Article 9 of the Japanese
Peace Constitution and Peace
in Asia -Prayer from Okinawa
憲法９条とアジアの平和
ー 沖縄からの祈り ー
The 7th Global lnter-Religious Conference on Article 9
of the Japanese Peace Constitution
Presentation 4
Japan's Peace Constitution and the Deployment of its SDF Abroad –
A Comparative Perspective from the German Situation
Rev. Dr. Martin Repp, Representative of the Evangelical Mission in Solidarity, Stuttgart, Germany
For this conference I will discuss "Japan's Peace Constitution and the deployment of its SDF abroad" from two perspectives: first from a brief historical survey of the interpretation of Article 9 in Japanese politics, and second from a brief comparison between Japanese and
German postwar remilitarization. Through both perspectives I hope that we may better understand the subject matter. In the final part I would like to introduce a recent model for achieving security in concrete terms which was developed by German pacifists in the church. – When I lived and worked in Japan from 1988 to 2009, I studied mainly religions in Japan, but I collected also material about the contemporary social, cultural and political situation. One such collection contains newspaper clips concerning the discussion about Japan's Constitution and the remilitarization during my stay in Japan. Since I am not an expert of law, politics or military, but because I am trained in historical studies, for the present contribution I investigated the historical developments of our topic first in Japan and then in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Through such double focus I hope to contribute to this conference in a meaningful way. Furthermore, since you also may be interested in the recent discussion about military, peace and security in Germany, I consulted my colleague Wolfgang Buff at the Ecumenical Center of the Protestant Churches in Hesse, who is in charge for peace education and peace work since the last four decades.
My presentation will consist of five parts:
first, a brief review of the formation of the Japanese Constitution
second, the emergence of the SDF since the 1950's and the continuous extension of its task;
third, the Constitution of the FRG (Grundgesetz) and the development of the German Federal
Defense Force and its increased deployment abroad;
forth, a brief comparison between Germany and Japan in respect to the Constitution and remilitarization;
and fifth, introduction to recent peace models proposed by German churches and NGOs.
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