Japanese National Identity Research Articles

The Effects of Japanese Language Learning and Transnational Mobility on the Japanese Identities of Four Brazilian Nikkei

ABSTRACT Brazil was the largest recipient of Japanese emigrants from 1885 to 1973. After changes in Japanese immigration law in 1990, many descendants of these emigrants, referred to as Nikkei, went to Japan to live and work under a new visa program designed specifically for Nikkei. This qualitative research examines how transnational mobility and Japanese language learning has affected the Japanese identities of four Brazilian Nikkei. Positioning theory was used to analyze the narrative accounts of the participants. It was found that mobility to Japan did not foster a sense of Japanese national identity, and in once case seemed to produce the opposite effect. Additionally, although Japanese language learning and fluency increased connections to Japanese culture and seemed to influence the participants’ personalities, it did not result in identification of Japanese national identity. Possible factors that may have contributed to these results are included in the discussion, as well as areas for further research.

Railways as Japanese identity: Riding between confidence and inexperience

ABSTRACT Does railway technology represent Japanese national identity? This paper focuses on the narratives indicating railway technology as a form of Japanese national identity representation. Using Japanese government pronouncements and interviews given by people involved in the Japanese railway supply industry appearing in Japanese vernaculars, I show that railway technology constitutes an integral component of the contemporary Japanese identity narrative, which has been built up through a particular technopolitical regime. These narratives consistently refer to the purported safety, reliability, and punctuality of Japanese railways as one manifestation of the high-quality technological skills underpinning Japanese identity construction. However, the narratives also reveal an inherent irony, whereby the confident Japanese Self at once reveals a countervailing, inexperienced Japanese Self, in which the Japanese railway technopolitical regime realizes that its own domestic strength has resulted in a lack of international experience compared to its European, and increasingly Chinese, rivals. I conclude by suggesting that the Japanese railway identity follows a complex construct involving a confident Self in contradistinction to an inexperienced Self both reproduced in opposition to the European and Chinese Other.

The Construction of National Identity Contributed by Sports in Japanese Modernization--The Comparative Analysis of Baseball and Kendo

In the progress of modernization, Japan experienced massive changes in society and culture, and the development of athletic sports was one significant factor that influenced the construction of national identity after Meiji Restoration. This work uses the methodology of comparative analysis and case study of baseball and kendo to discuss the different pathways of national identity construction. In this work, the development of baseball and kendo is first introduced respectively, then the significance of the two sports in a historical context is discussed with reference to the interdisciplinary concept of invented tradition and cultural reproduction, and finally the similarities and differences between the two sports role in Japanese national identity construction are discussed. The work concludes that the pathway of national identity construction is not constrained by specific factors of a sport.

Small is Beautiful: Japanese Aesthetic Consciousness in the Animated Adaptation of The Borrowers

ABSTRACT British writer Mary Norton’s well-known novel The Borrowers was successfully adapted into the Japanese animated film Arrietty the Borrower (Karigurashi no Arrietty), rewritten by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. This paper aims to explore the phenomenon of cross-cultural adaptation in which a British novel is made to represent Japanese aesthetic values. The article argues that the animated film is deeply influenced by the concept and practice of miniaturisation, as well as the aesthetic characteristics of “small is beautiful,” which is part of Japanese national identity. The author of the paper tries to describe how this aesthetic consciousness is reflected in the animated film in the following three aspects: the miniaturised ecological environment, the miniaturised life scenes, and the miniaturised narrative space.

Constructions of Japanese national identity: Host views using a social markers of acceptance framework

Social markers of acceptance (SMA) are socially constructed criteria (e.g., language skills, shared genealogy, or adherence to social norms) that receiving society nationals use in deciding whether to view an immigrant as a member of the national ingroup. This study had two objectives: 1. to identify the markers considered important by Japanese to accept immigrants in Japanese society, and 2. to examine the type of intergroup conditions that may shape immigrant inclusion by influencing the degree of emphasis placed on SMA: specifically, perceived immigrant threat, contribution, and social status, as well as intergroup boundary permeability and strength of national identification. Native-born Japanese (n = 2000) completed an online survey, where two latent factors emerged representing ethnic and civic markers—suggesting that national identity may have changed in the past 25 years, with Japanese developing a distinct civic conceptualization in addition to a previously existing ethnic one. Multiple hierarchical regressions found significant main effects of perceived immigrant threat, contribution, status, and boundary permeability for both civic and ethnic dimensions, as well as interactions between threat x status and threat x permeability. As hypothesized, threat had positive effects on SMA emphasis, and contribution exerted negative effects—indicating more exclusive and inclusive attitudes among Japanese, respectively. Results for national identity were inconsistent, complementing social identity theory for ethnic markers but contradicting it for civic marker importance. Consistent with social identity theory, immigrants perceived as “low status” triggered endorsement of more restrictive civic and ethnic benchmarks; however, contrary to expectations, increased threat under less porous intergroup boundaries predicted more restrictive civic and ethnic marker utilization.

ГОЛОСА ЯПОНСКИХ ДЕТЕЙ В СОВЕТСКОЙ ДЕТСКОЙ ПЕРИОДИЧЕСКОЙ ПЕЧАТИ

The article reviews the history of publications in the Soviet children’s periodicals (Pionerskaya Pravda (“Pioneer Truth”), Pioneer (“Pioneer”), Koster (“Bonfire”), etc.) of drawings, letters and artistic texts created by Japanese children. Mention is made of articles by Japanese specialists in children’s art education published in the journal Detskaya literatura (“Children’s Literature”). The main body of publications is identified; letters, stories and poems are cited, drawings and engravings are described. The materials are covered in chronological order and considered in the context of Soviet-Japanese relations. Their themes are compared with the image of Japan that was relevant in the USSR in the corresponding period. The material makes it possible to trace how the ideological factor influenced the formation of the image of Japan in Soviet periodicals for children. During Thaw, the letters contain elements of the image of Japan that are inherent in the official Soviet Cold War discourse: social problems after World War II, remilitarization, US military aggression, the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, anti-nuclear and anti-American struggle, Japanese national identity. Since the 1970s, these topics have disappeared from the letters of Japanese children, replaced by a benevolent interest in the USSR, almost devoid of an ideological component.

Can They Call Japan Home? Japanese Nationalism and Unskilled Labour Immigrants

Japan is currently facing a demographic crisis with a labour population that remains exclusive against immigrants. Japanese national identity, based on homogeneity of race and culture, has informed immigration policy. While the Technical Intern Trainees Program (TITP) provides an immigrant labour supply in the primary sector of industry, it has been criticized as a human trafficking system under the guise of international development. In 2019, the government introduced a new visa status called Specified Skilled Workers (SSW), allowing the possibility of legitimised settlement in Japan for immigrant workers and their families. This historical shift enables those in the TITP to extend their working period with a legal transition to SSW. Nevertheless, there are concerns that SSW may share similar problems with TITP. Consequently, although SSW represents a major shift in immigration policy, it does not necessarily represent a change in the government’s fundamental stance and attitude towards unskilled labour immigrants. This paper therefore aims to further examine current attitudes in immigration policy to determine whether unskilled labour immigrants can call Japan home.

Jamato Takeru - japanski junak između mita i istorije

Yamato Takeru is one of the most famous Japanese heroes. He has a carefully chosen name, which connects him with the state of Yamato, the predecessor of today's Japan. He is characterized by all the features of a mythical hero: courage, strength and ingenuity, but mythological story includes also fairy-tale motifs such as a miraculous sword, helpers, disguise, falling in love, and finally, supernatural death due to encounter with a numinous force. The oldest variants of the myth about this fearless warrior we can find in the first Japanese historical chronicles (8th century). Adding certain elements to the common ground and combining them in accordance with their own narrative aspirations, these texts gave their own recognizable variants of the myth of Yamato Takeru, which were a clear reflection of the ideology of the time. Regardless of the differences, these variants describe the achievements of Yamato Takeru as a key turning point, because in that semi-historical time that is also the beginning of national consolidation. By "calming and subduing" western and Eastern countries, he contributed to increasing the territory under imperial rule and strengthening the authority of the Yamato court. In the following centuries, new variants of the myth about this hero were created on these bases. Some are focused on territorial conquests and spreading of the influence of the imperial government, while the miraculous events related to the Kusanagi sword were more important to the others. Recently, Yamato Takeru has been used, in the same way as the other national icons, to create and highlight Japanese national identity, especially when it came to inspiring the people to selflessly lay down their lives for the country and the emperor.

Dangun study by Japanese

The purpose of this study was to empirically elucidate research on Dangun in modern Japanese and provide a comprehensive view of its characteristics. The study referred to the document collection Japanese Dangun Research, provided by the Hongik Foundation in the Korea‒Japan Joint Study to Establish the Histories of Dangun/Ancient Korea and East Asia supervised by the foundation. Specifically, the essential points of the 18 Dangun studies noted in the collection were analyzed. Subsequently, the characteristics of the respective studies were examined while taking into account the backgrounds and careers of the 14 Japanese authors of the papers. Finally, the perspective of historiography was also considered, noting how Japanese research on Dangun was influenced by Japanese national identity, which was abruptly formed in modern Japan.

Katakana and Japanese National Identity. The Use of Katakana for Japanese Names and Expressions

This paper examines Japanese names and expressions written using katakana in the contemporary Japanese media and their relation to Japanese national identity. In modern Japanese, katakana is normally used for Western loanwords as well as certain mimetics and phonetic annotations. However, it is observed that today some Japanese words are also written in katakana. They include place names associated with past tragedies such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki, or Fukushima, as well as names and expressions associated with internationally renowned Japanese culture such as Kurosawa, Kitano, Murakami, samurai, etc. The use of katakana for these words reflects the awareness of the Japanese that they are known to the world outside Japan. Such words are treated as if they were ‘re-imported’ to Japan following their acceptance as loanwords abroad. It also involves a change in perception of certain historical events or cultural products from something seen and discussed within Japan to something that is exposed to external eyes. In other words, when the script type is shifted to katakana, the gaze looking at Japan from within is replaced by a gaze looking at Japan from without. This shift is important in understanding the current dynamics of Japanese identity negotiation. Drawing on media accounts, the paper will analyse recurrent wordings in the news media to reveal: 1) the types and characteristics of Japanese words and expressions written in katakana, 2) how those specific words are associated with Japanese national consciousness and 3) images of Japanese identity suggested by the use of katakana. It will be argued that Japanese words in katakana represent images that the Japanese themselves project onto the eyes of the external world. Through the examination of the primary data extracted from media sources, the ultimate goal of the paper is to contribute to the understanding of Japanese national identity and its representation in contemporary media.

REPRESENTATIONS OF FOREIGNERS AND JAPANESE NATIONAL IDENTITY AT THE 1964 OLYMPICS IN IDATEN

The 2020 Olympics are not Tokyo's first experience of hosting the Games. Previously, the city hosted the 1964 Olympics. This historical background generated nostalgia for the 1964 Olympics ahead of the 2020 Olympics. The 1964 Olympics are remembered for exposing Japanese society to various interactions with foreigners, which eventually provided the setting for expressions of Japanese national identity through comparisons between "us" (Japanese) and "them" (foreigners). In this sense, representations of foreigners, and their roles as essential elements of Japanese national identity discourse, have been the integral parts of 1964 Olympics nostalgia. Ahead of the 2020 Olympics, numerous popular culture forms depicting the 1964 Olympics were produced in Japan. One notable work was the television drama IDATEN Orimupikku Banashi (hereafter: IDATEN), broadcast by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) from January-December 2019. The drama depicted Japan's Olympic movement from the 1912 to 1964 Olympics and featured a wide variety of foreign characters. IDATEN's portrayal of the 1964 Olympics features not only foreign countries widely represented in Japanese popular culture, such as the US, but also less featured countries such as Indonesia and the Republic of the Congo. This article analyzes depictions of these three nations to examine critically the role of representations of foreigners in Japanese national identity discourse within the drama. It argues that as a drama produced ahead of the 2020 Olympics IDATEN signifies the aspirations of 21st century Japan rather than reflecting the actual situation during the 1964 Olympics, especially in how it portrays Japan through the country’s relations with other countries.

Ochrona zabytków archeologicznych w prawie japońskim

Protection of archaeological sites in Japanese law In popular perception Japan is often associated with cherry blossoms, the samurai, the geishas, rice fields and delicious ramen soup. However, each of these elements is relatively new. The country’s culture is rich and ancient, and the Japanese are very aware of their heritage and are eager to protect it. The Japanese government encourages universal public participation in supporting and appreciating artistic activities. The most important cultural goods are considered national treasures, which are particularly valuable to the world and to the Japanese nation. These can be works of art such as paintings, sculptures or architectural masterpieces, as well as other forms of artistic expression such as suiseki – art of artistic display of stones, chadō – tea ceremony, ikebana – flower arrangement, and even the artists themselves. The purpose of this article is to outline the Japanese heritage law with respect to protection of archaeological sites; the long history of the island nation means the Japanese archaeologists have plenty of sites to work on. Since 1945, archaeological research has become an important way of constructing the Japanese national identity. While the key goal of archeology in Japan is still about building national identity in relation to the past, there is a noticeable diversity in research goals and methodology used by the current generation of practicing archaeologists.

Japanese national identity and the positioning of English as opportunity or obstruction

ABSTRACT As an aspirational activity, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education is a compulsory pursuit within many education systems around the world. Common to many such contexts, EFL is taught in relation to a dominant national language and therefore exists within a marginal, non-official or non-native position. However, this domestic marginalization often misaligns with the economic significance, cultural prominence and symbolic capital attributed to English, and this is evident within Japan. Therefore, the teaching of EFL to Japanese nationals within pre-tertiary education can be expected to evoke certain identity-related emotions. Despite such plain sight observations, the affective role played by dimensions of national identity within EFL education remains understudied. Through a path-analysis procedure undertaken with a university student sample, this article explores how dimensions of Japanese national identity predict the positioning of EFL as opportunity or obstruction. The study also examines how this relationship is mediated by an emotional attachment to the local and the foreign language. The research reflects an interdisciplinary exploration of identity and its affective impact upon EFL positioning within contemporary Japanese society.

A Great Convergence: The Mass Killing of Chinese in the 1923 Kantō Massacre

ABSTRACT During the immediate aftermath of the Great Kantō Earthquake in 1923, a mass killing of Chinese immigrants took place at the same time as the historically more notorious Korean massacre. This Chinese lynching aroused great concern among high-ranking Taishō officials, for it could have ruined the Foreign Ministry’s effort to reduce anti-Japanese sentiment in North America. Meanwhile, the warlord governments and intellectuals in China defined the incident as a violation of Chinese national sovereignty, thus demanding apologies and compensation from the Japanese authorities. Complementing existing English-language studies of the Kantō Massacre, which pay little heed to the Chinese victims, this article not only examines the role of martial law, ethnic discrimination and exclusionist labor policies in provoking a post-earthquake lynching, but also probes the common ways the Japanese government and the Chinese public assessed this incident. It argues that the massacre encapsulated a great convergence of three historical trajectories: the construction of Japanese national identity, Korean and Chinese labor migration to Japan, and the subjugation of human life to sovereign power.

Contributions of National Identity and Personality to Foreign Language Communication and Contact Attitudes in Japan

ABSTRACT Language is one of the most critical factors in the formation and maintenance of national identities. Situated within the national context of Japan and drawing data from a population of 292 Japanese university students, this study departs with three objectives. First, the study assesses the contribution of Japanese national identity to criterion variables concerning foreign language communication and contact attitudes. Second, in order to better understand upon what grounds an individual might align themselves with different facets of national identity, the contribution made by the five-factor model of personality is examined. Finally, the contribution of the five-factor model of personality to the criterion variables concerning foreign language communication and contact attitudes is explored. The data reveals that national identity has a significant impact on foreign language communication and contact attitudes.

The Role of Language and the Significance of Primordialism in Nationalistic Rhetoric

Nihonjinron, the particularistic discourse on Japanese national identity, successfully dominates the Japanese panorama even now, thanks to the influence of academic and popular literature, mass media, Japan’s powerful cultural industry, politics, and a widespread, genuine interest in “Japaneseness” among the Japanese themselves. The works of professor Watanabe Shōichi represent an outstanding example of Nihonjinron literature and of its temporal continuity. From the second half of the 1970s until well into the 2000s, Watanabe has been surprisingly prolific in the nihonjinron field, enthusiastically propagating the establishment’s ideology. In this respect, his essays provide a significant insight into three main aspects of the Nihonjinron: the role of language as the highest expression of national identity; the existence of a widespread set of peculiar Japanese expressions conveying its ideological framework; its deep-rooted primordialist core. In the construction of a lexical and conceptual dichotomy between the stratum of the supposed “native lexicon” and that of “foreign loans” which compose the Japanese language and in the emphasis on the uniqueness of the Japanese language as a vehicle of Japanese primeval spirit, Watanabe shows the primordialist system of beliefs surrounding the concept of the “Japanese nation” (naturalness, organicity, continuity, timelessness, mythical-ness, sameness, perennial-ness) which firmly underlines the entire Japanese identity discourse.

УЧЕНИЕ ДЗЭН И ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ ИДЕОЛОГИЯ ЯПОНИИ ПЕРВОЙ ПОЛОВИНЫ ХХ ВЕКА

The paper considers the reinterpretation of the Zen doctrine in the form of New Buddhism represented by Rinzai and Sōtō schools in the context of Japan’s state ideology, which manifested itself in the conception of the Japanese national identity, kokutai . It turns out that Soyen Shaku (Rinzai), Kaiten Nukariya (Sōtō), Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki associated Buddhism with the bushido ethical code, one of the fundamental aspects of the kokutai conception. It is shown that the New Buddhism doctrine in its simplified form constituted the basis for 1941 Senjinkun military code where Zen Masters’ teachings were represented in a distorted form.

Nacionalismo y etnicidad en el Japón moderno: traducción e ideología a finales del siglo xix

The world is experiencing globalization rapidly and has become deeply interdependent. Nevertheless, we see an increasing awareness of nationalism and ethnicity all over the world. Nationalism and ethnicity are two different concepts. However, nationalism may not be dissociated from ethnicity; rather, it may develop in close association with ethnicity through the process of modernization. Japan’s modernization began with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which led to its transformation from a feudal society into a modern nation that drew on Western states as its model. This process involved a struggle to translate Western ideas, such as «nation» and «nationalism.» This paper focuses on the late 19th century which prompted the formation of a Japanese national identity and an upsurge in nationalism, and explores the ways that translation practices and ideological aspects of the period were interrelated to shape Japanese nationalism at that time.

The Olympics and Japanese national identity: Multi-layered otherness in Tokyo 2016 and 2020

ABSTRACTHow are Japanese identity narratives constructed in the Tokyo 2016 campaign and the Tokyo 2020 bid and organisation? The earlier narratives of Tokyo 1940 and 1964 bids entailed invoking Western Otherness to emphasise Japan’s Asian affinity while simultaneously emphasising Japan’s un-Asian characteristics, effectively employing dual Otherness to tell the story of Japanese Self. Tokyo’s position as a global city today means that Japanese Self is now constituted through multiple Otherness involving the West, Asia, as well as the primacy of Tokyo in opposition to the relative neglect of the periphery, constructing a more complex story of Otherness. There are concerns Tokyo is hoarding infrastructure investment ahead of Tokyo 2020, just as the regions affected by the March 2011 disasters require capital infusion, fuelling a sense of Tokyo versus the rest. Hence, on top of the residual dual Otherness that can still be witnessed, Tokyo 2020 grafts another layer of Otherness, this time at the domestic level. In this article, I explore identity narratives by policy elites and opinion leaders to show the complex nature of multi-layered Otherness in the Tokyo 2016 and 2020 bidding and organisation.

Repackaging national identity: Cool Japan and the resilience of Japanese identity narratives

ABSTRACT‘Cool Japan’ is an instance of Japanese government's nation branding exercise as part of its soft power projection in which the unique selling point is identified as Japanese national identity. In this paper, I examine the relationship between Cool Japan and Japanese national identity and highlight a tension in the construction. Cool Japan is about emphasizing Japan's attractiveness for public diplomacy, while the top-down nature of the branding undermines the imagery that the branding is designed to convey. I show that policy elites resolve this tension by invoking the traditional Japanese identity narratives that construct Japan into both a non-Western and an un-Asian entity, reproducing the myth of Japanese uniqueness. I argue that the elite narratives surrounding Cool Japan readily replicate the language reminiscent of prewar identity construction. Despite the contemporary popularity of manga and anime, the purported ‘coolness’ of these products are framed within older constructions of Japanese Self that can trace their pedigree back to the nineteenth century. Using the minutes of committee meetings, policy documents, as well as media interviews given by policy- and business elites, I show that Cool Japan is effectively a twenty first century rendition of the familiar Japanese identity construction.