Paper short abstract:

Can we apply Western-developed theories of online hate to the Japanese context? Japan's online environment is comparatively isolated from the English-speaking web, and immigration has not become an issue of national significance. Socio-political context must be central to understanding online hate.

Paper long abstract:

Online hate has become a hot topic for social research globally. Older theories attributing its prominence to anonymity or 'online disinhibition' have been replaced by a focus on 'echo chambers' and 'polarisation'. In 2016 we saw this taken to new levels, when both the Leave and Trump campaigns were accused of employing social media analytics firm Cambridge Analytica to profile and target scores of voters with advertisements exploiting xenophobic sentiments. In Japan, scholarship on 'hate speech' and online hate has developed mostly independently of these discussions. Particularly since the Zaitokukai group caught the attention of national media for taking an online anti-multiculturalist movement into the sphere of offline activism, Japanese scholars have used terms like 'heeto supiichi' and 'neto-uyo' to describe a growing social problem of vocal anti-Korean and anti-migrant discourse with a strong foothold online.

The parallel development of these phenomena in Japan and the West have led to questions of how alike they may be. This paper will present the argument for exercising caution in applying Western-developed theories of online hate to the Japanese context, not least because these theories are themselves flawed in their evidence base which is disproportionately focused on Twitter and computational analysis. Japan's online environment is comparatively isolated from the English-speaking web. Much of Japanese online hate has been concentrated on Japan-specific web forums like 2-chan, and perhaps because of cultural norms around privacy, exposing social media platforms like Facebook have failed to gain widespread popularity there. Furthermore, unlike many Western countries, Japan has not seen immigration or multiculturalism become an issue of national significance. Racist expressions in Japan, mostly directed towards ethnic-Koreans, are set within a post-colonial historical context and justified through historical revisionist discourses. Despite the global nature of the internet, socio-political context must remain central to our understandings of online hate.