Kōmeitō’s security ideals and collective self-defense: betwixt pacifism and compromises

Lindgren, Petter Y.

doi:10.1007/s12140-016-9256-8

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Of course, the reality is more complicated, and religious actors make various attempts to engage in political decision-making or higher education, but they can only do so by actively downplaying their religious character, asserting their commitment to the public good, and translating their concerns into secular vocabulary (e.g. Lindgren 2016;Rots 2017a). By contrast, throughout the region, public ritualse.g., those associated with the imperial institution in Japan or the cult of heroic martyrs in Vietnamare configured as 'non-religious.'…”

Section: Comparative Notes: Sacred Heritage and The Nation-state In East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

Rots

2019

J. Relig. Japan

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The category “heritage” is quickly gaining importance for the study of religion, not least in East Asia. Since the 1990s, Japanese governments, entrepreneurs, and NGO s have invested heavily in heritage preservation, production, and promotion, and other East Asian countries have followed suit. UNESCO recognition is sought after by various state and private actors, who see it as a useful tool for validating and popularising select historical narratives and for acquiring national and international legitimacy. These developments have led to far-reaching transformations in worship sites and ritual practices. Drawing on recent Japanese examples, and comparing these to cases elsewhere in the region, this article constitutes a first step towards a theory of the heritagisation of religion in East Asia. It argues that the heritagisation of worship sites often entails a process of deprivatisation, turning them into public properties that are simultaneously secular and sacred. The article distinguishes between three patterns, which many worship sites and ritual practices that have been inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage or Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists, in Japan and beyond, follow: 1) heritage-making constitutes a type of secularisation, 2) it gives rise to new processes of sacralisation, and 3) this enables mass tourism that can lead to far-reaching transformations. Focusing on the first two patterns, the article shows how heritage-making leads to the reconfiguration of sites and practices as national, public, and secular sacred properties.

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Section: Comparative Notes: Sacred Heritage and The Nation-state In East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

Rots

2019

J. Relig. Japan

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“…Critical contributions on Japanese security policy have however unpacked the mechanisms that create the possibility of policy changes in Japan. Lindgren (2018) explains the possibility of the Abe government's new security posture as a response to the successful securitization of China's rise and maritime advance as well as a growing fear of abandonment by the United States among the Japanese security elite. Poststructural approaches have argued that Japan's construction of a Japanese self through differentiation from its neighbors, in particular China and North Korea, has influenced its foreign policy approaches (see, e.g., Hagström and Gustafsson 2015;Hanssen 2017).…”

Section: The Literature On Japanese Security Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Poststructural approaches have argued that Japan's construction of a Japanese self through differentiation from its neighbors, in particular China and North Korea, has influenced its foreign policy approaches (see, e.g., Hagström and Gustafsson 2015;Hanssen 2017). Elsewhere we have shown that Japanese identity making after incidents in the East China Sea in 2010 and 2012 was heavily concentrated on constructing China as the subordinate other to Japan's peaceful, democratic, transparent, and law-abiding self (Yennie Lindgren andLindgren 2016, 2017). This suggests that the specific way China is understood in Japan justifies a stronger military posture while being able to maintain the "peaceful self.…”

Section: The Literature On Japanese Security Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship between Narratives and Security Practices: Pushing the Boundaries of Military Instruments in Japan

Lindgren¹,

Lindgren²

2019

Asian Perspective

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Japanese security policy has undergone significant changes lately. Japanese policymakers have recently argued over advancing Japan's Self-Defense Forces with new weapon systems. In particular, the Abe government has decided to purchase long-range cruise missiles for its new F-35A jetfighters, and to reconstruct a newly-built helicopter carrier into an aircraft carrier. While specific policy proposals continued dividing policymakers and other stakeholders, the underlying story specifying Japan's place in East Asia, the rise of China, the threat of North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, the tight security relationship with the United States and the vulnerability of the Japanese archipelago has faced little core criticism. The lack of alternative national security narratives suggests the emergence of a Japanese security consensus in the mid-2010s. The strength of the narrative in deterring policymakers to refrain from critique, through the significant costs incurred by opposition, could also suggest a hegemonic narrative (but not necessarily a consensus). We find that the dominant narrative provided a necessary foundation for unorthodox policy proposals, which arguably enabled the Abe government to push through military instrument expansions in the Self-Defense Forces, moves far from politically sustainable only a decade earlier.

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“…Here, I distinguish between public legitimization as 'contests' and as 'promotion'. While public contests concern political actors' struggle to shape the boundaries for reasonable, natural and smart foreign policy in contests with other political actors (for empirical studies on Japan see Hagstr€ om & Gustafsson, 2015;Hagstr€ om and Hanssen, 2016;Gustafsson, 2015;Lindgren, 2016Lindgren, , 2019, public promotion is the marketing performances, practices, and instruments that government institutions employ in a 'one-way monologue' towards a domestic or international audience. In the literature on Japan, scholars have primarily investigated the public promotion of Cool Japan or Cute Culture (Bukh, 2014;Iwabuchi, 2015;Leheny, 2018;Nakamura, 2013;Otmazgin, 2012;White, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

WIN-WIN! with ODA-man: legitimizing development assistance policy in Japan

Lindgren

2020

The Pacific Review

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Official development assistance (ODA) constitutes one of Japan's most important foreign policy instruments as it builds Japan's global network and supports allies in the Southeast Asian region and beyond. In the context of a rising China and an increasingly severe fiscal and demographic situation at home, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) promulgated a domestic-oriented legitimation campaign featuring a popular anime character rebranded as 'ODA-man' to increase public understanding of and support for Japan's ODA. Drawing on interpretivist analysis of performances at a development cooperation promotion festival, anime videos on the MOFA YouTube channel and interviews and examining the use of rhetorical strategies, this article provides an in-depth study of the promotion of one of the central instruments in Japan's foreign policy repertoire. Though he comes off as goofy and benign, ODA-man's messages are serious ones that reproduce dominant economic and security narratives about Japan and the world. Analysis points to both innovation and path dependency in Japan's foreign policy repertoire; while ODA-man may be new the story he is telling, and the way that he is performing it, is very much familiar. The article further illuminates important trends in the public legitimation of foreign policy in Japan.

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Kōmeitō’s security ideals and collective self-defense: betwixt pacifism and compromises

Cited by 8 publications

References 9 publications

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

World Heritage, Secularisation, and the New “Public Sacred” in East Asia

The Relationship between Narratives and Security Practices: Pushing the Boundaries of Military Instruments in Japan

WIN-WIN! with ODA-man: legitimizing development assistance policy in Japan

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