While "rights" are a central element of the American legal tradition, they have been largely ignored in Japan. The social science literature about Japan is dominated by the assumption that rights are an alien transplant incompatible with Japanese culture. Japanese culture is seen as inhospitable to the "Western" notion of rights which are perceived as pervading and controlling the political and legal dispositions of citizens and rulers alike. Japan's political culture is thought to include such characteristics as an avoidance of direct conflict, a deep-seated respect for authority, and a strong desire for compromise and consensus. These assumptions have been accepted by most scholars of Japanese law and politics and, thus, a rigorous study of rights in Japan has not been undertaken. This dissertation research rejects the notion that rights are unimportant in Japan and hypothesizes that rights are a critical element of the process and substance of Japanese policymaking in the courts and the legislature. The study examines the role and importance of individual rights in Japan in the context of contemporary health care conflicts. The research will focus on legislation, litigation, and mediation involving AIDS, the definition of death (organ transplantation/brain death), and contraception. Each of these areas has been the subject of intense conflict and debate about individual rights and the limits of justifiable state interference. The methodology will consist of an analysis of several case studies and interviews with parties to the disputes. Among the major issues to be addressed are circumstances under which individual rights are invoked, the extent to which lawmakers are responsive to such appeals, whether and how rights are ultimately reconciled with community welfare, and the similarities and differences between legislative, litigative, and mediated visions of rights. This study will be the first to explore the relationship between individual rights, state power, and health policy in Japan, incorporating legal, political, and sociological perspectvies. It will offer new insight into the workings of Japanese law and politics, add to the debate on Japanese policymaking, enrich the study of dispute resolution in Japan, and provide a new perspective to the analysis of Japanese conflict. It will also suggest comparative approaches to the study of rights at a time when there is deep questioning in the U.S. about whether America's sense of community has been eroded because of an overemphasis on rights and the neglect of a sense of duty.
