The Institutionalization of Peace in Japan: Origins, Maintenance and Effects of Article Nine.

In this paper I trace the origins of Article Nine, the 'peace plank' of Japan's postwar constitution, to the American outlawry of war movement and investigate its relationship to the transformation of Japanese political culture from one that was illiberal and authoritarian to one in which democracy came to be associated with antimilitarism. While the role of constitutional frameworks has been investigated in terms of democratic transitions and consolidation, the present study considers the impact of Japan’s peace constitution on the development of a pacifist political culture, one in which citizens continue to “renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.” (Article Nine, Paragraph One) ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]