Japan Association of Corporate Executives

Keizai Dōyūkai

Founded in 1946, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (経済同友会) is a private nonprofit organization for leaders in business. Their membership currently consists of nearly 1500 executives of around 1000 corporations; each member joins the association as an individual. According to their website, their goals include "improving the Japanese economic community and in seeking solutions for numerous domestic issues and ensuring the overall well-being of Japanese society."

The association founded a research commission on the constitution inside of the group that had its first meeting in 2001 and published reports in 2002 and 2003. The report states that the current constitution no longer conforms to today’s world. Dealing with foreign major disasters and terrorism, and maintaining the international order, will be essential to the protection of Japan’s prosperity and security; Japan should not hesitate to revise Article 9 in order to ensure national and global security and prosperity. The 2003 report proposes revising and discussing the constitution to: add Japanese cultural and spiritual values to the preamble; enable Japan to exercise its collective self-defense right; and recognize the importance of public communities which have been ignored by individual rights.