Graduation Year
2017
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Politics and International Relations
Second Department
Asian Studies
Reader 1
Sumita Pahwa
Reader 2
Seo Young Park
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2016 Shanisha S. A. Coram
Abstract
Though Article 9 has not been revised since it was implemented in 1947, the past two decades have seen an increase in Japanese military capability due to the government’s loose interpretation of Article 9 and its limitations to allow for Japanese involvement in collective security operations internationally. As a result, a number of Japanese political scholars and newspapers have projected the possibility of not only Japanese constitutional revision but also the re-militarization of Japan as well. Interested in finding out whether or not this projection has any likelihood of success in the future, I have posed the following question: Why has the constitution and the pacifism that it enshrines been so resistant to change despite a changing political context, and does the increase of Japanese public support for constitutional revision necessarily mean re-militarization for Japan? Taking a constructivist approach, I will argue that although pro-constitutional revision forces in Japan have tried to use fear politics and the revival of a Japanese “national spirit” to promote constitutional revision and ultimately re-militarization, the Japanese public has been relatively unreceptive to their ploy due to the integration of pacifism into the Japanese collective identity.
Recommended Citation
Coram, Shanisha, "The Question of Remilitarization: Is Japan's Pacifist Nature in Danger of Reform" (2017). Scripps Senior Theses. 919.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/919
