Ueki Emori und die japanische Freiheits- und Bürgerrechtsbewegung (jiyū minken undō) – zugleich ein Beitrag zur japanischen VerfassungsgeschichteKlaus Schlichtmann

ASIEN – Nr. 170/171 (2024) pp. 166–85

This study examines the international relations between Japan and the West, particularly with regards to the development of international and constitutional law, peace and statehood. During the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, international relations had intensified and reached a peak in the 18th century. The idea of a peaceful organisation of the world as a political union evolved with the Enlightenment, which thus laid the philosophical foundation for concepts such as international law, human rights and international cooperation. With the Hague Peace Conferences 1899 and 1907, an international legal community was constituted for the first time in the 20th century, the forerunner of the League of Nations and the United Nations. In this context, Japan was ideally destined to play a leading role. Japan wanted to give itself a new constitution and become a liberal democracy.

Keywords: Japan, Enlightenment, peace, military establishment, imperialism, national development, state formation, opening Japan to the world, Bismarck, Meiji Restoration, Franco-Prussian War, German militarism, Japan’s 1947 Peace Constitution, world government, rule of law, world parliament, Hague Peace Conferences, Meiji Constitution, Fukuzawa Yukichi, Nakae Chomin, Iwakura-Mission