Constitutional Reform And The Post-cold War Japanese Party Politics,

Since the promulgation of Japan's Peace Constitution, Japan's political activities have been focused on the revision of the Constitution. It can be said that the implementation process of the Japan's constitution for half a century is just the history of the Constitution's revision, as well as the history of political struggles within various political groups in Japan after the WWII. After the ending of the Cold War, driven by conservative of the whole society of Japan, the voice of the revision of Japan's Peace Constitution coming from the Japan's political parties inside and outside the government, the whole nation and the public has become louder and louder, and its revision will become inevitable. When, how and by what means Japan government will revise the Constitution is closely related to the trend and influence of Japan's party politics. On the revision of the Constitution, the stances that Japan's main political parties adopt toward the question of revision or defense, and the changes of power among those parties will play an important role in it. Meanwhile, the differences and the struggles among the political parties on the revision will also have an effect on the development of the parties.The thesis takes the angle of the issue of the revision of Japan's Peace Constitution to investigate and analyze the interaction between the revision and the party's politics. The framework of the thesis is listed as bellow:Chapter One is about the background of the thesis. From the angle of historical development and with the order of time, the chapter narrates the changes that took place toward Japan's party politics on the revision of the Constitution and the reason of the revision, and this part sums up the stance that during the period of the Cold War, the parties inside and outside the government adopted toward the revision on the basis of which.Chapter Two mainly discusses the influences on the politics and society of Japan which the end of the Cold War brings to Japan. And it explains the changes of the attitude on the revision of the Constitution from Japan's public view including the individuals, the intellectual community and the media. This chapter concerns more about the methodology of sociology, and discusses the reasons why the stances of the political parties changed from a broader view.Chapter Three mainly discusses the question of revision from the LDP's point of view. By the method of"the science of political forces", this chapter systematically analyses the differences inside the LDP and the relationship among LDP and NKP(New Komeito Party) during the coalition of the two parties from two levels, and then discusses the accomplishment of revision that was achieved under the promotion of LDP's regime after the Cold War.Chapter Four emphasizes on the interaction between revision and out-parties, and gets a glimpse of the stance toward the revision and its significance through the development of old and new out-parties. Finally, the method of comparison is employed to justify the unbalance of the power between the ruling party and the out-party on the question of revising or defending the Japan's Peace Constitution.The last part of the paper is to sum up the whole content. Moreover, it predicates and analyzes the future tendencies of the revision of the Constitution according to the new development of current issue of the revision of the Constitution.