ABSTRACT
Employing the perspective of political sociology, this chapter unveils politics in the interplay between the state and the society that shaped and has been shaped by Japanese pacifism. It helps to grasp how public views are formulated and how they influence national policies and, conversely, how national policies affect public views. Japan's post-war politics were, at a deep level, wavering among conservative factions, while on the surface, a firm ground was laid by mainstream conservatives for achieving economic growth with limited armament. In the post-war regime, conservatives had, from time to time, exhibited tensions among themselves largely because of the undercurrents in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The revision of the Constitution of Japan remained in the LDP's platform, although seemingly it was not always an imminent political agenda. The chapter unveils the thinking of Japanese leaders and people in the post-war state vis-a-vis the changing international and regional environments.
