Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality,
and to see the links to virtual rooms.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Fabian Schäfer
(FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Naoto Higuchi
(Waseda University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Media Studies
- Location:
- Auditorium 2 Franz Cumont
- Sessions:
- Friday 18 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel looks into the transnational aspects and uses of digital media in the metapolitics of the New Right. Specifically, we address the role of pro-Russian Propaganda, disinformation and COVID-19, “Japan” as a cryptofascist chiffre, and the post-assassination framing of the Unification Church.
Long Abstract:
Through multidisciplinary case studies from Japan and Germany, the contributors to this panel look into various transnational and digital aspects of what the international New Right describes as “metapolitics”: the dissemination of extremist ideas in the “pre-political” sphere of culture, before entering the political public sphere. Since then, this strategy has been applied globally by proponents of various local versions of the New Right, not only in Europe but also in Japan.
The single contributions look into transnational trajectories and digital connectivities of metapolitics among the New Right in Japan and Germany. In particular, they analyze the dissemination of disinformation and conspiracy narratives by popular manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori and situate these within his long-term historical revisionist writing and the global anti-COVID-19 measurement movement, the discursive interconnections between pro-Russian propaganda and nationalist discourses of the New Right in Japan since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the conspiracist narratives and metapolitical appropriations regarding the role and influence of the Unification Church in Japan, and the cryptofascist use of “Japan” as part of the metapolitical discursive strategy of the New Right in Germany.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 18 August, 2023, -Fabian Schäfer (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation analyzes the use of the cryptofascist chiffre “Japan” as part of the metapolitical discursive strategy of the New Right in Germany, particularly the fiction of Japan as mono-ethnic nation, its restrictive migration policy, and the admiration for novelist Mishima Yukio.
Paper long abstract:
In the past decades, “Japan” has been truly fetishized by the global New Right. The aim of a discursive strategy that proponents of the New Right themselves describe as “metapolitics”, is to disseminate extremist ideas in the so-called “pre-political” sphere of culture. The long-term goal of this strategy is to “normalize” anti-feminist and racist ideologies before they can enter public political discourse. “Japan” is used as one of many cryptofascist chiffre in this metapolitical strategy. In this presentation, I will discuss political, intellectual, and subcultural metapolitical uses of “Japan” by the German New Right, namely the appropriation of the fiction of Japan as a mono-ethnic nation and admiration for Japan’s restrictive anti-migration policy as well as for the masculinist anti-feminism and anti-democratic rebellious aspirations of Japanese literary figure Mishima Yukio.
Olena Kalashnikova (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg)
Paper short abstract:
The paper presents the results of an analysis of the discursive interconnections between the metapolitical strategies of the Japanese Far Right and pro-Russian disinformation campaigns in regard to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper, I present the results of an analysis of the discursive interconnections between the metapolitical strategies of the New Right and pro-Russian disinformation campaigns. In Japan, several well-established representatives of the Japanese Far Right show significant overlaps with views disseminated by Russian officials and media outlets in regard to the war in Ukraine. Particularly, I look into the online activity of prolific proponents of the political Far Right, such as the members of the party Issuikai and Suzuki Muneo, a representative in the upper house of right-wing populist party Nippon Ishin no Kai on the one hand, and the conspiracy narratives and disinformation disseminated by so-called “alternative” media outlets, such as blogs or the YouTube channel Channel Sakura. In my analysis, I apply a mixed-method approach of quantitative corpus-linguistic methods and in-depth qualitative discourse analysis to provide insights into the pro-Russian views as part of the metapolitical strategies of the aforementioned actors.
Stevie Poppe (KU Leuven)
Paper short abstract:
Through a mixed-method analysis of a Twitter corpus on the Unification Church, as well as of the external media linked within, this paper presents insights on the propagation of conspiracies, and on the underlying metapolitical, 'digital populist' strategies through which they are amplified.
Paper long abstract:
Although prior to the assassination of Abe Shinzo, online discussions on the nature of the new religious movement known as the Unification Church remained mostly within the realm of esoteric conspiracies, the immediate aftermath of the incident opened the topic for discussion widely and thoroughly throughout all mediaspheres. Using an innovative mixed-method analysis of a large-scale corpus of pre-assassination and post-assassination tweets on the topic of the Unification Church as well as of the external media linked within those tweets, this paper presents insights on how, in the wake of major events, different platforms and external contents are relied upon to construct larger conspiratorial, transnational, and xenophobic ‘us versus them’ narratives on Japanese Twitter, insights into the digital ‘populist’ nature of using social media aggregators and private citizen blogs to discursively amplify those narratives, and, finally, insights into what metapolitical strategies underlay those narratives.
Linda Havenstein (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Paper short abstract:
This paper analyzes the dissemination of disinformation and conspiracy narratives in popular manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori's series on COVID-19 and situates them within his long-term historical revisionist writing and the global anti-COVID-19 measurement movement.
Paper long abstract:
The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID-19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-method discourse analysis, I examine the use of transnational, metapolitical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. The discourse analysis uses a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The former focuses on bestselling publications of historical revisionist manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori and his propagation of COVID-19-related conspiracy narratives and disinformation. The latter analyzes data collected from Amazon’s review section to explore the narrative reach and reader reception of his views.