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Japan Judicial Review
The Supreme Court is generally reluctant to exercise
the powers
of judicial review given to it by the constitution, in
large part
because of unwillingness to become involved in politically
sensitive issues. When decisions have been rendered on
such matters
as the constitutionality of the Self-Defense Forces, the
sponsorship of Shinto ceremonies by public authorities, or
the
authority of the Ministry of Education, Science, and
Culture to
determine the content of school textbooks or teaching
curricula,
the court generally took a conservative, progovernment
stance.
In the words of political scientist T.J. Pempel, the
Supreme
Court "has been an important, if frequently unrecognized,
vehicle
for preserving the status quo in Japan and for reducing
the
capacity of the courts to reverse executive actions."
Important
exceptions to this conservative trend, however, were the
rulings on
the unconstitutionality of the electoral district
apportionment
system, discussed earlier.
Data as of January 1994
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