Books on Constitution selling briskly as Japan weighs change in posture

“‘Nihonkoku Kenpo’ Nanoda!” (That’s the “Constitution of Japan”!), co-authored by Fujio Akatsuka and Kenichi Nagai, was reissued last year

OSAKA--Although hardly the stuff of bedtime reading, weighty tomes on Japan’s Constitution are a surprise hit on the book circuit this year.

Public interest in the issue has been fueled by the Abe administration’s move to amend the government interpretation of the pacifist Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

Book outlets are even setting up special sections for books on the Constitution, and a decades-old work by a renowned manga artist on the issue has been reprinted for the first time in more than a decade.

Even those who are aghast at the notion of constitutional amendment are taking a fresh look at the origin and basic philosophy of Japan’s supreme set of laws amid concern voiced overseas that Japan, under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is tilting sharply to the right.

With public interest in the issue on the rise, bookstores are falling over themselves to offer all sorts of works ahead of Constitution Memorial Day, which falls on May 3.

“‘Nihonkoku Kenpo’ Nanoda!” (That’s the “Constitution of Japan!”) is a reissue that made a comeback in May 2013 after a hiatus of more than a decade. Its cover shows a Dad character from “The Genius Bakabon,” a popular manga series, who holds a book emblazoned with the word “Constitution” and pronounces the title phrase with his iconic style of speech as he points his finger at Nyarome, a cat character from a different cartoon series.

“Many books on the Constitution are difficult to read, but familiar characters are using plain language to explain things in this work,” said a 36-year-old vocational college student as she purchased a copy. “I like this casual feel.”

The book was co-authored by manga artist Fujio Akatsuka, who died in 2008 at age 72, and Kenichi Nagai, 82, professor emeritus at Hosei University in Tokyo and a specialist on the Constitution.

The first 16 pages feature characters from Akatsuka’s manga works to plainly explain the basic principles of the Constitution, namely, “pacifism,” “sovereignty of the people” and “fundamental human rights”

On one page, Bakabon’s Dad says, “Ladies and gentlemen of the world, Japan will no longer engage in war!”

“Sovereignty of the people was won at the cost of so many sacrifices and efforts!” the eponymous heroine from the “Akko-chan’s Got a Secret!” series says elsewhere.

The first edition appeared in 1983 and went into its last reprint in 1997. But an old copy caught the attention of book editor Junko Osanai in March 2013 when she spotted it on a bookshelf at her workplace.

Abe, who champions constitutional revision, had a more than 60-percent approval rating at the time.

“Why don’t we republish this book?” Osanai recalled proposing to her boss at Sodo Bunka, a Tokyo-based publishing house.

For Osanai, 37, “ ‘Nihonkoku Kenpo’ Nanoda!” was more than just a tome on an exceptional Constitution that has kept Japan away from war for nearly 70 years.

Along with the manga section that opens the work, the book contains an essay by Akatsuka on the Constitution and an interview he had with Nagai.

The book prompted Osanai to reflect anew on whether Japan would again possess armed forces if the Constitution were to be amended, and whether her 6-year-old daughter would grow up in a society where peace prevailed.

The new edition, which was published two months later, runs to 80 pages. This is partly because it includes the revised Basic Law on Education that did not run in the previous edition. Its initial run of 5,000 copies sold out in a month, so the publisher printed 10,000 more.

“We are receiving many additional orders from bookshops,” Osanai said, adding that she senses growing public interest in the issue of constitutional amendment ahead of Constitution Memorial Day.

“I believe Akatsuka wanted children to share the basic thinking behind the Constitution,” Nagai, the cartoonist’s co-author, said.

The scholar recalled how Akatsuka once confided an episode from his early life that helped form his attachment for the pacifist Constitution.

“My mother led me by the hand as we were repatriating from northeast China,” Nagai recalled the manga artist saying 31 years ago. “I could have become a war orphan if I had let go my mother’s hand. Every person has only one life to live. It’s so stupid to be killing each other.”

The Abe administration has embarked on a major push to change the accepted interpretation of the Constitution that had been followed by successive governments. Under Article 9, Japan is prohibited from using military force to settle international disputes. But Abe wants to amend the Constitutional intrepretation to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, which would allow the Self-Defense Forces to come to the aid of an ally--the United States, for example--that has come under armed attack.

“That is compromising the basic philosophy of the Constitution, which pays respect for human rights and peace,” Nagai said. “That is why I call for more interest in the constitutional issue.”

PUBLIC ATTENTION

Public awareness of and attention to the issue have shifted during the 16 months Abe has been in power. Bookshops have been quick to respond to the changing trends.

Between April and July last year, Sanseido Bookstore Ltd.’s flagship outlet in Tokyo’s Jinbocho district sold double the number of books on the Constitution it offloaded in normal years.

“We hope to be offering specialized books this year that tell it like it is,” said one employee at a bookstore.

Kinokuniya Co.’s Grand Front Osaka store in the western city’s Umeda district has expanded its special section on the Constitution to 20 or so titles, an increase over last year. The titles include the reissue of “‘Nihonkoku Kenpo’ Nanoda!”

The Osaka main store of the Junkudo bookshop chain set up a section last autumn that is flagged, “Constitutional amendment issue.”

“The books are selling off the shelves on a daily basis,” said the person in charge of the section.

According to Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Inc. (Nippan), a Tokyo-based book agent, 235 titles on the Constitution were published last year. That is 1.5 times the corresponding number of the previous year, with the sales volume surging roughly nine-fold. Thirty-eight more titles were published during the first three months of this year.

“The brisk sales may partly be coming from the growing number of titles on the Constitution that are written in plain language and priced at 1,000 yen ($9.75) or less,” a Nippan official said.

Writer Yuzuki Muroi noted that books both for and against constitutional amendment are valuable in allowing readers to form their own opinions on this important issue.

“A decision by a single Cabinet could topple the government interpretation of the Constitution that successive Cabinets have adhered to,” Muroi said. “People who are feeling alarmed by recent events are probably turning to books on the issue to reacquaint themselves with what the Constitution is all about.

"I propose that defenders of the Constitution read books that call for its amendment, whereas those who want to have it amended read books that call for its defense. We should not be leaving it up to the politicians alone to discuss the Constitution, which is there to define the basic setup of our nation."

By MASHIO TAKEDA/ Staff Writer The Asahi Shimbun