

Nationalism in Japan

Beware the populists

Aided by a pandering press, a handful of nationalists can have a dangerous impact beyond Japan’s shores

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Readers' comments




There’s nothing wrong to have nationalism as a national mood.

But it’s alarming to see recent rise of Japanese nationalism because one can hardly distinguish the rise of Japanese nationalism with Japanese imperialism and militarism, or in such disguise.

There are several major reasons IMO for the recent rise of Japanese nationalism (read imperialism):

1. Upon Japan’s surrender at the end of WWII, Japan has been subject to de facto occupation or dominance of the US for far too long. Japanese have been too bottled up to entitle themselves the dignity of citizens a bona fide free nation would have offered.

Despite its miracle economic performance of the past, there is no let up to ever get out of the shadow of the big brother in Japanese nationhood. Such frustration is a perfect breeding environment for nationalism.

2. In its self appointed role as the police of the world, defender of freedom, and bulwark of Western democracy, the US is deemed justified for its near-permanent stationing of armed forces in Japan, from the cold war mentality before and now the China containment mindset.

Yet precisely for such rationale, the US has failed to educate Japanese people the present danger and the past devastation of Japanese imperialism and militarism throughout its long stay in Japan. Even encouraged such development with its rearming of Japan and with its tacit approval of such development.

Generation after generation, the world remembers and is repeatedly reminded WWII holocaust committed against Jewish people, but few knows the even more hideous war crimes and atrocities that caused 30 million civilian death in China. Young Japanese people simply don't know about such dark history of Japan because Japanese governmnt made a point not to talk about them. And the US made no visible effort to correct them.

3. Economically, Japan was never world’s top 3 or top 5 performer prior to WWII, yet after the war and as a defeated party, Japan somehow managed to surpass Germany and had become world’s No.2 economy in the process. No doubt Japan's dependency and special relationship with the US had helped, but the hard work of mass Japanese people made that happened.

Being No.2 did bolster Japanese self confidence, drained dry by its WWII surrender and humiliating long occupation that followed, even bloating it to the stretch of viewing China’s rise to No. 2 economy as hard to take, when in fact China’s rise over Japan is a very natural thing as it did hundreds years before. (Besides, China is still poorer than Japan.)

Japan should realize that, unlike in America where anti-China (read communist) sells in presidential election but with little consequence one way or the other the morning after, Japan's anti-China stance will not be taken lightly by the Chinese for historical reasons. And it won't be by the West either.

What's important and beneficial to Japan IMO is that Japanese politicians now should calm down the national phobia and hostility against Chinese that embody Japanese nationalism or imperialism of today, not fanning them.

Pacific Century

After ruthlessly pillaging its Asian neighbors (particularly China and Korea) for decades until the end of WWII, then gives a tiny portion of its gigantic “looted” wealth as aid (which are mostly low-interest loans to buy Japanese products & services instead of unconditional “free” hand-outs), and you call Japan "the most generous aid giver”?
Wow! I am speechless.
P.S. The most generous aid giver has always been the US, albeit with its sometimes hegemonic behaviors.


Are many in Asia, Chinese and Koreans in particular, justified to view Japan with suspicion?

Let's read what a foreign professor who teaches in Japan said:

Japanese officials have issued dozens of apologies and paid compensation to victims, but many in Asia question the depth of Japan’s sincerity and willingness to honestly examine its past.

It’s not hard to see why. Two Cabinet members defied recent practice this week and prayed at Yasukuni Shrine — where 14 convicted war criminals are enshrined along with millions of other war dead. Although the shrine is nominally nonpolitical, it supports a modern and well-funded war museum that claims, among other things, that President Franklin Roosevelt schemed to force Japan into attacking the U.S. and denies well-documented reports of imperial-army atrocities. An otherwise exhaustive museum in Hiroshima dedicated to the atomic bombing there in August 1945 provides little background or discussion of the war that preceded it.

M.G. Sheftall, a military historian and associate professor of culture and communication at Shizuoka University, says Japan is viewed with some suspicion in the region in part because it retained many of the trappings of its wartime identity and has avoided a wide discussion of the role of the imperial family during the war.

“They kept their flag. They kept the ‘Kimigayo’ [national anthem]. And they kept the Emperor, who in 1945 about 90% of the world wanted at the end of a rope,” says Sheftall. “It’s very hard for Japan to grab the moral high ground because they haven’t come to terms with their own history.”

If present-day Germany still hoists the flag of Third Reich and German students still sing the national anthem of the Third Reich while a museum in Berlin narrates that UK and France attacked Germany first, I bet Europeans will be more uneasy towards the resurgent Germany than many in Asia do towards Japan.

Pacific Century

Quote: “Last month Yoshihiko Noda, the prime minister, nationalized three of the islands, apparently to stop the incendiary Mr. Ishihara getting them first. Yet that nuance was lost on China, which also claims the islands.”
As a “supposedly prestigious” newspaper, I really wish The Economist could report the FACTS rather than parroting this “absurd and illogical excuse” like so many other ignorant Western media did.
The nationalization of the Diaoyu Islands by the Japanese government was NOT a stopgap measure to stop Ishiara’s provocative purchase and to stabilize the situation, but a long-term plan to gradually strengthen Japan’s de facto control and claims of the islands. The Japanese government had actually come up and discussed 8 different plans before the purchase of the Diaoyu Islands, which include:
A) To keep the status quo
B) To carry out environment protection measures on and around islands
C) To construct a lighthouse
D) To construct a dock
E) To conduct marine resources survey around the islands waters
F) ???
G) ???
H) To station Japan SDF troops on the islands
The Japanese government had also anticipated different reactions from China regarding these plans, in which it concluded “It is hard to foresee how strongly mainland China and Taiwan would oppose this if Plan H is to be implemented”.
(in English)
In short, the Japanese government’s “purchase” of the Diaoyu Islands was NOT an ad hoc decision, but a pre-planned and well-thought one.
However, Japan had over-estimated the US support and under-estimated China’s determination and reaction this time. As a result, its de facto control of the Diaoyu Islands has been compromised as China has now decided to patrol the Diaoyu Islands whenever it wants.


Can you imagine German politicians paying annual tribute to Nazi war dead in flamboyant shrine in Germany of 2012?
Germany is respected because they made full acknowledgement (6 millions Jews perished in the Holocaust), full restitution (surviving war victims are compensated) and full retribution (exercise of justice to the Nazi war criminals; they are still hunted down).
If Japan is truly a global defender of human rights and justice then look to Germany.
Japan's economic rise from the ashes of atomic bomb maybe largely contributed to hard work, diligence, cultural element of Japanese detail orientation etc but also the Korean War. Americans had trouble of shipping the war armaments used in the Korean War from the U.S. continent in right schedule timing and what the US did was outsourcing Japan for the industrial production of the war supplies so that the US troops in Korean peninsula receive timely supplies. This was also to benefit Japan to rise economically from the "ashes" of the atomic bomb. Japan was once a beneficiary of American/western help to kick start the industrial output.
In the 1960's and 70's Japanese imported products here in North America were notorious for cheap junk products. But look at how they have become producing world's most high end goods. Although China may seem menace to not only the U.S.but also other Asian neighbors I surmise Chinese would eventually catch up to Japan and be in a manipulative position with upper hands for vengeance be it economically or militarily. I guess, Japan must mend the past wrong doings in the same way Germany did and is still doing so as to brace well for potential tension with formidable China.


The statement presented by our fellow Japanese or pro-Japan fellow posters that China and Taiwan never uttered a word about the give-away of the disputed islands by U.S. to Japan until 1972 is flawed. In fact, on the day that President Nixon announced that he would give the island to Japan in 1969, Taipei right away lodged protests. In return, President Nixon emphasized that he just gave the ADMINISTRATIVE right of the disputed islands to Japan. Read:


Following a meeting in Washington in 1969, President Richard Nixon and Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato issued a joint statement that spelled out the details regarding the Ryukyu Islands’ reversion to Japan, which would occur three years later. This agreement stimulated interest in China (both Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China) regarding the future status of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

In the case of the Republic of China (Taiwan)—which the United States recognized as the legitimate government of all of China—Taipei launched a vigorous and heated lobbying campaign directed at Nixon administration officials, which was aimed at preventing the Senkakus from being given back to Japan.

On June 8, 1971, President Nixon determined that he would not be able to accede to Taiwan’s demand; however, as a concession to Taiwan, the US would assert its neutrality over the sovereignty matter essentially by announcing that the return of “administrative rights” to Japan of the Senkaku Islands “can in no way prejudice the underlying claims of the Republic of China.” Nixon also promised additional military assistance—what was termed “defense possibilities”—to Taiwan as an additional concession.

Later, US State Department attorney Robert Starr would elaborate on this neutrality doctrine with a carefully crafted legal formula: “The United States believes that a return of administrative rights over those [Senkaku] islands to Japan, from which the rights were received, can in no way prejudice any underlying claims. The United States cannot add to the legal rights Japan possessed before it transferred administration of the islands to us, nor can the United States, by giving back what it received, diminish the rights of other claimants.”

Gao MF

A huge thank you to the nationalists in Japan for messing with the uninhabited islands!

Do you know how hard it is to unite the Chinese people on any issue? And now you have done the impossible! You have provided all Chinese with a target we can all hate together!

Why the hatred? We can't really blame you for not understanding, since you spent the last decades trying to rewrite WWII history, so much so that no Japanese person know of your old atrocities, but other countries will not forget them.

Now that the Chinese people have a common understanding to not buy Japanese goods, in no time at all you will be back in recession. HAHA.
Do you know how hard it is to block out foreign goods and promote our own industries? Yet again you have done it for us! Bravo!

And if you want war, that is an option as well. With your low birth rate, if we kill enough of your young people in a war, Japanese will be extinct in a few decades. All your land will belong to us. Again, HAHA.

From PRC government, with love.

ewakorn in reply to ewakorn

I don't see Japan can dismiss China/Taiwan's sovereignty claim over the disputed islands since when Tokyo accepted the islands from U.S. in 1972, Tokyo knew unambiguously that U.S. just gave Japan ONLY the ADMINISTRATIVE RIGHT of the disputed islands.

So how can Japan claim that the there is no dispute over the islands since there had been a dispute from Day 1?

DiscreetOnlooker in reply to Sandaman

Perhaps you may look yourself in the mirror. And see how 'cultured' the Japanese are...

How courteous is the Japanese;
He always says, “Excuse it, please.”
He climbs into his neighbor’s garden,
And smiles, and says, “I beg your pardon”;
He bows and grins a friendly grin,
And calls his hungry family in;
He grins, and bows a friendly bow;
“So sorry, this my garden now.”

Ogden Nash

The Japanese (1938)



When Japan modernized and industrialized following the Western example, it acquired their tastes for empires as well. Maybe that’s now part of their DNA.

Japan went on the warpath. It shocked the world when Japan became the first non-European nation to score a victory over a European one (Russia). It then beat-up weak, crumbling China and acquired Taiwan in 1895, while grabbing Diaoyu as well.

Japan then colonized Korea, gaining a facile entry into China, which it promptly puts into use. The invasion of continental China started in 1931, ending only with WW2. Tokyo now wants to revisit a deal by wresting Diaoyu from Beijing?

History holds many lessons for us. Those who forget history’s mistakes are liable to repeat them.

Justice shows leniency towards the repentant. If Japan does not think that it did anything wrong, might it not repeat those atrocities again?

Has Japan apologized for WWII atrocities? Yes, in wishy-washy generalities, many times with many empty words. Their Prime Ministers/officials would then turn around and yearly worship at the shrine honoring Japanese Class A war criminals.

Last week at the UN General Assembly in NYC, South Korean Foreign Minister asked Japan, its former colonial master of some 50 years, to educate its peoples about its warmongering ways.

Japanese textbooks teach about the “provocations” that led to its troops “marching” into China. No mention of the wholesale rounding up of Chinese for slave labor in Japanese mines and its war machine. The biological warfare experiments carried out on Chinese in Manchuria. The tens of thousands Chinese, Korean, Filipino “comfort women” forced into serving as sexual slaves for Japanese troops.

Unlike the Germans who gassed their victims, the Japanese would rather bury them alive, or torture them in myriad ingenious ways. A relative in Singapore witnessed Japanese burying people waist-high and killing them by pouring boiling water over them.

German textbooks teach about the evil of the holocaust, that it should never happen again. There is a memorial to holocaust victims in Berlin, and the country has paid some $1tn in compensation to survivors. Industries , banks .... all have paid-up.

For the last two decades, Japanese courts have consistently denied even a penny of compensation for the comfort women representing essentially a dying breed, same for victims of Japanese germ warfare experiments, or Chinese rounded up for slave labour in Japan.

The decades-long Japanese invasion of China killed some 30 million peoples. Nanjing massacre? Never happened, says Japan. A contemporary issue of Life magazine says that Japanese troops massacred over 200,000 in 24 hours. China even has its equivalent of Oskar Schindler, another good German, John Rabe .

I remember an NBC-tv documentary, hosted by Lloyd Dobyns, focusing “ on the durability of the human spirit in the face of man's inhumanity to man; of Japanese prison camps and the hell ships that took some to Japan into slavery. Only 43% of the American POWs survived .... those days of starvation, sickness, death, and incredible brutality.”

Currently “Unbroken”, a book by an American held as Japanese prisoner of war, is running on the Nytimes bestseller list into its second year.

Mortality rate in Japanese and German pow camps were at 50% and 6% respectively. Can you imagine Angela Merkel honoring Nuremberg war criminals, or denying the holocaust?

Has China ever gone on the conquest of other nations? Stay tuned.


The Japanese government is sneaky. True to its true color, the Japanese submits to the strong and bully the weak.

After USA pressured Taiwan against more action of protecting our territorial right over Daioyutai Islands, the Japan government is enticing Taiwan for a fishing right talk about Daioyutai with its territorial right to be tabled as a 'suspended case'. But Taiwan is not baiting, knowing fully that the sneaky Japanese move to divide Daioyutai issue as separate China issue and Taiwan issue is futile and is Japan's last gasp scheming.

China and Taiwan should unit to fight against Japanese imperialism in recurrence.

Japan should remember that in the more enlightened modern world in the last century, aggressors have never ended up nicely in their fate, with Japan being the most infamous example in modern history.

When will Japan ever learn?


I don't know what ground TE holds to compare nationalists between one victorious nation and another vanquished country in the case of the disputed island to which China, the victorious side, claims as the outcome of WWII.


Finally, an article that's more neutral on the islands. Though comparing the nationalist in this case to the tea partiers in the GOP is probabily an appopriate example.
Since both former leaders agreed to leave the disputed islands for the next generation... Which the extremist took to taking everything. The impact is alreadying showing since unlike in America where "Boycott China" seem to be a mantra repeated by people who believe in the "free" media. People are boycotting Japanese products, just like how the American boycotted the French for not getting involve in one of the current Middle East wars (By... buying expensive French wine...and dumping it... @.@).
Although I have to disagree with the author on Japan still reciving heat from the autrosities of WWII, that's because the war shrines are still standing. Worshipping ancestors is one thing, worshipping someone who killed millions, unacceptable.


Many fellow Japanese posters and foreign posters who reside in Japan constantly claim that ultranationalism is only confined to a very tiny segment of the population of Japan.

But circumstantial evidence suggests otherwise.

Let's read what the always cited right wing politician Ishihara Shintaro has said:

(1) Ishihara denied that Nanking Massacre had ever happened -- it was complete propaganda according to him;

(2) For more than one occasion -- Ishihara proposed to launch a "pre-emptive strike" on Beijing;

(3) Ishihara suggested a "Falkland-style warfare" to resolve the Senkaku/Diaoyu island dispute with China.

And somehow Ishihara has been elected and re-elected for 4 times as the mayor of Tokyo since 1999.

I guess at least one of the above three proposals is quite appealing to most Tokyoites.

Ishihara is more hawkish than any PLA generals.


Even though both Japan and China claim sovereignty over Senkaku/DY Islands, the similarity ends there. China is happy to shelve the dispute and negotiate to jointly develop the resources. Japan maintains that there is no dispute in sovereignty and refuse to negotiate.

It is interesting to observe how this asymmetry was not reported by the supposed-neutral media such as TE.

kommonsenses in reply to ewakorn


but the so called 'Yasukuni Shrine' should really be translated and understood as 'Yasukuni temple of war criminal ghosts' to be appropriate.

it's funny guys like 'sandaman' still masturbating himself thinking a surrendered and defeated japan has any right to criticise the victor china. what a pity.

japan is not even a complete nation today, a proxy to its master at best. i feel so sorry for these guys.

Lost Goal in reply to Sina Chicks

It makes my day to see invaders calling the victim (who wants his belongings back) an invader, and compare him to Hitler, while they themselves are worse than this man.

The Americans have said that they didn't hand you the sovereignty of the Diaoyus (which they certainly couldn't, as they didn't own it themselves). Post-war treaties have clearly stated that Japan's territories don't include the Diaoyus. So it's a simple and hard fact that you don't own these islands.

The author of this article is with you, because he is just like you: you both are so afraid of a rising China that you threw your ethics into your toilet bowl.

Daveycool in reply to Sandaman

"you are just exploiting the freedom of speech and thought allowed in japan. any scholars can speak or write anything he/she wants unlike china where only silence is allowed if his/her tought is different from the OFFICIAL thought."

Precisely. This is why we understand the true nature of Japanese thinking. It is through such things as free speech and democracy that we understand that Japan as a nation, in general, has not repented. Deniers are often voted into office. Professors regularly make a farce of "apologies" and historical studies. Why, the whole idea of nihonjin-ron is a joke, an idea created out of desperation that Japan has never been a great civilisation that has contributed anything worthwhile to humankind. In recent years, nihonjin-ron type "academics" have tried to make connections between Japanese with Genghis Khan -- another move to somehow connect an ordinary culture to some kind of greatness. Such desperation. It's a good thing free speech and demcocracy exposes such silliness and deangerous attitudes.

That Meiji fellow created a mythology that is incongruous with reality and the cognitive disonance has harmed the Japanese nation and continues to do so. Pity. Japan could have become a great nation if what its soldiers did and the following denial hadn't tarnish that chance so bad.

Anyway I digress. Free speech and democracy exists in Japan. And we hear disturbing voices out of Japan. And we see troubling politicians elected to high office. Other countries are embarassed when a far right politician gets elected to office. Japanese think nothing of it and sometimes even think it's a patriotic thing. Who will be next? Shinzo Abe part II?

Diaoyu Island Owner

“The claim is nonsense.”

How could this article dismiss the fact that Japan has refused to denounce its war crimes against humanity? As long as Japan refuses to apologize for its Imperial past and for its aggression against the children, women, and men of its Asian neighbours, Japanese imperialism strives.
The emperor of Japan not only fails to take the lead to right the wrongs his father did, but allows his politicians and his subjects to perpetuate the stubborn arrogance.

Japans pretends to be the sufferer of WWII each August 6 by releasing doves in view of international TV audience. Behind the flying doves, Japanese national guards were chasing fishermen of Taiwan and China from their traditional fishing grounds.

Like the USA economic aid to third world nations, Japanese aids also comes with strings attached for special rights or leverages.

Please do not deceive your readers with propaganda statements and “nonsense claims”.


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