Japanese Nation Research Articles

Family, State, Family-state

Maruyama Masao (1914–1996) became a leading figure of post-war Japanese democratization with the publication of his essay “Theory and Psychology of Ultra-Nationalism” (1946). The idea of kokutai was central to his interpretation of ultra-nationalism as a concept that connected ‘nationalistic’ ideas of the late Tokugawa period with the imperialist propaganda of the 1930s. This concept was linked with the millennia-old Chinese notion of the ruler as the ‘father’ of the people in a land that is an extension of the family (jia). In Japan, however, the connection between the family (kazoku) and the nation(state) (kokka) was based on the imperial linage that upheld the blood-relation between the tennō and the deities. In the present paper, I will examine Maruyama’s interpretation of the role of the family in Japanese ultra-nationalism on the basis of his studies “The Ideology and Dynamics of Japanese Fascism” (1948) and “Nationalism in Japan: Its Theoretical Background and Prospects” (1951) (in Thought and Behavior in Modern Japanese Politics, 1956; in English, 1963), linking these essays with Maruyama’s war-time studies on the Tokugawa era. I will show that the elements on which Maruyama focused his analysis of the ‘family-state’ (kazokukokka) are those features of Japanese nationalism that he had already detected in his war-year studies; that is, features in which he saw the preservation of the Tokugawa social structure of hōkensei. I will argue that this social structure was understood by Maruyama as a power structure in which the ‘transfer of oppression’ is possible due to the decentralized, i.e., family-like character of social relationships.

Imperialist Multispecies Aspirations

Humanities and social science scholars have recently turned their attention to the embeddedness of microbes in human life as a potential way to decentre the human and thereby decolonise assumptions about the human conquest of the natural world. In this article, I argue that, before such claims can be made, careful historical, regional, and ethnographic analyses of human-microbe relations are needed. My case study of a Japanese sustainable development, agricultural, and environmental NGO shows that human attunement to microbes is not necessarily decolonial in the context of Japan’s modern history. In fact, discourses of human openness to microbial life find affinity with Japanese nationalism and imperialism. Through my analysis, I contribute to scholarship that reveals how environmental visions link up with conservative and right-wing politics.

中日“西厢故事”中才子形象的对比考察

The word “Gifted scholar” riginated from Chinese literature During the exchange of Chinese culture with East Asian countries, “Gifted scholar” was absorbed by Japan, which was influenced by Chinese culture, and became a synonym for the hero in Japanese romance novels. As an imitative work of the Chinese Yuan drama “The Romance of the West Chamber”, the Japanese Chinese-character novels “The Romance of Happy Couple ” has both similarities and differences with the Image of Gifted scholar in the Story of “The Romance of the West Chamber”. Based on text analysis, this paper will sort out the content about the image of the gifted scholar in the Chinese and Japanese “The Story of the West Chamber”, highlight the different aspects of the image of the gifted scholar in the two works, and focus on exploring the reasons for this difference. The Japanese writer Miki Aika was influenced by Chinese Confucian culture. The male protagonist in “The Romance of Happy Couple” inherited the image of talented scholar who combines talent, amorous feeling and appearance from “The Romance of the West Chamber”. On the other hand, due to the cultural characteristics of the Japanese nation and the development of the Meiji Restoration, the image of the gifted scholar in Japan's “The Story of the West Chamber” has changed again. By examining and comparing the image of the gifted scholar in Chinese and Japanese “The Story of the West Chamber”, this paper explains that although the external image of the hero in the <The Romance of Happy Couple> is similar to that of the Chinese gifted scholar, his inner core characteristics still contain Japan’s national character and contemporaneity.

The Origin of The Formation of Modern Japanese Nationalism

Nationalism is a complex and profound subject, with each country and region having its own characteristics. As a unique facet of East Asian civilization, modern Japanese nationalism exhibits traits such as homogeneity and independence, a strong spirit of groupism, a pronounced sense of inferiority, and islandism. In modern times, particularly among Japanese reformers facing internal and external challenges, there was a proactive exploration and adaptation of western theories. This fusion, along with the essence of “Japanese spirit”, gave rise to nationalism with distinct Japanese characteristics. Japan’s journey towards developing this unique form of nationalism resulted in its transformation into the first modern nation-state in East Asia society, marking a profound political and social reforms. The study of modern Japanese nationalism holds great significance for the broader understanding of nationalism, shedding light on how unique cultural, historical, and geopolitical factors can shape a nation’s identity and policies.

Reflection of the Japanese Consciousness and Worldview in the Context of Globalization in the Novels of Haruki Murakami.

Contemporary literature encompasses not only works but also culture, defining the processes of the past preserved in the memory of posterity. Haruki Murakami influenced the shaping of this modern culture to a great extent. The research purpose is to investigate the phenomenon of Haruki Murakami analysing the components of the collective and individual consciousness of the Japanese nation in his fiction. At the methodological level, the following methods of analyzing literary phenomena were used in the training to solve the set tasks: hermeneutic interpretation and sociological method. The research reveals the main features of the urban world of the Japanese society portraying it in progress (from the post-war period to the present moment). The evolution process is portrayed as detachment, independence and solitude. The literary factors reflect both internal spiritual relations and global intercultural links. At the same time, the writer portrays Japan as a country experiencing technological and informational progress, thereby declaring that it is ready to accept and participate in the world changes and become a part of the globalisation process. The writer has made a great contribution to the treasury of Japanese literature and his works are considered an important part of the intercultural interactions between countries they are trying to achieve in a global world. The results close the theoretical and empirical gaps in the literature and literary criticism and contribute to the analysis of the cultural and literary traditions of Japan.

Kritik Sosial Natsume Soseki dalam Novel Bocchan

This research aims to reveal Natsume Soseki's attitudes and views in the form of social criticism regarding the phenomenon of social deviation in Japanese society due to the Meiji Restoration (1868-1912) in his novel, Bocchan. Social problems often arise in modern societies, including what happened in Japan during modernization from 1868-1912, called the Meiji Restoration. These social problems include social and cultural dislocation due to the penetration of dominant Western culture and the marginal position of traditional elements, especially in the second decade of the early Meiji era, when Japan aggressively adopted Western culture on a large scale. This social phenomenon can be seen from the decline in Japanese society's appreciation for traditional social and cultural values while simultaneously placing Western culture in a superior position. The theory used in this research is Alan Swingewood's Literary Sociology theory. Through this theory, we will analyze the influence of Natsume Soseki's social background as the author of the novel Bocchan, as well as his ideological tendencies in responding to the symptoms of social deviation in Japanese society (1868-1912), which became the background for the creation of the novel Bocchan. After that, it will be analyzed to what extent the novel Bocchan can reflect social phenomena. The analysis was done by connecting the social aspects of the novel with the historical, social reality that was the background for its creation, namely Japanese society during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Next, the author will see what social criticism is depicted in the novel. The results of the research show that the novel Bocchan describes Natsume Soseki's social criticism of the phenomenon of socio-cultural dislocation in Japanese society due to Westernization during the Meiji era, as well as the problems of a group of people who persist with old habits in the condition of the Japanese nation which is changing towards a developed and modern country.

An Imagined Shrinking Community: Japanese Nationalism and The Chronology of the Future

ABSTRACT How should we understand the relationship between nationalism and discourses of national decline, and more specifically the discourses of a shrinking nation? Driven by this question, this article highlights how bleak imaginings of the future also work to construct the relationship of the individual to the putative national community, creating forms of sentimental national belonging. This article analyses an emerging genre of best-selling books in Japan, Mirai no nenpyō [The chronology of the future] series, that present a dismal vision of Japan’s national demographic future. Their goal is to provoke a sense of national urgency by encouraging Japanese nationals to feel personally the shrinking nation through imagining its coming consequences for everyday life. Such narrations of an imagined shrinking community act to create a timeless sense of national belonging, with daily lived experience in the imagined future interpreted through the lens of the contracting nation. Importantly, the future that these discourses present is nationalized within boundaries separating it from global developments and intercourse. Ultimately, this form of nationalism is constituted not by dying for the nation, but instead by people seeing the continued stability of everyday life as intricately tied to the fate of the national community.

JAPANESE GARDENS: FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO PUBLIC SPACES OF THE MEIJI ERA

Gardens in Japan appeared in the 7th century AD and were formed in accordance with Chinese geomantic ideas. They were not intended for aesthetic admiration and had primarily a utilitarian function: protecting the owner of the house from harmful environmental influences (evil spirits). This function was ensured by the “correct” arrangement of stones and the “correct” arrangement of water flows. These rules were formulated in the first treatise on garden art that has come down to us, “Sakuteiki” (“Records on the Arrangement of Gardens”), which was written by Tachibana no Toshitsuna (1028–1094). To avoid curse from other people, the garden plan was kept secret and known only to the owner. During the Tokugawa period (1603–1867), princes (daimyo) began to establish huge gardens, which served as an indicator of their power. Strangers were not allowed inside, but these gardens acquired an aesthetic function, as demonstrated by the example of the Rikugien Garden in Edo. After the Meiji Revolution, the class organization of society was abolished and the goal of creating a unified Japanese nation was posed. The establishment of gardens of a new public (Western) type was supposed to serve to attain this goal. All types of former gardens were models of ideal nature; public gardens were designed to model state values. Using the example of the Ueno Garden, it is shown that public gardens were a specific space where the authorities demonstrated to the Japanese the value picture of a “modern” imperial-type state.

МІЖНАРОДНИЙ ТУРИЗМ ЯПОНІЇ ПОЧАТКУ ХХI СТОЛІТТЯ

Object. Investigation of the main factors of Japans success on the international tourism market on the XXI century. Methodic. Analysis of: tourism enterprise private corporate groups activity on the international tourism business and functioning of hotels chains; illustrating the harmonious influence of national culture and mentality on the international tourism and importance of use of Economic Power and Soft Power on the international traveling making. Results. Comprehend that: "break through" of Japan on the world international tourism market are providing a) by action of strong private corporate groups (KEIRETSU – tipe), b) and accomodation - by the hotels chains based mainly on the national capital. At that, main attractivity factors for the foreign visitors - is an culture and mentality of Japanese nation and the image of harmoniously formed regional tourism destinations of the Japanese country. Novelties. First time. Investigated specific action of "East-Asian model of economy" on the case of international tourism. Significance. Experience of Japan on international tourism business organization must take into consideration on the making international tourism business in Ukraine .

What does it mean to be a Christian nationalist in Meiji Japan?: Religion, nationalism and the state

ABSTRACT The article aims to better understand Christian nationalism by investigating the cases of Uchimura Kanzō and Nitobe Inazō, two well-known Christians of Meiji Japan. In Meiji Japan, Christianity was a recently re-introduced and foreign faith which was not aligned with the Japanese way of life. However, both Uchimura and Nitobe converted to Christianity in their youth and dedicated their life to the development of Japan. The article investigates what made this possible. It pays particular attention to the relationship between politics and religion and the Meiji government’s attempts to adopt the western view of the relationship to the nascent Japanese state. It argues that the invention of state Shintō as a non-religion but an indispensable part of the Japanese polity by the Meiji government created space where Christian faith and Japanese nationalism could co-exist, the space which was increasingly squeezed as Meiji turned to Taishō and then to Shōwa.

The Politics of Pure Experience

In this contribution, I shall attempt to clearly work out the political implications of Nishida Kitaro’s theory of pure experience in An Inquiry into the Good. This effort comes in response to the multitude of vastly different claims about the political meaning and dangers of Nishida’s early philosophy. Is it an implicit foundation for Japanese nationalism and the seeds of the controversial political philosophy he would work out later? Or is it a subtle attempt to critique the nationalist philosophy and educational policies surrounding Nishida while he was writing in the Meiji era? Or, perhaps most obviously, is this work unconnected with any and all political matters (including those that Nishida would face later on in his life)? In this paper, I shall argue that, although there is good reason to endorse any of these claims, ultimately a balanced assessment will find that Nishida’s early philosophy was indeed apolitical in nature, and that attempts to claim the contrary inevitably either go beyond textual evidence or miss key elements of his thought. Yet, as I shall further argue, being apolitical hardly means that Nishida’s work has no political consequences. Instead, for better or worse, the defining characteristic of Nishida’s early political philosophy is its capacity to allow readers to transcend such political issues.

Analisis Semiologi Roland Barthes pada Teks Lirik Lagu Nanatsu no Ko Karya Noguchi Ujo

Examining literary texts, especially poetry or song lyrics, is generally always related to the problem of meaning. This is a natural thing because poetry is always conveyed in indirect language. Nevertheless, poetry research should understand more than just the meaning of poetry; more critical is how to manage understanding, imagination, and the role of the plurality of texts in uncovering its significance. This research is in line with that. Namely, it aims to examine the significance and appreciation of the lyrical text of a children's song entitled Nanatsu no Ko by Noguchi Ujo. This study uses the text semiology approach or textual narrative analysis proposed by Roland Barthes. The data analysed is the Lexia, the units of reading that comprise the entire text. The lexias have been determined and then analysed using five narrative codes: hermeneutic, proaretic, semic, symbolic, and references codes. This study also uses significance analysis (denotation and connotation) to understand the semic code and connotation of the text. The results of this study found that the significance of the text is a message of criticism about the author's disappointment with Japan's modernisation policy which abandoned the original identity of the Japanese nation. This significance is obtained through the analysis of narrative codes which show the role of plural texts, even though they are conveyed in the form of children's song lyrics, with simple and easy-to-understand diction and arrangement.

Plato in East Asia?

Shadi Bartsch in her recent publication Plato goes to China (2023) has argued that Plato and the Greek classics have had an out-sized impact on Chinese politics and intelligentsia. This article, while sympathetic to her approach, argues that there is little evidence that Plato and the Greek Classics have exerted any direct influence on Chinese politics. Rather it argues that what influence Plato has had on China is actually indirect via a pre-war national socialist Japanese filter. In pre-World War II Japan Plato was fetishized as the ancient source of western socialist and communist thinking. Radical extremists such as Kita Ikki and Kanokogi Kazunobu created a new ideology that mingled aspects of Platonism with socialism and Japanese nationalism. They hoped thereby to create a modern-day Platonic utopia for the East Asian races (and for the Japanese in particular). This article examines how this modern-day “version” of Platonism with “Asian” characteristics impacted on pre-war Japan and modern East Asia as a whole.

Exploring transterranean activism as a research site beyond local protest sites

Increased interest in the spatial dimension of protests and activism has led to both the material spatial condition of protest activities and their spatial effect entering academic debate. With Social Movements being a dominant paradigm for activism which focuses on strategic localization and scalar tactics, an emphasis has been put on political activities in proximity to either centralized power or to actor communities and networks. On the fringes of Social Movements, however, smaller types of direct action have been emerging in places outside of conventional, landed spaces. Chinese and Japanese nationalists symbolically contesting national authority over islands in the Pacific, Environmentalists blockading oil platforms in the North Sea, refugee rights groups preventing air-based deportations and nationalists attempting to prevent human rights groups from saving drowning migrants have in common that the site of their activities are beyond the traditional power base of the state on solid ground and make use of specific sets of laws and regulations. This paper argues that transterranean spaces encompass an interplay of state and non-state actors heavily impacted by their location. As these spaces exist beyond the mainland, they share a lack of presence of both state and society. Both state agencies and activists have to adapt their strategies during successive contentions. I conceptualize this relationship as contentious configurations shaping these interactions: Vertical Activist-State, horizontal activist-activist and interconnected state-state contentious configurations. They serve as heuristic tool to analyze protest dynamics in transterranean spaces by highlighting both state power and actor’s engagement with it. With technological advancements and increased access to transterranean, such contentions are likely to increase.

The Other Japan: Back to Japan’s Religious Roots for a New Japanese Nationalism?

The purpose of this article is first to elucidate the nature and worldview of theideology of pre–World War II Japan that inspired the Japanese elite to embark on global conquest and that mobilized the Japanese masses to fight to the death even after the dropping of the atomic bombs. Second, the aim is to examine how this ideology first emerged in the Meiji period and how it came to dominate Japanese politics until the end of the war. Third, it will illustrate not only what has survived of this form of ultranationalism in the postwar period, identifying the ideas of core thinkers and organizations, but it will also examine the emergence of different, or perhaps more moderate, forms of Japanese nationalism, pinpointing their key ideas and describing their visions for a future Japan. Finally, I will attempt to shed light on the historical forces and scenarios that might return Japanese ultranationalists to the center of political influence and power in the Japanese state and overturn Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution and noninterventionist military foreign policy.

Ikebukuro Montparnasse: an avant-garde community in the era of Taishō democracy

This article examines cross-national, geographical analogizing through the under-theorized example of an artist colony in Japan nicknamed the “Ikebukuro Montparnasse” (a title coined by the poet Hideo Oguma, 1901–40). Located in the Toshima Ward of Ikebukuro district, Tokyo, this community flourished in the 1930s and housed mostly young, impoverished painters and sculptors, evoking the Montparnasse area of Paris. The analogy with Montparnasse is significant for several reasons. First, the concept of an “artist’s village” was just being introduced to Japan during this time, and the Ikebukuro quarter exemplified this trend. Second, at the height of Japanese nationalism, the Ikebukuro Montparnasse had an anti-establishment reputation, partly linked to the ideal of Parisian bohemianism. Artworld analogies can be sharply political. Many of the artists and poets in this community were criticized as hikokumin, “those who failed to support the country,” during wartime. This study also elucidates what I see as a partial turn from Sinophilism to Francophilism in the modern Japanese art world. Overall, I demonstrate how becoming involved in a community seen as Tokyo’s answer to Montparnasse was a way for Japanese modernists to forge a new collective identity.

A Restoration that Never Became a Revolution: The Meiji Restoration as a Rebuilder of Japanese Conservative Nationalism

The Meiji Restoration has traditionally been described as an event that ushered in great economic and technological progress, accompanied by rapid governmental bureaucratization and industrialization. Contrary to this view, the fact that progressive development served as a means to restore Japanese nationalism critically explains why the Restoration cannot be called a revolution. In this study, I will argue that the Restoration was no more than a restoration because beneath the veneer of pursuing rapid industrialization to keep up with the West, it had the deeper aim to restore Japanese conservative nationalism. More specifically, the restoration of the authority of the imperial throne as the core of nationalism or kokutai was aimed at the restoration of national pride after Commodore Matthew Perry’s gunboat diplomacy, an ideal cherished by politicians and citizens alike. Economic and technological advancements and the recuperation of imperial authority were means through which the rebuilding of a conservative spiritual nationalism was to be accomplished as the ultimate goal. In other words, the Meiji Restoration was a societal reconstruction program initiated from above and supported by the Japanese public to re-establish Japanese conservative nationalism through rapid material advancement and the return of the monarch as a symbolic figurehead.

A Journey through Colonial Sakhalin ：Iwaya Sazanami’s Experience in Sakhalin

Iwaya Sazanami(1870-1933) was a prominent figure in modern Japanese children’s literature. He traveled to the colonial Sakhalin one time in his life, the main purpose of this journey being to give oral presentations of fairy tales to children in Sakhalin. He energetically traveled the colony, including Toyohara (currently Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk), Ōdomari (Korsakov), Shirutoru (Makarov), Noda (Chekhov) and Maoka (Kholmsk).However, regarding Sazanami’s visit to Sakhalin, as far as I know, there is no previous research. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of experience Sazanami had in Sakhalin under Japanese rule, and the essence of the literature(Haiku), political ideology(His view of Sakhalin and the Ainu people) he formed there.In conclusion, Sazanami was a hardcore imperialist, colonialist and nationalist who was delighted to have won the territorial struggle with Russia, the enemy country, and made Sakhalin his own. And he strongly hoped that Sakhalin and the Ainu would be included and integrated as part of the Japanese nation and people, and that Sakhalin would achieve further civilizational development in the future.

THE ROLE AND ADAPTATION OF LOANWORDS IN JAPANESE

The article is devoted to the origin, causes and degree of development of loanwords into the Japanese language from other languages throughout the history of the formation of the cultural identity of the Japanese nation. The first and most ancient loanwords are words and phrases from the ancient language of the Ainu peoples. The original Japanese language wago, a significant cultural layer of words of Chinese origin kango, foreign loanwords gairaigo and wasei gairaigo are described. Direct and indirect loanwords came from the Dutch, German, Swedish, Russian languages. The lexical layer of the most significant proportion of modern loanwords from English and American languages, which have a significant impact on the development and variability of the modern Japanese language, is considered. Examples of synonyms in the style of wago, kango and gairaigo are given. An assessment is given of the transformation of anglicisms in the means of telecommunications and Japanese mass culture in the era of globalization.

A process-sociology analysis of religious practices and Japanese martial arts

This paper uses primary and secondary sources to provide a process-sociological analysis of the relationship between religious practices and Japanese martial arts. It problematises the taken for granted role of Zen Buddhism as the sole influence on the development of Japanese martial arts. Such essential connection is inaccurate and anachronistic. Religious and martial practices developed as part of processes of sociogenesis (state formation) and psychogenesis (habitus) during three different key stages: (1) Medieval Japan (1185-1600): during this stage, warriors (bushi) progressively became the predominant rulers across the country, enforcing law by sheer force. Warriors seasoned in combat used esoteric practices (spells, magic rituals) as part of their psychological arsenal for warfare, as practical means of action. The cult of the Buddhist deity Marishiten held special interest for the bushi originating martial traditions (ryu). (2) Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1848): the pacification of the country by the central military court implied a more detached approach to martial arts by samurai. Within this milieu, the samurai acted as a retainer/bureaucrat whose main mission was to keep order in a stratified society and to serve his lord, something that Zen practices helped to incorporate in the samurai ethos. (3) Early Showa period (1926-1945): this stage featured a progressive militarisation of people and the instigation of a strong involvement towards the Japanese nation, considered as the main (symbolic) survival unit. Budo (martial arts) was connected to shinto (functioning as a ‘state religion’) and embodied the imperial bushido message. Zen provided a legitimation of violence for citizen-soldiers with a personality structure that presented self-doubts on killing someone and fear of being killed.