The Constitution of Japan

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Plan of Investigation

The Constitution of Japan contains articles about equality between men and women but many times, law is not properly enforced or enacted. Keeping this in mind, the true extent to which the federal legislation actually augmented women's freedoms needs to be analyzed. This is why the subject of my research is, "To what extent did the Japanese Constitution result in greater freedom and increased rights for Japanese women in the mid twentieth century?" The scope of this research is valuable because it examines the development of feminism in Japan, which empowered women and explains the development of equal rights. The historical significance is that it can provide helpful information that can be applied to studying current global issues in which inequality between the sexes is visible. Journal articles about and federal bills of the Japanese Constitution will be investigated to analyze the conditions promised on paper, while primary accounts of Japanese women's lives will be examined to discover the true extent in which these new laws were enforced and how much independence the women genuinely gained. Furthermore, general conditions of women in the several decades after the proclamation of the Constitution will also be analyzed since such legislation can take several years to alter society.

Summary of Evidence

In 1887, during the Meiji period in Japan, multiple laws existed that limited the abilities and rights of women. For example, women did not have inheritance rights or suffrage. Women were not trained for careers and therefore could not obtain work that interested them. It was in this era of Japanese history that a rigid and inflexible class system was in place and these conditions continued...

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Matsui, Machiko. "Evolution of the Feminist Movement in Japan." NWSA Journal 2.3 (1990): 435-49. JSTOR. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. .

"Osaka's New Leader." Trends in Japan. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Paine, Thomas, and Isaac Kramnick. Common Sense. Harmondsworth Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1986. Print.

Parry, Melanie. Larousse Dictionary of Women. New York: Larousse, 1996. 220. Print.

Robins-Mowry, Dorothy The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan (Boulder: Westview Press, 1983).

"Saboten Girl." Saboten Girl. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

Supreme Court of Japan (1955) (enacted). Print.

Trager, James. Letters from Sachiko: A Japanese Woman's View of Life in the Land of the Economic Miracle. New York: Atheneum, 1982. 167. Print.

"Women in Parliaments Global Forum." Japan: House of Councillors. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

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