The Ritual of Rights in Japan: Law, Society, and Health Policy (Cambridge Studies in Law and Society)

The Ritual of Rights in Japan rejects the traditional view that Japan is a nation where overt conflict and the assertion of rights are unacceptable. It examines both mistorical events and contemporary policy, particularly recent battles over AIDS policy and the definition of death--in concluding that rights-based conflict is an important part of Japanese legal, political, and social practice. This book describes a nation where rights have become weapons in battles over politics and policy, asserted by those seeking both individual remedies and social change.

"Feldman convincingly demonstrates, through the use of the brain death and AIDS cases, that rights do matter in Japan. Tactics of rights assertion, broadly understood, are imployed not only in litigation but also as a means of appealing to public opinion, once the possibility of informal negotiation and settlement has become remote. The belief that Japan is a nation whose culture is based on duties not rights, Feldman shows, is timeworn and blinkered...his case studies effectively refute the common misconception that Japan is a nation in which concepts of rights are ignored and claims of rights invariably fall on stony ground. The Ritual of Rights in Japan merits a wide readership and a place on the shelf of every serious student of contemporary Japan." The Jrnl of Legal Medicine

"This book...charts a course for the future." The Law and Politics Book Review