Constitutional revision research project

AAS Roundtable

Members of the Constitutional Revision Research Project led a roundtable discussion titled "Constitutional Revision in Japan Today: Documentation and Analysis" at the annual Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Meeting in Boston, March 22-25, 2007. The roundtable was organized and moderated by Franziska Seraphim, Boston College.

Roundtable members discussed six aspects of the group's research: (1) shifts in the elite power structure that condition the unprecedented viability of constitutional revisionism; (2) the impact of revisionism on Japan's foreign relations in Asia; (3) proposed changes to the status of women and religious corporations; (4) changing patterns of civic activism in the debate; (5) related legislative changes, such as immigration laws; (6) Harvard Library's pilot program on harvesting and preserving digital materials.

Abstracts of the presentations are provided below:

The View From Asia
- Alexis Dudden, University of Connecticut

Changing Patterns of Civic Engagement in Constitutionalism in Japan
- Timothy S. George, University of Rhode Island

Constitutional Revision in Japan: Summary and Update to AAS Presentation
- Helen Hardacre, Harvard University

Progress Report on the Web Archiving Project on Japanese Constitutional Revision
- Kazuko Sakaguchi, Documentation Center on Contemporary Japan

Comments to AAS Rountable on the Constitution
- Richard J. Samuels, Massachusetts Institute of Technology