Editing Civil liberties (section)

===Japan===
{{Main article|Human rights in Japan}}
Since 1947, [[Japan]], a country with a [[constitutional monarchy]] and known for its socially "conservative society where change is gradual," has a [[Constitution of Japan|constitution]] with a seemingly strong bill of rights at its core ([[:wikisource: Constitution of Japan#CHAPTER III. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE PEOPLE|Chapter III. Rights and Duties of the People]]).<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VvL8d8RH-Z8C&q=Japan+conservative+society+where+change+is+gradual&pg=PT225 | title=Japan: A Global Studies Handbook | publisher=ABC-CLIO | author=Ellington, Lucien | year=2002 | location=Santa Barbara, CA | page=209 | isbn=978-1576072714}}</ref> In many ways, it resembles the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] prior to the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], and that is because it came into life during the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] [[occupation of Japan]].  This constitution may have felt like a foreign imposition to the governing elites, but not to the ordinary people "who lacked faith in their discredited leaders and supported meaningful change."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Law|first=David S.|date=2013-05-26|title=The Myth of the Imposed Constitution|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2270399|language=en|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=2270399}}</ref>  In the abstract, the constitution strives to secure fundamental individual liberties and rights, which are covered pointedly in articles 10 to 40.  Most salient of the human dignity articles is article 25, section 1, which guarantees that all [[:wikisource: Constitution of Japan#CHAPTER III. RIGHTS AND DUTIES OF THE PEOPLE|"People shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living."]]<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/27531.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/27531.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live | title=Japan's foreign policy towards human rights: uncertain changes | author=Yokota, Yozo, & Chiyuki Aoi | journal=Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy: Foundations of Peace, Edited by David Forsythe | year=2000 | volume=United Nations University Press | pages=Chapter 5}}</ref>

Despite the adoption of this liberal constitution, often referred as the "Postwar Constitution" (戦後憲法, Sengo-Kenpō) or the "Peace Constitution" (平和憲法, Heiwa-Kenpō), the Japanese governing elites have struggled to usher in an inclusive, open and [[Pluralist society]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H-HODTsc7LsC | title=Building Democracy in Japan | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Haddad, Mary Alice | year=2012 | location=Cambridge| page=59 | isbn=978-1107014077}}</ref> Even after the end of [[World War II]] and the departure of the [[Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers#End of SCAP|Allied government of occupation]] in 1952, Japan has been the target of international criticism for failing to admit to [[war crimes]], [[Freedom of religion|institutional religious discrimination]] and maintaining a weak [[freedom of the press]], the treatment of children, minorities, foreigners, and women, its punitive criminal justice system, and more recently, the systematic bias against [[LGBT]] people.<ref name="Japan veering away">{{cite news | url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/02/25/national/japan-veering-away-from-global-human-rights-standards-says-amnesty-international/ | title=Japan veering away from global human rights standards, says Amnesty International | work=[[The Japan Times]] | date=February 25, 2015 | access-date=July 5, 2016 | agency=[[Kyodo News]]}}</ref><ref name="Japan LGBT Discrimination">{{cite web | url=https://www.outrightinternational.org/content/un-urges-end-discrimination-against-lgbt-individuals-japan | title=UN Urges End to Discrimination Against LGBT Individuals in Japan | publisher=Outright International | work=Analysis | date=July 25, 2014 | access-date=July 5, 2016 |author1=Suzanne Trimel }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/26/national/u-s-rights-report-slams-japan-on-child-abuse-prison-conditions-asylum-system/#.V3sEBJMrJE6 | title=U.S. rights report slams Japan on child abuse, prison conditions, asylum system | work=News report | date=June 26, 2015 | agency=Japan Times | access-date=July 5, 2016 | author=Osumi, Magdalena}}</ref>

The first Japanese attempt to a bill of rights was in the 19th century [[Meiji constitution]] (1890), which took both the [[Constitution of Prussia (1850)|Prussian]] (1850) and [[Constitution of the United Kingdom|British]] constitutions as basic models.<ref>Kazuhiro Takii and David Noble, The Meiji Constitution: The Japanese Experience of the West and the Shaping of the Modern State (Tokyo, Japan: International House of Japan, 2007), 181.</ref>  However, it had but a meagre influence in the practice of the rule of law as well as in people's daily lives.  So, the short and deliberately gradual history of struggles for personal rights and protection against government/society's impositions has yet to transform Japan into a champion of universal and individual freedom.<ref>Andrew Gordon, ''Postwar Japan As History''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, p. 91.</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Henderson |first= Dan Fenno |editor-last= Ward |editor-first= Robert E. |title= Political Development in Modern Japan: Studies in the Modernization of Japan |publisher= Princeton University Press |date=2015 |pages=441–445|chapter=Chapter 11: Law and Political Modernization in Japan |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=vqJ9BgAAQBAJ&q=bill+of+rights&pg=PA445 |access-date=July 5, 2016|isbn= 978-1400871667}}</ref><ref>Ugo Dessì, ''Japanese Religions and Globalization''. London: Routledge, 2013, p. 64.</ref> According to constitutional scholar, [[Shigenori Matsui]],

{{Blockquote|text= People tend to view the Bill of Rights as a moral imperative and not as a judicial norm. The people also tend to rely upon bureaucrats to remedy social problems, including even human rights violations, rather than the court.|author= Shigenori Matsui | source="The protection of 'Fundamental human rights' in Japan."<ref>“The protection of ‘Fundamental human rights’ in Japan,” a chapter in Human Rights in Asia: A Comparative Legal Study of Twelve Asian Jurisdictions, France and the USA, edited by Peerenboom, R. P., Carole Petersen, and Hongyi Chen (London: Routledge, 2006), 149</ref>}}

Despite the divergences between Japan's social culture and the [[Constitutional liberalism|Liberal Constitutionalism]] that it purports to have adopted, the country has moved toward closing the gap between the notion and the practice of the law. The trend is more evident in the long term. Among several examples, the [[National Diet|Diet]] (bicameral legislature) ratified the [[International Bill of Human Rights]] in 1979 and then it passed the Law for Equal Opportunity in Employment for Men and Women in 1985, measures that were heralded as major steps toward a democratic and participatory society.  In 2015, moreover, it reached an agreement with [[Korea]] to compensate for abuses related to the so-called "[[Comfort women|women of comfort]]" that took place during the [[Korea under Japanese rule|Japanese occupation]] of the [[Korean Peninsula|peninsula]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35188135 | title=Japan and South Korea agree WW2 'comfort women' deal | date=December 28, 2015 | agency=BBC | access-date=July 5, 2016}}</ref> However, human rights group, and families of the survivors condemned the agreement as patronizing and insulting.<ref name=" horrific story of Korea's 'comfort women' ">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-horrific-story-of-koreas-comfort-women---forced-to-be-sex-sl/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/the-horrific-story-of-koreas-comfort-women---forced-to-be-sex-sl/ |archive-date=2022-01-12 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live | title=The horrific story of Korea's 'comfort women' – forced to be sex slaves during World War Two | work=Telegraph | date=December 29, 2015 | access-date=July 5, 2016 | author=Sanghani, Radhika | location=London}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

On its official [https://web.archive.org/web/20180423032635/http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/HB/hb-03.html site], the Japanese government has identified various human rights problems. Among these are child abuses (e.g., [[bullying]], [[corporal punishment]], [[child sexual abuse]], [[child prostitution]], and [[child pornography]]), frequent neglect and ill-treatment of [[Elder abuse|elderly persons]] and individuals with [[Disability abuse|disabilities]], [[Burakumin#Discrimination in access to services|Dowa claims]] (discrimination against the [[Burakumin]]), [[Ainu people]] (indigenous people in Japan), foreign nationals, [[HIV/AIDS in Japan|HIV/AIDS carriers]], [[Hansen's disease]] patients, persons released from prison after serving their sentence, [[Victims' rights|crime victims]], people whose [[Human rights#Information and communication technologies|human rights are violated using the Internet]], the homeless, individuals with [[Gender dysphoria|gender identity disorders]], and [[Misogyny|women]]. Also, the government lists systematic problems with gender biases and the standard reference to sexual preferences for jobs and other functions in society.<ref name="Major problems">{{cite web | url=http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/HB/hb-03.html | title=Major Human Rights Problems | publisher=Ministry of Justice, Japan | work=Human Rights Bureau | date=March 6, 2009 | access-date=July 5, 2016 | author=Government of Japan | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423032635/http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/HB/hb-03.html | archive-date=April 23, 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Human rights organizations, national and foreign, expand the list to include human rights violations that relate to government policies, as in the case of [[daiyo kangoku]] system (substitute prison) and the methods of interrogating crime suspects.<ref>Jeffrey Flynn,  Reframing the Intercultural Dialogue on Human Rights: A Philosophical Approach (London: Routledge, 2014), 114.</ref> The effort of these agencies and ordinary people seem to pay off. In 2016, the U.S. Department of State released a report stating that Japan's human right record is showing signs of improvement.<ref name=" human rights improve but problems persist">{{cite news | url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/14/national/social-issues/japan-human-rights-improve-problems-persist-u-s-state-department/#.V3tLxZMrKRs | title=Japan human rights improve but problems persist: U.S. State Department | work=Japan Times  | date=April 14, 2016 | access-date=July 5, 2016 | author=Wanklyn, Alastair}}</ref>