This article describes and analyzes the emergence and transformation of `litigation for separation of religion and politics' in post-war Japan. Such constitutional cases started in the mid-1960's, spread out after the 1970's, and some of them are still going on. These cases are the same regarding the point of making an issue of the constitutional violation in question. But they are concerned with various points, such as religious acts undertaken by local governments (or public funding for religious events), enshrinement of the dead without the bereaved family's consent, and the prime minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine. In this paper, I focus on the logic of the litigation, which is used to bring up the problem of violations of the constitution, as well as practices which support this logic. As a result of analysis, I point out that there is a subtle difference between the two types of logic employed; one applied when some initial litigation has begun, and another applied to give them political-and sometimes religious-meanings and to connect various cases. These two types of logic show the peculiar complicatedness of the relationship between religion and politics in postwar Japanese society.

特集記憶の社会学
投稿論文