Civics - Constitution and Fundamental Human Rights
What gets tested
The 日本国憲法 and its three principles - 国民主権, 基本的人権の尊重, 平和主義 - plus the ability to classify a concrete situation under the right article.
The architecture
- 天皇 is the 象徴 of the state (Article 1); sovereignty rests with the people.
- Article 9 renounces war and forbids maintaining 戦力 with no 交戦権.
- 基本的人権 divides into 平等権 (14条), 自由権 (精神・身体・経済), 社会権 (25条 生存権, 26条 教育, 27条 勤労, 28条 労働三権), 参政権, and 請求権 (16条 請願, 17条 国家賠償, 31条 法定手続, 32条 裁判を受ける権利).
- Rights are limited by 公共の福祉 (12条, 13条); newer rights such as 知る権利, プライバシー, 環境権 and 自己決定権 are argued from Article 13.
- The Constitution is 硬性: amendment needs two-thirds of each house plus a national referendum majority (96条), and it is 最高法規 (98条).
Worked example
A prefectural office orders a publisher to delete a passage criticising the governor before printing. Reasoning: this is prior restraint on expression, so 21条 (表現の自由, 検閲の禁止) applies. The restriction must be justified by 公共の福祉 and tested for necessity and proportionality. Because it targets the content of criticism of a public official, it fails that test - the correct answer is that the order violates Article 21, not Article 14.
Traps that cost marks
Calling 労働三権 a 社会権 while listing 勤労の権利 as a 自由権; filing 請願権 under 参政権 instead of 請求権; saying rights are unlimited except by law rather than by 公共の福祉; treating the 96条 threshold as a simple majority in the Diet.