Doctrines and Rents in Japan: A Comment on Professors Osuka and Nakamura

Abstract

Professors Akira Osuka and Mutsuo Nakamura provide two marvelously rich accounts of Japanese constitutional law.' Professor Osuka's history of Japanese poverty law, for example, and Professor Nakamura's story of the constitutional attacks on economic regulation seem exactly the type of studies we need. Yet their accounts are also a bit troubling: Together, they suggest that scholars may be missing the questions they should most ask, while courts may be missing the answers they should most give.