The 1925 Peace Preservation Law: History and Legacy

The Japanese Peace Preservation Law (治安維持法) was enacted in 1925 with the aim of suppressing communist, socialist and anti-colonial movements, and became central to the ‘thought control’ apparatus of the Japanese state until its repeal in October 1945. 2025 marks the centenary of its’ enactment, and with a wave of new laws targeting ideas, speech, and protest being passed throughout the world, it is timely to reflect on the meaning of Japan’s Peace Preservation Law.

This event will consist of two round table sessions to explore both new directions in the historical on the Peace Preservation Law, as well as to consider its subsequent legacies. Each roundtable will begin with short remarks from our panelists, and then open to a wider discussion with an emphasis on audience participation and open-dialogue.


Session 1 History: 13:00- 14:30

Hagihara Atsushi (Kindai University)
“Parties, Associations, and the Peace Preservation Law: Drawing the Line of the Permissible”

Takada Kazuma (Doshisha University)
“The Transition to Wartime Regime and the Expansion of the Peace Preservation Law”

Jiang Zizheng (Kyoto University)
“The Paradox of External Universalism and Internal Exclusion: Japan’s Racial Equality Proposal at the Paris Peace Conference”

Mori Yasuo (Doshisha University)
“Rethinking Law and Order Under Total War”

Session 2 Legacy: 15:00-16:30

Hiroaki Matsutaka (Ritsumeikan University)
“Reconsidering the Peace Preservation Law from an Inter-Imperial Perspective”

Ariel Acosta (Waseda University)
“Teaching the Peace Preservation Law in a Time of Fascism”

Max Ward (Middlebury College)
“Thought Crimes in our Time”

Mahon Murphy (Kyoto University)
“The ‘Worst Law in History’ at 100”