Burgeoning Alt-Right Thought in Japan

Since the end of World War II, postwar leaders in Japan have attempted to introduce liberal democratic values into Japanese politics and education. However, in recent years, contentions over immigration, the economy and national pride have seen far-right, nationalist idealism return to Japan. This has taken many forms in the past five years, centering mainly around the future of Japan in terms of its place in East Asia, with many questioning whether Japan can and should remain a demilitarized nation. While issues such as North Korea and the South China Sea may be practical causes for concern among Japanese, a movement has arisen which seeks to rebrand Japanese nationalism as a means of solving the nations’s problems.

The place of the Japanese emperor is also an area of contention, with a new group of nationalist activists insisting that devotion to the state and emperor ought to be taught in schools. This is the opinion of Nippon Kaigi, or “Japan Conference,” a far-right group which has come to hold a great degree of influence in Japan today. The group has campaigned consistently in its 18-year history to discredit claims of Japan’s war crimes, citing the presence of Western imperialism as responsible for the narrative of Japanese atrocities. Among their more controversial acts has been the repeated support of Yasukuni, a Shinto-only cemetery-shrine dedicated to Japanese soldiers, many of whom fought in the notorious campaigns in China during the Asia-Pacific War. The fact that Japan’s prime ministers since the early 2000s have repeatedly visited the shrine has lead many to believe that Japan’s government consents to honoring war criminals. With new Japanese school textbooks omitting and revising pieces of Japan’s wartime history, nationalist ideals may be finding a place in education in Japan once again.

In a more recent issue, the Ministry of Finance approved the selling of public land for the construction of a private school for young children. While this act in itself would appear favorable to libertarians, the reportedly nationalist policies and practices of Tsukamoto Kindergarten have raised many flags. At the Osaka school, children are required to make daily prayers honoring Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, reportedly, as “General Abe.” This recent controversy follows the school’s distribution of statements to parents, in which the school’s principal used racial slurs against Koreans and Chinese, citing them as responsible for Japan’s decline.

In what was advertised as the first and only Shinto school in Japan, the school has come under investigation for the shady nature of the land deal. The Ministry of Finance sold the land to the educational firm, Moritomo Gakuen, for $1.2 million despite being appraised for far higher. The Ministry refused initial freedom of information requests by local politicians about the true value of the land, later citing the cost of waste removal as the reason behind the strangely large discount. This claim is actually true, as hazardous and even outright toxic materials such as arsenic were discovered on the site. As of the end of February, however, the waste has not been effectively cleared, prompting the question of what was really behind the special privilege afforded to the firm. While oddly claiming to know nothing of the discount, the head of Moritomo Gakuen, Yasunori Kagoike, stated that coverage of the sale was nothing less than a leftist attempt to discredit the beauty and tradition of Japan. In response to his own involvement with Nippon Kaigi, Kagoike suggested that the ideals of his group align with the goals of Prime Minister Abe.

This is not the first time people have drawn connections between Japanese nationalist movements and Abe’s stances on issues relating to Japan’s wartime history. In a 2015 visit to the U.S., Abe criticized how the wartime trafficking of Korean women in Japanese camps was depicted in American textbooks. Statements like these lead people to view the prime minister with a suspicion that he’s sympathetic to right-wing nationalism. This issue extends beyond Abe, however, as it speaks to a greater problem with special interests and their pull on the Japanese federal government. As right-wing nationalist groups like Nippon Kaigi increase their influence, Japanese classical liberals should recognize the ideals of a free society embodied in their history. From the the Freedom and People’s Rights Movement to the presence of Austrian economics in certain universities, Japan can come to find alternatives besides a return to the vengeful spirit of the past.

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