The Struggle to Protect Individual Rights in Postwar Japan

doi:10.1017/9781108164535.010

6 - The Struggle to Protect Individual Rights in Postwar Japan

Seven Decades of Progress

from Part I - Political Sovereignty

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 May 2023

Lawrence Repeta

Edited by

Laura Hein

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Laura Hein: Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois

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Summary

The twenty-four accessible and thought-provoking essays in this volume present innovative new scholarship on Japan’s modern history, including its imperial past and transregional entanglements. Drawing on the latest Japanese and English-language scholarship, it highlights Japan’s distinctiveness as an extraordinarily fast-changing place. Indeed, Japan provides a ringside seat to all the big trends of modern history. Japan was the first non-Western society to become a modern nation and empire, to industrialize, to wage modern war on a vast scale, and to deliver a high standard of living to virtually all its citizens. Because the Japanese so determinedly acted to reshape global hierarchies, their modern history was incredibly destabilizing for the world. This intense dynamism has powered a variety of debates and conflicts, both at home and with people and places beyond Japan’s shores. Put simply, Japan has packed a lot of history into less than two centuries.

Keywords

Constitution of Japan individual rights courts international human rights law discrimination

Type: Chapter
Information: The New Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 223 - 260

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108164535.010 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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6 - The Struggle to Protect Individual Rights in Postwar Japan

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