Nissan Seminar: Surnames, Same Sex Marriage, and the Interesting Evolution of Constitutional Litigation in Japan (Professor Colin. P.A. Jones, Doshisha Law School)

Convener(s): Professor Hugh Whittaker and Professor Kristi Govella

Professor Jones will summarize a recent paper in which he offers a new heuristic for understanding how and why constitutional claims are litigated in Japan. He offers a number of common features to the small and seemingly unrelated instances in which the Supreme Court of Japan has found a statute unconstitutional. He uses this heuristic to understand certain constitutional challenges currently in the news, including those relating to marriage equality and spousal surnames. 

Colin P.A. Jones is a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. He also practices as a corporate lawyer and sits on public company boards.  He has published widely in both English and Japanese with a focus on the Japanese legal system. His books include The Japanese Legal System (2nd ed., co-authored with Franks S. Ravitch and Koji Higashikawa) and The Annotated Constitution of Japan: A Handbook (editor, MHM Limited). More recently in Japanese he published Gaikokujin to Nihonkokukenpo (Foreign Nationals and the Japanese Constitution), which offers a different perspective on prevailing theories on the degree to which foreign nationals enjoy the protections of the Japanese constitution.  Professor Jones’ longstanding The Japan Times newspaper column has been compiled into a book, Obey, Not Know: Essays in Japanese Law and Society.  He is a Life Member at Clare Hall, Cambridge University.