3
Major constitutional developments in Japan in the first
decade of the twenty-first century
Shojiro Sakaguchi
This chapter reviews several major constitutional developments in Japan in the first
decade of the twenty-first century and then examines the current and future state of
Japanese constitutional law. Among the many possible topics that merit attention,
this chapter focuses on two main subjects from the perspective of comparative
constitutional law, namely ( 1 ) the rise and fall of the movement towards
constitutional reform and ( 2 ) the recent tendency towards activist judicial review
by the Supreme Court of Japan.
Regarding the first issue, I argue that the conflict between the Cabinet Legisla-
tion Bureau and conservative politicians concerning the interpretation of Article 9
is a principal cause of the recent movement towards constitutional revision.
As to the second issue, I argue that the Supreme Court has not finally abandoned
its conservative attitude despite its recent tendency towards activism. I also briefly
discuss the revision of the Fundamental Law on Education.
Finally, I argue that the impact of the change of government, from the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to the Democratic Party, on the development
of Japanese constitutional law is relatively insignificant since both parties are
basically inclined towards constitutional reform. In December 2012 , the LDP
won the House of Councilors election and returned to the position of ruling
party. Since then, the LDP has made revision of the Constitution part of its
political agenda.
The first topic is a major development in Japanese constitutional law in the first
decade of the twenty-first century. The Constitution of Japan has never been
amended despite attempts to do so in the past. The current movement to revise
the Constitution will have an effect across Asia because Article 9 , which is the main
issue of current constitutional revision, was originally enacted to ensure peace in
the region. Since Japan has still failed to deal with the question of war responsibility
and earn the trust of neighboring countries, any revision of Article 9 would be too
premature to be accepted by them.