「あるべき国民」の再定義としての勤労の義務 : 日本国憲法上の義務に関する歴史的試論

Abstract

In this essay, I first explore the process of enacting the obligation to work, which is now provided in Article 27, Clause 1 of the Japanese Constitution, and then demonstrate that this process had the effect of redefining the obligations and idealized standards of the Japanese people under the Constitution of the Empire of Japan. It has often been said that one of the roles of a modern constitution is to restrain the arbitrary use of governmental power and to guarantee basic human rights. However, in postwar Japan, elites decreed the constitutional obligations, like the obligation to work, in their draft constitution, and this opened the possibility of a restriction of basic human rights. Why did they do this? After World War II, the Japanese elites' primary goal changed from securing a victory in the war to the construction of a “peaceful nation.” As a result, they had to revise the provision of mandatory military service that had been included in the Empire's constitution. However, in doing so, they forced people to work for the construction of a “peaceful nation” under a democratized Japan. Therefore, elites made the obligation to work a stipulation of the constitution in order to promote a national consciousness and to mobilize people voluntarily to construct a “peaceful nation.”