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Paper short abstract

The paper flips a core premise in the Japan security debate by identifying cultural artefacts that support rather than resist remilitarisation. Introducing the concept of cultural remilitarisation, it discusses manga featuring the JSDF that challenge Japan’s “culture of antimilitarism”.

Paper long abstract

There is an impasse in Japan’s security debate, obscuring evaluations of Japan’s military capabilities at a time of turbulence and tension in East Asia’s security environment. Material-focused scholarship emphasises defence build-up programmes and policy reforms that are cumulatively developing Japan’s autonomous security capabilities to argue Japan is remilitarising; and culture-focused scholarship emphasise a ‘culture of antimilitarism’ to argue these changes are insignificant. This paper explores a route through this impasse by flipping the premise on which it rests: that Japan’s culture resists remilitarisation. Using Jeffrey Alexander’s New Durkheimian conceptualisation of societal consensus, it frames manga as important cultural texts that reinforce, challenge, and otherwise shape Japan’s societal consensus. It explores a collection of manga that positively portray Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF) enactments of violence, identifying three patterns of violence: constrained, frantic, and dominant, that frame JSDF violence as a legitimate tool of statecraft. The paper thereby illustrates (pun intended) how these manga represent interpretive challenges to the antimilitarist societal consensus identified by Thomas U. Berger and others. The paper outlines a process of “cultural remilitarisation” connected to manga, introducing nuance to a key premise of the Japan security debate: Japan’s culture can support and encourage, as well as resist, remilitarisation. Moreover, it demonstrates the value of manga studies in the context of politics and international relations.

Keywords: international security, manga, militarism, new Durkheim, popular culture and politics