Japan's Contested Constitution: Documents and Analysis

ISBN-13: 9780415241007 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 224 str.

Glenn D. Hook; Gavan McCormack

Opis

From the beginning of the year 2000, Constitutional Research Councils have been set up in both Houses of the National Diet and the structural and symbolic questions of national identity and purpose are merging in debate on constitutional reform. The Constitution defines the nature of the Japanese polity and constrains Japan's military role in the world. The opening of this debate should play a crucial role in shaping the nature of the realignment of domestic political forces and the alternative international roles Japan may pursue in the new era. This book makes available in English the four key proposals on constitutional reform already in the public domain in Japan. These proposals form the backdrop against which the constitutional debate will evolve. Hook and McCormack place these documents in their historical and contemporary context, providing an analysis of their meaning in the development of post-war thinking on the Constitution. They introduce the Constitution and explain the government's established interpretation of the key clauses subject to controversy, going on to provide a thorough analysis of the differing interpretations of these clauses.

Spis treści

Part 1. Analysis Parchment and politics: Japan's living constitution Introduction 1. Origins 2. Contested constitutionalism: the Cold War decades 3. Normative implications of the constitution 4. Okinawa 5. Anti-constitutional radicalism 6. Post Cold war: Searching for new arrangements 7. Revision Conclusion Part 2. Documents 1. A proposal for the revision of the text of the Constitution of Japan (1994) Yomiuri Shimbun 2. Peace and regional security in the Asia-Pacific: a Japanese proposal (1993-94) sekai 3. International cooperation and the constitution (1995) Ashai Shimbun 4. A proposal for reforming the Japanese Constitution (1999): breaking a post-war Japanese taboo, a current Japanese politician rewrites its provisons Ozawa Ichiro Part 3. Constitution texts 1. The constitution of the Empire of japan (meiji Constitution, 1889) 2. The Constitution of Japan (1947)

O autorze

Glenn D. Hook, Gavan McCormack