The function of the passive voice in the Japanese Constitution: Chapter I “The Emperor”

There is probably not a more challenging truce than one drafted between two nations whose language and culture differ so dramatically. Two such diametrically opposed concepts of reality were conjoined after Japan's 1945 unconditional surrender. In an effort to forge a democratic mirror image of the United States, the American Chief Commander, Douglas MacArthur, demanded that the Japanese government adopt his draft for a new Americanized Constitution. In this paper, the linguistic methodology of discourse analysis will be used to examine portions of MacArthur's draft as compared with its Japanese translation.

The focus of this paper is on one of the 11 chapters of the Constitution, Chapter I. “The Emperor.” This study illustrates how the Japanese version is very different from the English original in terms of sentence structures and their implication.

Of primary concern in this analysis are the differences between Japanese and English regarding the passive voice. From the variations examined, it becomes clear that the use of the passive voice with “the Emperor” as Patient in the semantic sense was not translatable from English to Japanese because it violated a traditional hierarchical viewpoint.

From the findings based on discourse analysis, this study uncovers tangible evidence for the claim that Japanese culture and thought permeates the translation of the source Constitution of MacArthur. In conclusion, this paper clearly demonstrates that the Japanese political structure, in avoiding full westernization, has facilitated the maintenance of traditional Japanese culture and thought.