................................... 14 Strengthening Nongovernmental Contributions to Regional Security Cooperation The Vacuum of Political Leadership in Japan and Its Future Trajectory ASEAN-Japan Strategic Partnership and Regional Community Building An Enhanced Agenda for US-Japan Partnership East Asia Insights Forums for Policy Discussion ........................................................................................................................ 19 Trilateral Commission UK-Japan 21st Century Group Japanese-German Forum Korea-Japan Forum Preparing Future Leaders .............................................................................................................................. 23 Azabu Tanaka Juku Seminar Series for Emerging Leaders Facilitation for the Jefferson Fellowship Program Political Exchange Programs 25 US-Japan Parliamentary Exchange Program ......................................................................................26
    [Show full text]
  • Article 9 in the Post-Sunakawa World: Continuity and Deterrence Within a Transforming Global Context
    Washington International Law Journal Volume 26 Number 1 Special Issue on the Japanese Constitution 1-1-2017 Article 9 in the Post-Sunakawa World: Continuity and Deterrence Within a Transforming Global Context John O. Haley University of Washington School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the Military, War, and Peace Commons Recommended Citation John O. Haley, Article 9 in the Post-Sunakawa World: Continuity and Deterrence Within a Transforming Global Context, 26 Wash. L. Rev. 1 (2017). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wilj/vol26/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at UW Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington International Law Journal by an authorized editor of UW Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Compilation © 2016 Washington International Law Journal Association ARTICLE 9 IN THE POST-SUNAKAWA WORLD: CONTINUITY AND DETERRENCE WITHIN A TRANSFORMING GLOBAL CONTEXT John O. Haley∗ Abstract: The 1959 Supreme Court Grand Bench (en banc) decision in Sakata v. Japan1 (the Sunakawa case) was the first Supreme Court decision on Article 9 and the constitutionality of Japan's defense policies. In the precedent-setting decision, all fifteen justices endorsed the view that under Article 9 Japan retained a fundamental right of self-defense and could enter into treaties for mutual security. In the absence of an apparent or "clear" violation, the courts, Sunakawa held, must defer to the judgment of the political branches on the issue of constitutionality.
    [Show full text]
  • The Process of Restructuring the Imperial Household Ministry in Occupied Japan
    Hitotsubashi Bulletin of Social Sciences. Vol.5., 2013. The Process of Restructuring the Imperial Household Ministry in Occupied Japan Hajime Sebata The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the restructuring of the organization of Japan's Imperial Household Ministry in 1945-1949. The Emperor was the absolute sovereign and the supreme commander under the Meiji Constitution. The Imperial Household Ministry was independent from the government, authorized by imperial law and separate from the constitution. After WWII, General Headquarters (GHQ) of the Allied Forces wanted to reform the government of Japan. They took over the Emperor's authority and the property of the Imperial House, and set the Emperor as a "symbol" in the new constitution. Thereafter, all acts of the Emperor in matters of state would require the advice and approval of the Cabinet. The Imperial Household Ministry (Kunai-sho) lost much of its authority and was reorganized as the Imperial Household Offi ce (Kunai-fu). However, Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida strove to maintain the independence of the Imperial Household Offi ce. He believed its offi ce should be under the "jurisdiction" (not "management") of the Prime Minister. In Emperor Hirohito's "Postwar Tour," the officers in the Government Section of GHQ criticized the Imperial Household Offi ce as a violation of their policies. They believed that the views of the offi cers in the Imperial Household Offi ce were unchanging and therefore decided to introduce further reforms. Then Prime Minister Tetsu Katayama and Hitoshi Ashida had the same idea. Ashida reorganized the Imperial Household Offi ce as the Imperial Household Agency (Kunai-cho) under the "management" of the Prime Minister.
    [Show full text]
  • Park Statue Politics World War II Comfort Women Memorials in the United States
    Park Statue Politics World War II Comfort Women Memorials in the United States THOMAS J. WARD & WILLIAM D. LAY i Park Statue Politics World War II Comfort Women Memorials in the United States THOMAS J. WARD AND WILLIAM D. LAY ii E-International Relations www.E-IR.info Bristol, England 2019 ISBN 978-1-910814-50-5 This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 license. You are free to: • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes. Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission. Please contact [email protected] for any such enquiries, including for licensing and translation requests. Other than the terms noted above, there are no restrictions placed on the use and dissemination of this book for student learning materials/scholarly use. Production: Michael Tang Cover Image: Ki Young via Shutterstock A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. iii E-IR Open Access Series Editor: Stephen McGlinchey Books Editor: Cameran Clayton Editorial Assistants: Xolisile Ntuli and Shelly Mahajan E-IR Open Access is a series of scholarly books presented in a format that preferences brevity and accessibility while retaining academic conventions.
    [Show full text]
  • Applying a Framework to Assess Deterrence of Gray Zone Aggression for More Information on This Publication, Visit
    C O R P O R A T I O N MICHAEL J. MAZARR, JOE CHERAVITCH, JEFFREY W. HORNUNG, STEPHANIE PEZARD What Deters and Why Applying a Framework to Assess Deterrence of Gray Zone Aggression For more information on this publication, visit www.rand.org/t/RR3142 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for this publication. ISBN: 978-1-9774-0397-1 Published by the RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. © 2021 RAND Corporation R® is a registered trademark. Cover: REUTERS/Kyodo Limited Print and Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit www.rand.org/pubs/permissions. The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Support RAND Make a tax-deductible charitable contribution at www.rand.org/giving/contribute www.rand.org Preface This report documents research and analysis conducted as part of a project entitled What Deters and Why: North Korea and Russia, sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter 2020 No.18 Update:2020/09/25
    Newsletter No.18 September 22, 2020 Prospects & Perspectives Suga, as Abe’s longtime chief cabinet secretary, has been seen as the best candidate to continue Abe’s policies and his election as Prime Minister is supported by large military factions, such as the Aso faction and Nikai faction. Picture source: Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabnet, Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabnet, <https://www.kantei.go.jp/cn/99_suga/actions/202009/_00001.html>. An Analysis of the Influence of the Successor of Japanese Prime Minister on Japan’s Diplomacy By Ming-juinn Li J apan prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has stepped down because of poor Newsletter No.18 September 22, 2020 health which has been caused by a re-occurence of ulcerative colitis. Abe’s unexpected resignation triggered a leadership race in the LDP. Under Japan's parliamentary system, the new leader must be formally elected by the LDP’s presidential election and then be elected to prime minister by the parliament The Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, was duly elected new Prime Minister. This essay will analyze the foreign policy of Suga and how the action the government of Taiwan can take action in response. Yoshihide Suga is Conservative and Continues the Abe Route Abe has stepped down around year before his term expired, so the new Prime Minister will only serve for a year, but Japanese society is afraid it will leave the government in a power vacuum and hopes Abe’s successor can maintain political stability and continuity. Suga, as Abe’s longtime chief cabinet secretary, has been seen as the best candidate to continue Abe’s policies and his election as Prime Minister is supported by large military factions, such as the Aso faction and Nikai faction.
    [Show full text]
  • "Taiwan-Japan Relations After 2013 Fisheries Agreement: Road to 'Japan's TRA'?" Misato Matsuoka 1 & Michal Thim 2
    DRAFT PAPER – PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE OR CITE WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHORS "Taiwan-Japan Relations after 2013 Fisheries Agreement: Road to 'Japan's TRA'?" Misato Matsuoka 1 & Michal Thim 2 Abstract This paper seeks to examine the potential roles of Taiwan-Japan relationship that has been rarely considered in the analysis of regional relations. Conventionally, Taiwan’s peculiar position in regional and global politics is scrutinised through lenses of two counter-balancing relationships: (1) Cross-Strait Relations (CSR) with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and (2) its relationship with the United States defined by the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, and the interplay among the three states has been vital for Taipei in terms of upholding its de facto independence. However, with the increasing assertiveness of Beijing regarding maritime territorial disputes along its coastline, Taipei does not hesitate to act outside of the established partnership in an effort to secure its claim and/or negotiate settlement with other claimants. In 2012-2013 alone, Taiwan has been involved in two escalations along its maritime borders with two US treaty allies: Japan and the Philippines, both cases providing an example of Taipei’s own involvement in regional disputes. Particularly regarding the former case, with the return of Shinzo Abe to premiership, there has been remarkable dynamics in Taiwan-Japan relations. In January 2013, Japanese Ministry of Defence’s White Paper publicly acknowledged potential PRC’s attack on Taiwan as one of the examined scenarios leading to Japan’s conflict with the PRC. More significantly, in April Japan and Taiwan reached an agreement on fishing right in the disputed area of Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands, significance of which stands out when comparing with willingness of other claimants to make compromises over their territorial claims in East and South China Seas.
    [Show full text]
  • Suga and Biden Off to a Good Start
    US-JAPAN RELATIONS SUGA AND BIDEN OFF TO A GOOD START SHEILA A. SMITH, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS CHARLES T. MCCLEAN , UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO The early months of 2021 offered a full diplomatic agenda for US-Japan relations as a new US administration took office. Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States amid considerable contention. Former President Donald Trump refused to concede defeat, and on Jan. 6, a crowd of his supporters stormed the US Capitol where Congressional representatives were certifying the results of the presidential election. The breach of the US Capitol shocked the nation and the world. Yet after his inauguration on Jan. 20, Biden and his foreign policy team soon got to work on implementing policies that emphasized on US allies and sought to restore US engagement in multilateral coalitions around the globe. The day after the inauguration, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reached out to his counterpart in Japan, National Security Secretariat Secretary General Kitamura Shigeru, to assure him of the importance the new administration placed on its allies. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to focus the attention of leaders in the United States and Japan, however. This article is extracted from Comparative Connections: A Triannual E-Journal of Bilateral Relations in the Indo-Pacific, Vol. 23, No. 1, May 2021. Preferred citation: Sheila A. Smith and Charles T. McClean, “US-Japan Relations: Suga and Biden Off to a Good Start,” Comparative Connections, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 21-28. US- JAPAN RELATIONS | M AY 202 1 21 Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide faced rising on Asian allies and on the primacy of the US- numbers of infections, declaring a second state Japan partnership.
    [Show full text]
  • (CUWS) Outreach Journal # 1247
    USAF Center for Unconventional Weapons Studies (CUWS) Outreach Journal CUWS Outreach Journal 1247 13 January 2017 Feature Item: “The Requirement for a Nuclear Triad: Strategic Stability and the Critical Value of America’s ICBMs.” Authored by Peter Huessy; Published by Real Clear Defense.com; January 11, 2017. http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2017/01/11/strategic_stability_and_the_critical_value_ of_americas_icbms_110614.html Russia and China are both markedly improving their nuclear forces at a pace not seen even during the height of the Cold War. Russian President Putin has called for continued such modernization, describing Russian nuclear forces as already sixty percent modernized and the strongest in the world. Russia also has a multi-thousand advantage in tactical or theater nuclear weapons (not subject to arms control limits) which further complicates U.S. and allied deterrent policy. What then should be the U.S. response? One former Secretary of Defense has argued that the U.S. should not seek to match the Russian modernization even though both countries are parties to the New Start treaty that caps strategic nuclear weapons at 1550. Other disarmers argue that despite the dramatic drop in casualties from conventional war in the Post World War II era, there is nothing definitive to conclude that nuclear deterrence has kept the nuclear-armed superpowers from major war for the past seventy years, compared to the 1914-1945 period. Still, others have concluded that nuclear deterrence plays a minor role in today’s strategic stability and a fully modernized force is not needed. Are these assertions true? My analysis points to the need for a full modernization of our nuclear enterprise especially going forward with the ground-based strategic deterrent or ICBM modernization effort.
    [Show full text]
  • Japan-India Joint Statement: Intensifying the Strategic and Global Partnership 1. the Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Shinzo Abe I
    Japan-India Joint Statement: Intensifying the Strategic and Global Partnership 1. The Prime Minister of Japan, H.E. Shinzo Abe is currently on an official visit to India on 25-27 January 2014 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of India, H.E. Dr. Manmohan Singh as chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations. The two Prime Ministers held extensive talks during their Annual Summit on bilateral, regional and global issues on 25 January 2014 in Delhi. 2. The two Prime Ministers welcomed that the State Visit of Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan to India from 30 November to 6 December 2013 further strengthened the long-lasting historically close ties and friendship between the peoples of Japan and India. 3. The two Prime Ministers reaffirmed their resolve to further deepen the Strategic and Global Partnership between Japan and India as two democracies in Asia sharing universal values such as freedom, democracy and rule of law, and to contribute jointly to the peace, stability and prosperity of the region and the world, taking into account changes in the strategic environment. 4. Prime Minister Abe elaborated his policy of “Proactive Contribution to Peace”. Prime Minister Singh appreciated Japan’s efforts to contribute to peace and stability of the region and the world. 5. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the successful outcome of political exchanges, dialogues and policy consultations held after the visit of Prime Minister Singh to Japan in May 2013 and emphasized the importance of further progress in these bilateral exchanges. In this regard, they expressed their intention to hold the 8th Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue at the earliest time in 2014.
    [Show full text]
  • Constitutional Reform in Japan
    Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2019 Constitutional Reform in Japan Nobuhisa Ishizuka Columbia Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, and the Law and Politics Commons Recommended Citation Nobuhisa Ishizuka, Constitutional Reform in Japan, 33 COLUM. J. ASIAN L. 5 (2019). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/2714 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 2019] CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN JAPAN 5 CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM IN JAPAN Nobuhisa Ishizukm INTRODUCTION Over seventy years ago it would have seemed inconceivable in the aftermath of a calamitous war that a complete reorientation of Japan into a pacifist society, modeled on Western principles of individual rights and democracy, would succeed in upending a deeply entrenched political order with roots dating back centuries.2 The post-war Japanese constitution lies at the heart of this transformation. Drafted, negotiated and promulgated a mere fourteen months after Japan's formal surrender, 3 it has remained a model of stability amidst transformational changes in the domestic and international political landscape. 4 In the seventy-plus years since its adoption, it has not been amended once.s 1 Executive Director, Center for Japanese Legal Studies, and Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School. The author would like to acknowledge the research assistance of Nicole Frey, Columbia Law School LL.M.
    [Show full text]
  • Strategic Forum
    SF213_201-887.qxd 11/30/04 9:26 AM Page 1 No. 213 Strategic Forum November 2004 Institute for National Strategic Studies National Defense University http://www.ndu.edu/inss Japan’s Constitution and Defense Policy: Entering a New Era? by Rust Deming Japan’s postwar defense policy was set by (1) Aspiring sincerely to an international peace Key Points the 1947 constitution. Early in the occupation, based on justice and order, the Japanese people hanges in the security environment and General Douglas MacArthur and his staff con- forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the th the rise of a new generation have cluded that the 19 -century Meiji constitution nation and the threat or use of force as a means of Cended Japan’s taboo on discussion of needed to be revised or entirely replaced if settling international disputes. amending the 1947 “peace constitution.” Japan were to become a true democracy, with (2) In order to accomplish the aim of the pre- While many wish to maintain the current the Emperor removed from any political role. ceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as document, the center of gravity in the debate In January 1946, convinced that the elitist and well as other war potential, will never be main- has shifted. authoritarian Japanese establishment was tained. The right of belligerency of the state will The movement to amend the constitu- incapable of producing a democratic constitu- not be recognized. tion is connected to and stimulated by a tion, MacArthur ordered his staff to produce a draft. One week later, an entirely rewritten Ashida later testified that the new phrase parallel debate on defense policy.
    [Show full text]