Consolidating Constitutional Legitimacy in Japan

Japan’s unamended constitution has become the focus of renewed parliamentary debate, but whether this aligns with public sentiment remains uncertain. This talk explores attitudes toward constitutional revision by examining two dimensions of constitutional legitimacy. The first is procedural: do voter view the nature of amendment debates as appropriate? The second is substantive: do the rights and institutions enshrined in the constitution align with public ideals? Drawing on original surveys and experiments, this study sheds light on the evolving role of constitutionalism in Japan and its implications for democratic governance.

Kenneth Mori McElwain is a Professor of Comparative Politics at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. His research focuses on comparative institutions and Japanese politics, with an emphasis on constitutional design and change. His 2022 book, The Universality and Originality of the Japanese Constitution in Quantitative Perspective (Chikura Shobō 2022), won the Ishibashi Tanzan Award and the Asia-Pacific Award Special Prize. He is Editor-in-Chief of 'Social Science Japan Journal' and a 2024–25 Visiting Professor of Japanese Politics at Columbia University. He received his BA at Princeton University, obtained a PhD in political science from Stanford, and taught at the University of Michigan before assuming his current position in 2015.