Innovatively interpreting Japanese politics as a 'benign elite democracy', and based on unprecedented access to former and current justices of the Supreme Court of Japan, this book represents the first empirical study of judicial decision making under the Constitution of Japan. Author Hiroshi Itoh examines the Court's records in upholding civil rights and liberties, preserving the conformity of lower levels of laws and regulations to the Constitution, and maintaining the Court's relationships to the political branches.

Hiroshi Itoh is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. Works he has co-written or co-edited include The Constitutional Case Law of Japan, 1970 through 1990 (University of Washington Press, 1996) and Japan's Public Policy under the Gun of Globalization (Edwin Mellen Press, 2009).

Contents: Foreword, David S. Law; Introduction; Elite governance in Japan; Judicial decision-making; Judicial impact and feedback; Judicial attitudes on the Grand Bench; Judicial attributes of justices; Judicial role of the Supreme Court; Conclusions; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.