Books etc

While archives are widely recognized as essential for democratic governance, namely, ensuring transparency, accountability, and collective memory, they are rarely treated as constitutional objects. However, around 30 of the world’s nearly 200 constitutions mention archives explicitly. This chapter examines the underexplored role of archives in national constitutions and attempts to categorize these references into four functional categories: Rights, Authority and Duty, Value, and Existence. This chapter concludes by linking archives to broader themes of mnemonic constitutionalism and institutional integrity.

Taking Japan as a heuristic example, this book explores the significance of neatly kept and classified records and archives to maintain a democratic society. Japan adopted constitutional monarchy as a state system in the nineteenth century and then amended it to become a democracy in the twentieth century. How the evaluation of public and governmental records has and has not changed for almost a century is an indication of the maturity of democracy in Japan. How and to what extent the records of the government are disclosed to and shared with the public are among the fundamental criteria to assess the quality and maturity of democracy in a society. From this point of view, the book examines the current status of records and archives management in several spheres of Japanese society, with some international comparative studies as well. On the one hand, Japan is a society that has attached great importance to written documents, which is evident when one sees how carefully ordinary people kept diverse kinds of documents even in the pre-modern period. On the other hand, the public at large has long been indifferent to the records and archives that serve as fundamental infrastructure to keep the governance of society transparent and accountable. By examining those contradictory aspects of the attitudes toward records and archives in Japanese society, this book provides the key elements of management of critical information for a democratic society.

※ディスカッションに参加のIoB-Sメンバー 駒村圭吾、大島義則、小久保智淳、斉藤邦史、酒井麻千子、数藤雅彦、成原慧、西村友海、福士珠美、松尾剛行、横大道聡