The Right to Pursue Happiness and Japanese Legal Culture: the Hunting of the Snark?

If we were to accept the stereotypical, essentialist narrative about Japan as a country with a weak legal conscience, where duties prevail over rights, then the inevitable conclusion would be that the Jeffersonian aspiration to (individual) happiness has no place in the law of the land. This seems to be confirmed by court cases, where the kōfukutsuikyūken was never accepted as an autonomous right, but rather as a rhetorical-operational complement to the overall idea of fundamental rights and the right to self-determination. Scholars also agree, as it is very difficult to consider the right to purse happiness as selfstanding. The question is: is this because of ‘culture’? The answer is ‘probably not’.