Constitutional reform in Japan, colloquially known as , is an ongoing political effort to reform the Constitution of Japan.
The effort recently gained traction in the 2010s as the Japanese government under then-prime minister Shinzo Abe attempted to revise Article 9 of the Constitution, which prohibits Japan from waging war as means to settle international disputes, as well as prohibiting Japan from having an armed forces with war potential. Although Abe's attempt was unsuccessful due to him leaving office in 2020 and his subsequent assassination, succeeding prime minister Fumio Kishida said that he was "determined" to work on constitutional reform, citing the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, recent tensions in Taiwan, and North Korea's development of weapons of mass destruction as his basis.
Article 96 provides that amendments can be made to the Constitution if approved by super majority of two-thirds of both houses of the National Diet (the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors), and then by a simple majority in a popular referendum. The Emperor promulgates the successful amendment in the name of the people, and cannot veto it. Details of the process is determined by the and the .
Unlike some constitutions (e.g. the American, German, Italian, and French Constitutions), Japan's Constitution does not have an explicit entrenchment provision limiting what can be amended. However, the Preamble of the Constitution declared democracy to be the "universal principle of mankind" and Article 97 proclaims the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution to be "for all time inviolable." Because of this, scholars generally believe that basic principles such as the sovereignty of the people, pacifism, and respect for human rights are unamendable. More broadly, fundamental norms written in the Constitution by constituent power cannot be amended. The preamble of the Constitution states: "We reject and revoke all constitutions, laws, ordinances, and rescripts in conflict herewith". Pacifism, popular sovereignty and respect for basic human rights are among them according to the Preamble and Article 11.
The Constitution has not been amended since its enactment in 1946. Some commentators have suggested that the Constitution's American authors favoured the difficulty of the amendment process from a desire that the fundamentals of the regime they had imposed would be resistant to change. The possibility of change to the document and to the post-war settlement it embodies has been highly controversial. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Constitutional revision was rarely debated, although amendment of the Constitution has been one of the party line of the LDP since it was formed. In the 1990s, right-leaning and conservative voices broke some taboos, for example, when the newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun published a suggestion for Constitutional revision in 1994. This period saw a number of right-leaning groups pushing aggressively for Constitutional revision and a significant number of organizations and individuals speaking out against revision and in support of "the peace Constitution".
The debate has been highly polarised. The most controversial issues are proposed changes to Article 9âÂÂthe "peace article"âÂÂand provisions relating to the role of the Emperor. Progressive, left, centre-left and peace movement-related individuals and organizations, as well as the opposition parties, labor and youth groups advocate keeping or strengthening the existing Constitution in these areas, while right-leaning, nationalist and conservative groups and individuals advocate changes to increase the prestige of the Emperor (though not granting him political powers) and to allow a more aggressive stance of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) by turning it officially into a military. Other areas of the Constitution and connected laws discussed for potential revision related to the status of women, the education system and the system of public corporations (including social welfare, non-profit and religious organizations as well as foundations), and structural reform of the election process, e.g. to allow for direct election of the prime minister. Numerous grassroots groups, associations, NGOs, think tanks, scholars, and politicians speak out on either side of the issue.
The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), one of the most influential political parties in Japan, which has been in majority in the Diet for most of the time since its 1955 establishment, has adopted several party platforms, each of which lists "revision of the current constitution" as a political motive. One of the earliest platforms, "The Duties of the Party" in 1955, points out as follows:
In recent years, the LDP has committed itself more to constitutional revision, following its victory in the September 2005 general election of the representatives. Currently, the party has released two versions of amendment drafts, one in 2005 and another in 2012.
In August 2005, the then Japanese Prime Minister, Junichirà  Koizumi, proposed an amendment to the constitution to increase Japan's Defence Forces' roles in international affairs. A draft of the proposed constitution was released by the LDP on 22 November 2005, as part of the fiftieth anniversary of the party's founding. The proposed changes included:
This draft prompted debate, with strong opposition coming even from non-governmental organizations of other countries, as well as established and newly formed grassroots Japanese organizations, such as Save Article 9. Per the current constitution, a proposal for constitutional changes must be passed by a two-thirds vote in the Diet, then be put to a national referendum. However, in 2005, there was no legislation in place for such a referendum.
Koizumi's successor, Shinzo Abe, vowed to push aggressively for Constitutional revision. A major step toward this was getting legislation passed to allow for a national referendum in April 2007. By that time, there was little public support for changing the Constitution, with a survey showing 34.5% of Japanese not wanting any changes, 44.5% wanting no changes to Article 9, and 54.6% supporting the current interpretation on self-defense. On the 60th anniversary of the Constitution, on 3 May 2007, thousands took to the streets in support of Article 9. The Chief Cabinet secretary and other top government officials interpreted the survey to mean that the public wanted a pacifist Constitution that renounces war, and may need to be better informed about the details of the revision debate. The legislation passed by parliament specifies that a referendum on Constitutional reform could take place at the earliest in 2010, and would need approval from a majority of voters.
On April 27, 2012, the LDP drafted a new version of the amendment, with an explanatory booklet for general readers. The booklet states that the spirit of the amendment is to "make the Constitution more suitable for Japan" by "drastically revising the translationese wording and the provisions based on the theory of natural human rights currently adopted in the Constitution". The proposed changes includes:
The current Constitution has the phrase "public welfare" in four articles (Articles 12, 13, 22 and 29) and states that any human right is subject to restriction when it "interferes with the public welfare". The majority of legal professionals argue that the spirit of such restriction against rights based on "public welfare" is to protect other people's rights from infringement. In the LDP draft, every instance of the phrase "public welfare" is replaced with a new phrase: "public interest and public order". The booklet describes the reason for this change as "to enable the State to restrict human rights for the sake of purposes other than protecting people's rights from infringement", but it remains unclear under what conditions the State can restrict human rights. It also explains that what "public order" means, is "order of society", and its intention is not to prohibit the people from making an objection to the government, but it explains nothing about "public interest".
Provisions regarding the people's rights modified or added in the LDP draft include:
Additionally, although defence of the national territory (Article 9âÂÂ3) and environmental protection (Article 25âÂÂ2) are literally listed under the LDP draft as obligations of the State, these provisions let the State call for the "cooperation with the people" to meet the goals provided, effectively functioning as obligation clauses on the people's side.
In 2015, prime minister Shinzo Abe and the ruling LDP promoted and passed the Legislation for Peace and Security on 19 September 2015, despite some public opposition, to allow the JSDF to participate in foreign conflicts, overturning its previous policy of fighting only in self-defense. Since the constitution allows the Japanese military to act only in self-defense, the legislation reinterpreted the relevant passages to allow the military to operate overseas for "collective self-defense" for allies. The legislation came into effect on 29 March 2016.