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The Myth of the ‘Pacifist’ Japanese Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Guy Almog
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Précis

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In 1947, two years after its unconditional surrender, Japan adopted a new constitution. This constitution has attracted great interest over the years, mostly due to its famous Article 9, which even was recently nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. This constitution has increasingly become known as a symbol of pacifist ideals and has given rise to extensive local and international discourse since its establishment. Contrary to popular perception, however, I make the case that this constitution, and Article 9 in particular, do not withstand close philosophical and historical scrutiny as pacifist—not by nature, not by function and not by circumstance. The problematic categorization of Japan as a “pacifist country,” and the Japanese public as a whole as “pacifist”, are also addressed.

Keywords

Article 9 of the Japanese constitution;Pacifism in Japan;Constitutional law and history in Japan (1945—);Just war theory;Nobel Peace Prize
Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 12 , Issue 36 , September 2014 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014

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