Progress or Prevarication?: The Move Toward the Establishment of a Human Rights Commission in Japan

Since the United Nations adoption in 1993 of the so-called "Paris Principles" as a framework of rules for the establishment of national human rights institutions, the world has seen a dramatic proliferation of such bodies. As of September 2014, the number of countries that have taken the initiative to set up a national human rights institution—either a human rights commission or an ombudsman—has climbed to over 110. At the same time, however, many states have remained passive towards this new trend, resisting both global and domestic pressures. Amongst these, the case of Japan is particularly puzzling, given its strong democratic tradition, vibrant civil society, and long-standing human rights treaty commitments. The present article seeks to explain why Japan lacks a national human rights institution by focusing on the legislative attempts to establish such an organization there.