Partners for Democracy

Tackling a timely and weighty subject, Moore and Robinson take the controversial stand that the Constitution of Japan was not "imposed", as conventional opinion has it, as a document of defeat by the Allied occupying forces under General MacArthur. Rather, the authors argue that the 1946 Constitution was in essence the product of a "joint conspiracy" between MacArthur's Occupation and the Yoshida Cabinet. One of the hottest topics in Japanese politics and journalism at the moment, the subject of formal Diet committee deliberations, political party platforms, and numerous opinion polls and journalistic reports, this book on the origins of Japanese democracy is sure to be both controversial and of major significance. Drawing on a huge archive of primary materials now available, Moore and Robinson tell a remarkable story of American initiative and Japanese response. Superseding many earlier accounts, this book will offer a provocative account of postwar democratization and reform.