The Constitution of Japan of 1946 has been called a peace constitution since the period of its drafting because its most important fundamental value is peace. However, peace provisions are not unique and are common place in modern constitutions; therefore, there are many peace constitutions in the world. Japanese constitutional scholars have not defined the concept of a peace constitution but have conducted typologies of peace provisions of various constitutions; however, these typologies lack a historical and structural framework of comparison. The purpose of this study is to search for such a framework and redefine peace constitutions.

As a preliminary inquiry to achieve that purpose, this study will reconsider constitutional pacifism based on the redefinition of peace―negative and positive―in peace research, and will revisit the peace provisions of the American and Japanese Constitutions. Article 13 of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) is considered a prototype of a peace provision in the American Constitution. In the twentieth century, constitutional control of war powers has been a tremendous challenge for Americans. However, it should be emphasized that there have always been popular efforts to control the use of force in the form of constitutional lawsuits, although they have not been successful.

Of course, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution has been an issue: how to reconcile the contradiction between constitutional norms and the reality of the Self-Defense Forces, which have the sixth largest military budget in the world. One possible explanation of Article 9 is that it is similar to a Kantian regulative idea: it will not be achieved, but, as such, it will keep regulating reality in one direction.

This study also links feminist peace thoughts and constitutional peace provisions and considers the relationship between constitution making and peace in the process of post-conflict peacebuilding in the Global South. This study concludes by suggesting the necessity to consider global constitutionalism, or “global peace constitution,” when we observe the emergence of multilevel―local, national, regional, and global―political communities.