Documentos CIDOB Asia; 7

The current Japanese Constitution was passed in 1947, while the country was under Allied occupation after World War II. The debate on the viability of this magna carta has been a constant political theme since then; nevertheless, the document has not had any amendments made to it since it came into effect. Under the impetus of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Japan has made a strong, and perhaps definitive, push towards abandoning the “exceptionality” with respect to the rest of the countries in the international community that is entailed in Article 9 of the Constitution, which states that “...land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.” Despite that, and due to the high degree of reticence found both nationally and internationally, this reform process, begun in the early 1990s, has been carried out in an indirect way; that is, the government has avoided directly facing a constitutional modification, with the Diet instead passing different laws that have allowed the Japanese Self-Defence Forces to send contingents abroad to increasingly more conflictive places (such as present-day Iraq). In the face of all of these actions, the question which this article aims to answer is this: is a constitutional reform necessary in Japan?

J. Oscar Álvarez Calzada is a Technical Expert in the Catalan Agency for Investments and a Lecturer in the Master’s Course in International Studies (CIDOB Foundation)

issn: 1696-9987 (print edition)
issn: 1697-381X (online edition)

30 pp.

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