Constitutionalism in a Modern Patriarchal State: Japan, the Sex Sector, and Social Reproduction

Abstract

This chapter offers a critical gender perspective to explore some of the effects of international constitutional politics on the patriarchal forms of the modern Japanese state. The approach I take assumes that the state develops, in general, a legal and political framework which accommodates two of its major purposes: to develop the production system for its economic prosperity and to guarantee the security of its social reproduction within given international contexts. And in turn the social reproduction in modern states has historically involved the regulation of moral and ethical life, which includes the regulation of social institutions such as the family as well as associated sexual mores and what today is called the sex industries or sex sector. All of these elements form part of a particular gender order within the context of a particular social formation and pattern of power relations, in ways that have unequal implications for human security.