Whereas current planning literature has seldom mentioned the role of law and courts to define the public interest in planning, any policy decisions cannot be legitimised without complying with law and order in the modern state. Because planning in its nature has to mediate conflicts between different interests, the rule of law principle – discourse on law and order – considerably matters to identify the public interest in planning. However, this principle is not same across many nation-states, in particular between liberal Western states and late-developed democracies or communist/socialist states. This paper analysed how the public interest was constructed in Japan’s planning practice in the Developmental State, examining some of the most prominent planning litigation in post-war Japan
