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- Convenor:
-
Arvydas Kumpis
(Vytautas Magnus University)
Send message to Convenor
- Section:
- Politics and International Relations
- Sessions:
- Friday 27 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
Presentations in this panel analyze right-wing narratives from different perspectives, aiming to unveil hidden and (un)intentional goals of right-wing supporters by giving special attention to environmental, gender, socio-political fields since 2010s.
Long Abstract:
Last decade marked both defeat and victorious return of right-wing ideology in Japan's politics and daily public life. Although conservatism was always a prominent worldview in Japan, recently it went through significant metamorphosis. Period from the beginning of the 2010s mark transitions in the society, such as demographic composition, and technologies, such as ways of communication, that prominently affected the right-wing landscape in Japan. Not only the right-wing itself has changed; their activities, targets of criticism and modus operandi have gained new forms. Arguably, the most noticeable change was the rise of Action Conservative Movement (ACM) groups, sparking the notorious surge of hate speech incidents in the streets and internet. But that is only one, albeit the most visible example. Top level conservatives stepped up with top-down policies towards family and gender politics with Womenomics, environmental issues gained attention after 3.11, with the intensifying relations among the neighboring countries, and right-wing civic organizations continued stricture towards inclusiveness to Japanese citizenship and Japanese-ness itself.
Speaking about right-wing supporters, we include all levels of activities and initiatives - from ruling elite to grassroots level. Their communication and public statements are an abundant source for research. For that purpose, researchers use data from official documents, governmental releases and especially internet where numerous forums and blogs are created, videos from demonstrations and lectures are uploaded to video sharing websites. Publicly available documents and texts provide an access to get to know the objectives, attitudes and, speaking more broadly, the changes of ideological characteristics among the right-wingers. Presentations in this panel analyze right-wing narratives from different perspectives, aiming to unveil hidden and (un)intentional goals in varied contexts by giving special attention to environmental, gender, socio-political fields.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 27 August, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
The paper analyses masculinity images constructed in the discourse of Japanese ruling right-wing party initiatives, that promote men's greater involvement in housework and childcare activities, with reference to the context of their significance in achieving the goals of Abe's Womenomics policy.
Paper long abstract:
Following a Womenomics policy initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2013, that aims for the social and professional empowerment of women, Japanese government, largely represented by right-wing political parties, such as Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, implemented a number of both legal and PR initiatives in order to promote a greater men's involvement in housework and childcare activities: improved paternal leave conditions, Thank You Papa project, Ikumen Project (since 2010), Otōhan hajimeyō campaign and others. Despite of these measures Japanese men's involvement in family life remains low, whereas women remain underrepresented in political and high-level professional positions (Macnaughtan 2015, Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office 2019). The above mentioned projects aim to change the existing stereotypical perceptions of masculinity and femininity, that are crucial for the actual changes in reducing the existing gender gap. Therefore this paper aims to analyze the images of masculinity, that are promoted in the 2017-2019 year discourse of men-oriented PR campaigns regarding balancing work and family life, taking Ikumen Project (ikumen-project.jp) and Otōhan hajimeyō campaign (gender.go.jp/public/otouhan) as representative cases. The images of masculinity are analyzed in the context of their consistency with the official campaign message about the positivity of men's participation in family responsibilities, as well as their significance to achieving the goals of Womenomics policy.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation seeks to unveil the complicated nature of right-wing activism, as depicted in the texts of Makoto Sakurai. The analysis provides changing trajectories of virtual relations with LDP and PM Shinzo Abe, social and political issues in the society and in the region from 2005 to 2019.
Paper long abstract:
Makoto Sakurai, one of the most famous personalities of Japanese Action Conservative Movement (ACM), is known for various activities - writer, the founder and long-term leader of Zaitokukai, the founder and present leader of Japan First Party. While one creation of his, Zaitokukai, has gained a substantial attention lately, his long lasting activity as a blogger has not been researched. The blog "Doronpa's monologue" was started on April 1, 2005 and logs there are constantly uploaded until now, making it a 15 year-long chronicle with more than 2700 posts. The contents of the blog cover a multitude of topics - from criticizing the leftist media to demonizing North Korea or praising the whaling traditions. Strong far right discourse makes Makoto Sakurai one of the best examples of nativist movement. This paper aims to unveil the multifaceted nature of ACM by deconstructing the narrative which is created in "Doronpa's monologue". The results of the qualitative analysis show that the blog activity positively correlates to Sakurai's changing role in ACM - from individual blogger to the leader of political party. The changes are also visible in the topics - inter alia, attitude towards leftists, cooperation with other ACM groups and leaders, representation of political elite and, especially, PM Shinzo Abe. The thread of Sakurai's narrative dedicated to PM Abe shows drastic change from support to fierce critique (after 28 December, 2015) and provides an extra layer in the discussion about "leaning right" of post-2012 Japanese government.
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents results gathered from discourse analysis which was applied on environment related public statements made by prominent Japanese right-wing organizations. The research seeks to detect changes in the discourse over time and compare characteristics among the organizations.
Paper long abstract:
Although it can be argued that green conservatism has a long history in Japan especially due to linkages to Shintoism and such concepts as "forest culture", it has not attracted much academic attention. Instead, environmentalism in Japan has been analyzed mostly by taking for granted that it originates mainly from progressive left-wing movements. Because of this there are few attempts to grasp what kind of environmental protection discourse exists among Japanese right-wing groups and how it has been evolving in the recent years. This paper seeks to fill this gap by conducting discourse analysis of environment related public statements made by prominent right-wing representing organizations, such as Nippon Kaigi, Japan Innovation Party, Komeito, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and others. The research seeks to detect changes in the discourse over time and compare characteristics among the organizations. The time frame covers the period from 2011 - the year that not only revitalized environmental discourse in Japan mainly because of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster but also marked the transition of Japan's mainstream politics which soon resulted in LDP's return to power.