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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the normative function of historic narratives using the example of South Korean perceptions of twentieth-century history. The exploration of how relations between South Korea and Japan are perceived is based on 32 semi-structured interviews with academics, representatives of non-government organizations, and government officials in South Korea. The paper posits that the normative function of historical narratives is based on four mechanisms: (1) recognition: identifying problems in society that are associated with the aggressive and vicious actions of an outgroup in the past; (2) assessment: framing these problems as injustices; (3) connotation: establishing a specific meaning of national identity that promotes motivations for actions and agency (with specific duties and obligations); and (4) prescription: defining explicit strategies and tactics for action. An analysis of these mechanisms, which comprise the structure of historical narratives, reveals that in the case of South Korea, perceptions of the relations between South Korea and Japan have been shaped by Japan's brutal colonization of South Korea, the absence of Japanese accountability for this period, and a need for a South Korean identity premised on uniqueness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1950s and 1960s, the modern Japanese state employed overseas cultural promotion as a way to maximise its interests and image not only in international contexts but also at home. By juxtaposing the Takarazuka Revue’s performances in the United States and Japan during the postwar period, this paper argues that the overseas promotion of this Japanese theatre troupe both depended upon and reinforced the Japanese populace’s nationalistic pride in its culture. The paper also addresses the ways in which the Japanese government used Takarazuka’s theatrical presentations as a means of pursuing its domestic and diplomatic agendas: improving Japan’s international position by proposing shared aspects of popular culture with the US and increasing its sense of nationalism by propagating cultural pride. In doing so, the paper explicates the ways in which Japanese popular cultural considerations interfaced with political concerns in the shaping of postwar Japan’s national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

'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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an analysis of the portrayal of North Korea in the contemporary discourse of the two largest Japanese newspapers: the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun and the more left-wing oriented Asahi Shimbun. Analysed patterns and discursive practices in the two major national media outlets attempt to construct a certain notion of national identity, albeit through the use of different means and key ideas. Drawing on a post-structuralist understanding of language and discourse and theory of national identity based on the relational dichotomy between Self and Other, this study attempts to explain the construction of national identity in Japanese print media discourse, demonstrating the link between linguistic and societal practices. While Japan is portrayed as organised, democratic, rational and cooperative, North Korea is associated with discursive practices evoking irrationality, unpredictability and danger, often conveniently represented directly by Kim Jong-un. The newspapers tend to either stress the hard security aspect of the current status quo or emphasise harsh criticism of North Korea while simultaneously posing Japan as a victim. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the Self as well as the Other are rather fluid and context dependent. Given the link between Japanese politics and media, outlets with a high level of trustworthiness and credibility may significantly influence the readers' perception of their own identity and security. Ultimately, this raises questions about the possibility of the country's normalisation of its foreign and security policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a discourse analysis of the fan-audience discussions found in the National Taiwan University and Soochow University Bulletin Board Systems, this case study discovers that the Taiwanese youth in fact draw on Japanese TV dramas as a springboard for reflexive discussions of their own social and political conditions in post-authoritarian Taiwan. The Japanomania fan discourse played a crucial role in Taiwan's democratization and nationhood-building in the 1990s. This paper argues that fan discussion networks are ‘pre-political’ because they create social conditions and alternative discourses that could prepare media users for potential social changes. I contend that foreign media are not necessarily the most immediate oppressors and could become the source of subversive symbols and new meanings for local resistance. Further research is called for to illuminate the shaping of identity by the global media in non-Western contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Social Research / Turkiye Sosyal Arastirmalar Dergisi is the property of Turkish Journal of Social Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Narratives of the Diaoyutai/Senkaku Islands dispute expose the spectrum of Taiwan's national identity. While Taiwan has long been struggling to legitimise its claim of representing China or to become an independent state, some of the Taiwanese people still welcome their former colonial master, Japan. This paper draws on academic and journalistic work on how Taiwan has responded to the islands dispute. The author also turns to the internet to examine popular sentiments in the region by examining netizens' discourse on the islands from Taiwan's largest bulletin board system (BBS), Station-PTT. This survey finds that the sovereignty dispute surfaces issues of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of UNISCI Discussion Papers is the property of Unidad de Investigaciones Sobre Seguridad y Cooperacion International (UNISCI) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Chinese cooking is popular in contemporary Japan. It is also a favourite subject of gastronomic writings that discuss not only the cooking techniques and ingredients but also the cultural meaning of the cuisine. This paper analyses the central concerns of this literature and points out its broader cultural-political implications. It contends that Japanese writings on Chinese food share a set of common concerns with the fat and spices in the food as well as its authenticity and cultural meaning. It demonstrates that this gastro-cultural discourse continually seeks to affirm, deny and transcend the putative characteristics of Chinese food. It further argues that such writings that seek to distinguish Chinese from Japanese foodways constitute a gastronomic version of nihonjinron or Japanese discourse on themselves. Finally, it points out that gastronomic nihonjinron lends support to Japan's current effort to reassert its identity/independence vis-a-vis a “rising China”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Policy & Internet is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In discussions on Japanese whaling, a common question is why Japan appears indifferent to international pressure (gaiatsu) on the issue, that is, why it continues to flout the international anti- whaling "norm" despite widespread criticism and condemnation. The key to answering this question is to examine why the anti-whaling "norm" resonates so poorly in the domestic sphere. This paper argues that the impotence of international pressure to curb Japanese whaling can only be understood by examining how whaling has come to be reactively defined in the domestic debate not as an issue of conservation and environmental protection but as a symbol of national identity and pride. The paper concludes that because whaling is framed as a key marker of "Japanese- ness", international pressure is counter-productive as it merely serves to stoke the fires of nationalism, creating an atmosphere in which anti-whaling opinion is seen as "anti-Japanese". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

People's threat perceptions play a role in influencing foreign policies towards perceived adversary countries. Earlier research has identified multiple components shaping mass‐level threat perceptions including military power, adversary country's perceived intentions, and national identities. On the individual level, education, use of media, and interest in politics have been shown to influence threat perceptions. However, most studies on perceptions of security threats fail to include both contextual and individual‐level explanatory factors and to consider that different national threats may be constructed differently. This research bridges formation of threat perceptions on the individual level to wider societal processes and provides an empirical perspective to understanding threat perceptions among the educated section of the Chinese population. To analyze threat perceptions, students from leading Chinese universities (N = 771) took part in a survey in the autumn of 2011 and spring of 2012. Respondents who followed conventional media were more likely to perceive both the United States and Japan as threatening, and the effect of media consumption was particularly strong with regards to perceived threat from Japan. In addition, each threat perception was significantly associated with threat‐specific explanatory factors. Potential explanatory factors of threat perceptions were explored with linear regression models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1960s, NHK's morning drama series (asadora) have become known as a popular and quasi-institutionalised serial format of Japanese TV broadcasting. They attract millions of viewers by telling stories of female protagonists struggling to achieve personal fulfilment. At the same time, they also function as tools to spread certain forms of national identity, which are often linked to conservative concepts of an ideal Japanese lifestyle and anchored in a nostalgic rural landscape. Using the example of 2015's asadora Mare, we investigate how these two crucial aspects are implemented in the series' narrative and production. Furthermore, we link our observations to the domain of 'contents tourism'; this type of Japanese media-induced tourism recently gained significant attention from regional decision-makers working towards local revitalisation. By investigating contents tourism activities in Mare's context, the rural city of Wajima in the Noto Peninsula, we aim to understand how the media-touristic negotiation between real and imaged landscapes works and how that process influences consumers as well as locals. Our study provides a previously missing link between the qualitative analysis of media content and the examination of contents tourism in order to achieve a broader sociocultural perspective on this phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores and compares the positions of two major powers in East Asia—China and Japan—towards the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) norm. R2P calls for collective international responsibility in the event that states are unwilling or unable to protect their people. Evaluating the mainstream argument in the literature that China and Japan have recently been welcoming the R2P norm, we ask the following questions: To what extent have China and Japan aligned themselves with R2P? How do international and national factors play out to influence their R2P stance? To summarize our findings up front: unlike what much of the current literature says, China and Japan's acceptance and practice of the R2P norm are largely pro forma. We argue that they both appear active in participating in the debates but only in order to remain inactive. In other words, they are active participants in the debates and discussions on R2P, but their aim is not to further its usage but to contain its effects. Their current stance on R2P is characterized by what we will call ‘Active in Not Being Active’ (AINBA). The article discusses the key sources and rationale for their AINBA policy with regard to R2P. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anticipating the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this article uses the triple axel jump, one of the most challenging moves in women’s figure skating, as a heuristic device to track representations of Japanese skaters Ito Midori and Asada Mao in the New York Times and Asahi Shimbun. Ito and Asada are two of only six women to have landed triple axels at international figure skating competitions. Employing affect and feminist theories, I argue that constructions of the skaters’ bodies are not just gendered and heteronormative, but also sexed, raced, and affective. Using discourse analysis, I trace how media representations of Ito and Asada redraw global color lines and national boundaries in sport and negotiate different femininities, underscoring excessive feelings and physical appearance. Contributing to feminist sport studies and transnational feminist cultural studies, this comparative analysis offers new perspectives on women’s sports in Japan and athleticism’s relation to race, femininities, and national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how a variety of national identity rhetorics are formed with the nuanced aestheticization. We focus on visual rhetorics. We use advertisements for traditional, seasonal gifts in post-postwar Japan as the context of inquiry. Two research questions addressed are: (1) how different rhetorics of national identity are formed between the gifts advertised and the audience, focusing more on visual than merely verbal elements, and (2) how visual genealogy – specific cultural and historical references in contemporary images – is used in rhetorical figures. Underpinned by a critical visual analysis, we apply Western and Japanese art canons to a visual social semiotic approach in order to interpret variations in the semantics of national identity. We discuss three types of rhetorics of national identity: rhe-transfiguration, rhe-truculence, and rhe-trepidation. The study suggests that national identity rhetorics activate a “deep subjectivity” resulting from the aestheticized experience reinforced by the nation’s consumption ritual. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

However intense, varied, and enriching the reception of Japanese culture in France has been since 1945, it still seems to be confronted with dead ends or counteractions, the least of which we can say have gone back a long way and also involve other countries besides France and Japan. To reflect on them can also help to consider Europe's relationship to the ‘other’ and even, I think, with certain adjustments include the United States. How can we avoid the binarism and dichotomy which today still result in the constant reference to Japanese culture as both radically different and yet always the same due to the unchanged arsenal of clichés? Such a project involves forging a critical discourse located not from one country or culturetoanother but a discoursebetweencountries. It is in this context that a number of writers—I call them the Coral Writers—delineate new forms of creativity, belonging, and identity as well as the image of another Japan that is plural, anarchic; new forms of creativity that can be thought of more in terms of reciprocity and hybridization, in other words, of cultural and identity interactions that reveal the extraordinary archaism of references to an original purity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the social and cultural meanings of the incorporation of Southeast Asian healthcare migrant workers in Japan, focusing in particular on Japanese attitudes and perspectives. I argue that several issues and concerns are related to the way the Japanese see Japan as a homogeneous society, and that these issues and concerns intertwine with Japan's historical experience of the inflow of non-Japanese migrants. The arrival of Southeast Asian healthcare workers has been met with concern in Japanese society, but because of its rapidly aging and shrinking population, Japan's healthcare industry needs to internationalize. The article is based on research data that includes information on events, debates and arguments in official and unofficial documents, newspaper articles and transcripts of interviews in the press in both Japanese and English. It aims to provide a better understanding of how Japan is tapping into the international labour market to bolster its health industry. The situation of Southeast Asian healthcare migrant workers in Japan is also examined in its historical, social and cultural contexts.

This article compares and discusses the third series of kokugo tokuhon (national language readers) used in Japan between 1918 and 1932, and the first series of kokumin tokuhon (national readers), used in Taiwan between 1913 and 1923. The study points out that the materials introducing the world (including geography and history lessons, adaptations of foreign literary texts, episodes from the life of great men of science, etc) are considerably more numerous in the Japanese readers than in their Taiwanese counterparts. Following the two different processes of (intended) national identity formation via a detailed analysis of the materials and illustrations in the two sets of textbooks, the article also sheds light on the way the Taiwanese tokuhon attempt to replicate successful methods of earlier Japanese textbooks, while at the same time anticipating some of the trends visible in subsequent readers from Japan proper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia’s pavilion at the 1970 Japan World Exposition, Osaka, gave physical form to a narrative of Australian innovation during a critical period of change in the nation’s economic and geo-political circumstances. The pavilion’s primary role was to advance Australian relations with Japan, which replaced Britain as Australia’s main trading partner in 1966. Australia’s appeal to Japan unfolded on two levels. A profusion of artefacts exemplified Australian inventiveness, extending back to the rural sphere in the colonial period and culminating in the contemporary example of the Repco Brabham Formula One racing car engine. The representation of Australian inventiveness was amplified by the image and experience of the pavilion architecture, configured for maximum impact; it took the form of a free-hanging circular roof suspended from a giant cantilever, its main display area an immersive, multimedia environment. Although an objectified representation of the nation, the pavilion reflects a process of national identity transformation that aligned Australia’s image with international modernisation trends, to produce a new sense of Australian destiny as linked to industrialisation and the Asia-Pacific region. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using critical discourse analysis this study analyzes how ideologies and national identities are discursively constructed through editorial and opinion commentaries in two English-language newspapers from China and Japan on an international incident involving the two countries. The first four editorials/opinions on the East China Sea trawler collision incident from the China Daily and Daily Yomiuri are analyzed. Findings show that a variety of discursive strategies are adopted by the newspapers to construct national identity and intergroup relations, including: 1) the discursive categorization of group identity, 2) the discursive re-categorization of intergroup relations, and 3) the discursive re-categorization of intragroup relations. Even though both newspapers are products of globalization, and purport to target international and cosmopolitan audiences, the reporting of the East China Sea incident closely adheres to official narratives and discourses of the respective governments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

By the twentieth century, Black intellectuals envisioned Japan as a beacon of their own possibilities. Japanese perceptions of this bond are typically implicitly assumed in most research on the subject. In this essay we argue that Japan saw Black America as a symbol of strategic not substantive solidarity. With its entrance onto the international scene in the nineteenth century, Japan encountered an international racial hierarchy, and struggled in formulating an emergent self-identity that would allow it to rationalize its rightful place alongside White Western powers. On the eve of the Second World War, Japan's national/racial identity is a complex set of influences: a merging of its own indigenous perceptions of race, an importation of outside racial ideology, and contextual needs linked to still trying to insert itself as an equal to Western powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Chinese nation building in the post-Cold War era from the perspective of foreign policy. It focuses on the role of Japan and the United States as significant 'Others' in Chinese leaders' construction of three major variants of Chinese national identity: as a victim (past), as a developing country (present) and as a great power (future). The article argues that Japan occupies a primary place in the enactment of the past aspect of Chinese identity, while the US plays a major role in its present and, especially, future aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amidst the recent unprecedented flow of people across national borders, Japan has remained almost a passive observer - satisfied to keep stringent entrance barriers intact for the sake of preserving its cultural status quo. However, with a sharply falling birth rate and rapidly aging population, coupled with labour shortages, and economic stagnation, Japan's lawmakers and bureaucrats have recently begun to initiate debate into the possibility of greater immigration. This chapter examines the necessities of political, societal and attitudinal change in the populace in order to allow for the inclusion of difference in what is arguably the world's most homogenous developed nation-state. This requires a fundamental re-assessment of exactly who is (and can be) and what it means to be 'Japanese;' enormous questions that at present the government seems loath to address. It concludes with suggestions for how state-makers can realize a possible new model along the lines of what has been referred to variously as 'cosmopolitan,' 'global' or 'universal' citizenship, applicable and, arguably, beneficial to Japan's situation. Done correctly and with sufficient input and debate, Japan could create a new social contract with its citizens (native and new) that would serve as a model for other states in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines whether support for multiculturalism is compatible with an ethno-national identity in Japan. Multiculturalism discourses have centred on the issue of how to treat cultural diversity within a society. In Japan, the concept of multiculturalism has become popular over the past decade. However, some researchers think that the Japanese maintain their privileged position by essentialising cultural differences in the name of multiculturalism. My study therefore investigates the relationship between ethno-national identity, the endorsement of multiculturalism and supportive attitudes toward the equal rights of ethnic minorities by employing Japanese data from an international public-opinion survey. It was found that ethno-national identity has positive effects on the endorsement of multiculturalism, while having negative effects on the endorsement of equal rights between ethnic majorities and ethnic minorities. This means that the Japanese do not regard multiculturalism as antithetical to the maintenance of ethnic homogeneity within a 'nation'; rather, the endorsement of multiculturalism stems from belief in the uniqueness of 'Japaneseness'. The theoretical and political implications of this study's results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores responses to modernity and the challenge it poses to identity in Japan through the works of the poet Hagiwara Sakutaro. It concludes by arguing that, inspired by Sakutaro's call to 'return to Japan', the Japanese Romantics transformed Japan into a spiritual project of overcoming the modern and the West - thus being superior - through the nostalgic construction of a cultural essence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]