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  • About RSIS
      • Introduction
      • Building the Foundations
      • Welcome Message
      • Board of Governors
      • Staff Profiles
        • Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
        • Dean’s Office
        • Management
        • Distinguished Fellows
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        • Visiting Fellows
        • Adjunct Fellows
        • Administrative Staff
      • Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
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      • Endowed Professorships
      • Career Opportunities
      • Getting to RSIS
  • Research
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        • Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
        • Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
        • Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS)
        • Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
        • International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      • Research Programmes
        • National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
        • Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      • [email protected] Newsletter
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        • Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
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    • WP310 | Theocracy vs Constitutionalism in Japan: Constitutional Amendment and the Return of Pre-war Shinto Nationalism
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    WP310 | Theocracy vs Constitutionalism in Japan: Constitutional Amendment and the Return of Pre-war Shinto Nationalism
    Naoko Kumada

    02 May 2018

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    Abstract

    This paper offers an understanding of the scope, nature, and context of constitutional change being proposed in Japan today, in internal terms rather than through external reconstruction. Rather than being a mere reaction to “external circumstances”, as portrayed by its apologists and by “realist/rational-reconstructionist” analysis, the movement to amend and replace the Constitution is a project with a history, underpinned by a worldview and driven by an ideology that provide it with its own momentum. The most overlooked aspect of the movement is religion. From the Meiji Restoration until the end of the War, Japan was governed through a religio-political system based on a newly invented State Shintoism. The scope and intent of today’s movement to amend/replace the Constitution cannot be understood without this background in mind. Failure to account for the ideological, cultural, historical, and indeed the constitutional dimensions of the issue seriously underplays the stakes for Japan and its neighbours. The constitutional movement is part of a multi-generational project to restore what its leaders declare to be the “true shape of Japan”, with the pre-war religious ideology and constitutional form that they deem to have been unjustly replaced by the US occupation administration after Japan’s defeat.

    About the Author

    Naoko Kumada (PhD, MA, LL.M., LL.B.) is Adjunct Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). She received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Keio University, with a concentration in the Japanese Constitution. After studying the historical transition of the Burmese legal system from that of Buddhist kingships to the British common law for her Master’s degree, she completed her PhD in Social Anthropology on the religious practice of Burmese Buddhists at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining RSIS, she taught at the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University, where she worked with graduate students studying Japanese and Southeast Asian religions.

    Categories: Working Papers / Country and Region Studies / International Politics and Security / Religion in Contemporary Society / East Asia and Asia Pacific

    Last updated on 05/08/2019

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    Abstract

    This paper offers an understanding of the scope, nature, and context of constitutional change being proposed in Japan today, in internal terms rather than through external reconstruction. Rather than being a mere reaction to “external circumstances”, as portrayed by its apologists and by “realist/rational-reconstructionist” analysis, the movement to amend and replace the Constitution is a project with a history, underpinned by a worldview and driven by an ideology that provide it with its own momentum. The most overlooked aspect of the movement is religion. From the Meiji Restoration until the end of the War, Japan was governed through a religio-political system based on a newly invented State Shintoism. The scope and intent of today’s movement to amend/replace the Constitution cannot be understood without this background in mind. Failure to account for the ideological, cultural, historical, and indeed the constitutional dimensions of the issue seriously underplays the stakes for Japan and its neighbours. The constitutional movement is part of a multi-generational project to restore what its leaders declare to be the “true shape of Japan”, with the pre-war religious ideology and constitutional form that they deem to have been unjustly replaced by the US occupation administration after Japan’s defeat.

    About the Author

    Naoko Kumada (PhD, MA, LL.M., LL.B.) is Adjunct Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS). She received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Keio University, with a concentration in the Japanese Constitution. After studying the historical transition of the Burmese legal system from that of Buddhist kingships to the British common law for her Master’s degree, she completed her PhD in Social Anthropology on the religious practice of Burmese Buddhists at the University of Cambridge. Prior to joining RSIS, she taught at the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, Stanford University, where she worked with graduate students studying Japanese and Southeast Asian religions.

    Categories: Working Papers / Country and Region Studies / International Politics and Security / Religion in Contemporary Society

    Last updated on 05/08/2019

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    WP310 | Theocracy vs Constitutionalism in Japan: Constitutional Amendment and the Return of Pre-war Shinto Nationalism

    Abstract

    This paper offers an understanding of the scope, nature, and context of constitutional change being proposed in Japan today, in internal terms rather t ...
    more info