Paper short abstract

This study equates the cases of controversial pilgrimage to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine and to Jerusalem's Temple Mount, as political spectacles, in order to come closer to understanding the essence of New Nationalist Populism (NNP) as a political logic, a style, a strategy and an ideology.

Paper long abstract

New Nationalist Populism (NNP) is emerging as of late as an increasingly significant phenomenon which is still considered by many to be inadequately understood by contemporary research. Most scholars agree that populism is a constant shadow over liberal-democracy, and that in its current form it is a new and innovative development of the strand. However, some view it as political logic, or a culture of discourse, while others argue on whether populism is a form of style, a strategy, or a possibly thin-centered guiding ideology. In other words, in the literature, there is still a fundamental lack of consensus as to what the essence of populism is, and in particular Nationalist Populism in its current form.

Simultaneously to the research on populism, an increasingly significant body of scholarship has developed in recent decades concerning controversial pilgrimages by nationalist, religious-nationalist and nationalist-populist actors to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine and to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Both under similar framing of “provocation”, and both under an underlying assumption of the case studies to be unique and essentialist local expressions of political/cultural behavior.

Considering these trends, and using an innovative transcultural theoretical framework, as well as qualitative data, this research aims to demonstrate three things: First, to show that these controversial pilgrimages are not as unique and essentialist as assumed, but rather similar expressions of the same transcultural trend of political logic. Second, to elaborate on these “provocations” as political spectacles in a populist environment. And third, to shed light on the essence of populism by equating these comparable case studies – one from a system which is largely considered a particularly severe case of NNP (Israel) and one from a system which is still largely considered behind trend when it comes to NNP development (Japan).

Paper short abstract

This study analyses Yasukuni-type shrines built by Imperial Japan in China and Taiwan and their post-1945 conversion into Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines. It argues that these sites functioned as shifting instruments of sovereignty, memory, and political legitimacy across imperial and nationalist regimes.

Paper long abstract

This study examines a distinct category of Shintō shrines established by the Japanese Empire in mainland China and Taiwan to commemorate imperial war dead from the late nineteenth century through the Second World War and its aftermath. It introduces the analytical concept of “Yasukuni-type Shrines in China” to define these sites as spatial and institutional embodiments of imperial Japan’s “Yasukuni Thought”—an ideology that sacralised death for the emperor and embedded war commemoration within imperial sovereignty. Rather than viewing these shrines as marginal colonial installations, the study argues that they were integral components of Japan’s imperial ritual order and in-struments for constructing an imagined imperial community that encompassed both Japanese settlers and selected local populations.

Adopting a comparative and transregional approach, the study traces how Yasuku-ni-type shrines functioned as mechanisms of political mobilisation, moral legitimation, and social integration within colonial and occupied territories. It demonstrates how shrine rituals and commemorative practices were deployed to naturalise imperial author-ity, mobilise wartime participation, and materialise claims to sovereignty in contested spaces. Drawing on multilingual archival sources, visual materials, and site-based anal-ysis, the research shows that these shrines operated as transferable infrastructures of imperial governance rather than static monuments.

The study further explores the post-1945 trajectories of these shrines following Japan’s defeat and imperial collapse. Particular attention is paid to the Republic of China’s early postwar policies of appropriation and reinterpretation, whereby former Japanese shrine sites were converted into Martyrs’ Shrines (Zhonglieci) commemorating Chinese sol-diers who had died for the nation. In Taiwan, these processes assumed distinctive sig-nificance: during the early Cold War, shrine sites were architecturally and symbolically reconfigured to project the Republic of China as the legitimate “Free China” in opposi-tion to both Japanese imperialism and Chinese communism.

By tracing the ideological and material afterlives of Yasukuni-type shrines across impe-rial and nationalist regimes, this study advances a new framework for understanding war commemoration as a dynamic arena of sovereign contestation. It contributes to broader debates on nationalism, imperialism, religion, and memory by demonstrating how commemorative landscapes functioned as enduring instruments in the making and remaking of political legitimacy in modern East Asia.

Paper short abstract

From the 1980s Yasukuni was reframed as a more controversial site in British media, but this coverage was not necessarily from a ‘British’ angle. Chinese and Korean objections have become the primary focus, marking Yasukuni as a global symbol of Japanese international criticism within wider Britain.

Paper long abstract

This research paper traces the evolving representation of Yasukuni Shrine in the British media from the early postwar period to the present day, highlighting a significant shift in both the framing and function of the shrine within British reporting on Japan. Initially, Yasukuni was barely referenced and, when mentioned, was treated as an unremarkable site commemorating Japan’s war dead. This relative indifference is understandable and not that surprising in a pre-1978 context, which was before the enshrinement of several Class A war criminals at the shrine. This does not mean there were no controversies however, with scattered concern underscoring public relations in the British press during the 1970s, such as the 1975 Royal Visit and the proposal for the Queen to go to Yasukuni for example.

From the 1980s onwards however, Yasukuni became an increasingly more controversial subject in British media coverage. While the shrine continued to be presented as inappropriate or problematic, the rationale for reporting on it changed. No longer was it primarily a source of British concern, but a broad symbol of unresolved wartime memory in East Asia over Japan’s actions during the Second World War. British resentment and moral judgement dramatically gave way to reporting about Chinese and Korean objections, completely reframing Yasukuni as a solely East Asian flashpoint of transnational historical and diplomatic tensions. This dramatic reframing has never been fully explored to my knowledge, despite this change only becoming more rooted and prevalent.

My research is important for it will highlight and explain how British media have mediated and reassigned Yasukuni as a historical controversy that exists effectively devoid of any immediate British interest. This change, I theorise, is largely related to the memory of World War Two, especially East of Suez, becoming ever distant, leaving any flashpoints of ‘British’ outrage increasingly irrelevant and seemingly less ‘newsworthy’ as a result. My paper will show how Yasukuni news, situated within the wider British media environment, has become increasingly oriented toward foreign controversy, outrage, and polarisation as the memory of British concerns or angst at Japan has nationally faded.