Hosted By
Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Columbia Law School
Council on Foreign Relations, New York
Co-Sponsors
Toshiba Library, Columbia Law School
Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University
Audio Recordings
Listen to the audio recordings of the conference.
Panel 1 Audio Recording
Keynote Lunch Audio Recording
Panel 2 Audio Recording
Panel 3 Audio Recording
Conference Summary
Japan’s constitution has remained unchanged for over 70 years since its adoption, and with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s re-election as the leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP) in 2018, constitutional revision has continued to be a topic of debate. On March 13, 2019 the Center for Japanese Legal Studies (CJLS) at Columbia Law School co-hosted, with the Council on Foreign Relations, a full-day conference on “Constitutional Reform in Japan: Prospect, Process, and Implications”. Three panels of distinguished experts examined the domestic political landscape in Japan, provided comparative legal perspectives, and considered the implications of change from political, strategic, and social viewpoints.
The conference was designed to provide a forum for a diverse group of political scientists, historians, legal scholars, and government officials to discuss constitutional reform in Japan from multiple perspectives. “The renunciation of war and disarmament clauses of Article 9 tend to be the focal point of debate,” said Nobuhisa Ishizuka, executive director of CJLS. “We were interested in looking beyond that to broader questions of voter preferences, social implications, and actual prospects based on available data.”
Topics discussed in depth included:
- The hurdles to successfully passing a constitutional amendment, including the effects of timing and windows of opportunity on the legislative and popular referendum process.
- The importance of constitutional reform to Japanese voters and the effect of LDP- and opposition-supported proposals on such views.
- Prospects for change and the determinants of amendment preferences among the Japanese people.
- The role of religious movements, political lobbies, and the effect of their convergence on the revision debate.
- The implications of amendment on the U.S.-Japan alliance and its impact on the domestic defense and security debate and civil-military relations in Japan.
- Lessons that can be drawn from other countries that have undertaken constitutional amendments.
- Historical perspectives placing the Japanese experience with modern constitutionalism in the context of broader constitution-making movements in the late 19th century and post-World War II periods.
Conference papers are scheduled for publication this fall and will be made available on the Center’s website.
Participants
Rosalind Dixon, Professor of Law, University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law
Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor of History, Columbia University
Menaka Guruswamy, BR Ambedkar Research Scholar and Lecturer, Columbia Law School
Helen Hardacre, Reischauer Institute Professor of Japanese Religions and Society, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Takako Hikotani, Gerald L. Curtis Associate Professor of Modern Japanese Politics and Foreign Policy, Columbia University
Nobuhisa Ishizuka, Lecturer in Law and Executive Director, Center for Japanese Legal Studies, Columbia Law School
Jeongchul Kim, Professor of Constitutional Law, Yonsei University School of Law; President, Korean Society for Media Law, Ethics and Policy Research
Kenneth McElwain, Associate Professor of Political Science, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo
Daniel M. Smith, Associate Professor, Department of Government, Harvard University
Sheila A. Smith, Senior Fellow for Japan Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
Hideshi Tokuchi, Visiting Professor, International Security Studies and Senior Fellow, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo; Visiting Professor. National Defense Academy of Japan
