Robert Dujarric of Temple University Japan had an op-ed in the Japan Times Wednesday in which he argued, "Japanese society may have problems but nationalism is not one of them."He argues:Regardless of the metric used, Japan scores very low on nationalism. Its investment in its armed forces as a percentage of national income is small, …
Tag: East Asian nationalism
Can anyone say straw man?
Komori Yoshihisa, defender of Japan's honor Sankei Shimbun's editor at large based in Washington, has "exposed" the alleged activities of Chinese-American groups in putting the screws on House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos (D-CA-12) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA-8) to get them both to support rapid passage of the comfort women …
The nationalism question, revisited yet again
Although the comfort women resolution appears to be on hold until after Japan holds Upper House elections next month, the waters have been roiled by a full-page advert in the Washington Post taken out by a bipartisan group of Japanese legislators, as well as journalists and commentators (including Abe confidante Okazaki Hisahiko) laying out "The …
Continue reading The nationalism question, revisited yet again
China, multinational empire
I have to disagree respectfully with Zen Pundit, who, in a post riffing off a post by Tom Barnett, argues, "Historically, China has taken a similar [to Europe] ethnocentric view of citizenship ( it is rare though not impossible, for a foreigner not of Chinese ancestry to become a citizen of China); Beijing's ability to …
A Korean admires Koizumi
This op-ed from the Chosun Ilbo by Tokyo correspondent Jong Son-U -- entitled "We Can Learn Much From Japanese Patriotism" -- provides yet another reminder of why it is unfair to view Japanese nationalism as a unique threat to the region.Jong writes of a visit to Yasukuni by Koizumi last year:I felt strangely envious at …
Tobias S. Harris 