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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

By
Lawrence Repeta
Edited by
Laura Hein
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 Japanindividual rightscourtsinternational human rights lawdiscrimination
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge History of Japan , pp. 223 - 260
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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