Assessing Japan's Self-Perceived National Identities and Integration in Asia

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Assessing Japan's Self-Perceived National Identities and Integration in Asia Corso di Laurea magistrale (ordinamento ex D.M. 270/2004) in Relazioni Internazionali Comparate Tesi di Laurea Assessing Japan's self-perceived national identities and integration in Asia Relatore Ch. Prof. Rosa Caroli Correlatore Ch. Prof. Roberto Peruzzi Laureando Davide Sampaolesi Matricola 805304 Anno Accademico 2011 / 2012 Acknowledgments First of all I would like to express my thanks of gratitude to my thesis supervisor Prof.Rosa Caroli as well as to my co-supervisor Prof.Roberto Peruzzi. Most of this thesis would not have been possible without their support and guidance. Special thanks go to my family and Giulia for their continuous support, love and patience. In Italy I am particularly indebted to Gabriele Protopapa, Patrizio Barbirotto, Alice Santinelli, Luca Bartozzi, Elena Santilli, Marco Trieste, Eleonora Rossi, Andrea del Bono, Alberto Lussana, Ulisse della Giacoma, Jan Trevisan, Davide Stevanato, Tommi, Tancredi Cocchi, Filippo Colombo, Daria Zanuttigh, Lorenzo Lazzati, Ilaria Zanandreis, Letizia Lanzi, Elio Ticca, Tolja Djokovic. In Japan I am particularly indebted to Yuki Chamberlain, Ayako Kajiwara, Ryuhei Watanabe, Teruko Maehara; in the UK to Paul Conversy, Mike Hamilton, Fahad Khan; Hasti Esfandiyari. I am also grateful to the European Delegation in Tokyo, to the Embassy of Italy in Japan and to the Asian Development Bank Institute, from which I received enormous insights on Japanese politics during my last visit to Japan in 2010-2011. Final thanks go to Christopher Ibbett and Lisa Albertani, proofreaders of this thesis. Contents − Index of figures and tables.................................................................................................. − Abstract / sintesi introduttiva.............................................................................................. - INTRODUCTION..............................................................................I 1. Objectives..............................................................................................I 2. International Relations Theories.........................................................III 3. Chapters outline...................................................................................V - CHAPTER ONE................................................................................1 Historical overview: from Orientalism to Re-Orientalism 1.1. Propaganda and Orientalism in the Pre-war period................................5 1.1.1 The Creation of the “Other”................................................................................6 1.1.2 The political and cultural shift to Pan-Asianism. “Asia as One”........................8 2.1 The Yellow Peril and the War.................................................................10 1.2.1 The Yellow Peril in the popular culture.............................................................10 1.2.2 The Anti-American propaganda.........................................................................13 1.2.3 The Anti-Japanese propaganda..........................................................................15 3.1 Occupation and Assimilation..................................................................18 1.3.1 The problem of positionality..............................................................................19 1.3.2 Ruth Benedict’s The Chrysanthemum and the Sword................................... ...20 1.3.3 John M. Maki and Edwin O. Reischauer’s visions of post-war Japan...............21 1.3.4 Concretization of the western ideas in post-war Japan......................................23 4. From Orientalism to Re-Orientalism...................................................24 - CHAPTER TWO...............................................................................27 Politics of identity: assimilating Re-Orientalism 2.1 The building of the Japanese nation: linking identity to nationalism......27 2.1.1.The origins of Nationalism in Japan: Tennō, Minzoku and Kokka....................27 2.1.2 Tennō...................................................................................................................32 2.1.3 Minzoku..............................................................................................................34 2.1.4 Kokumin and Kokka in 20thcentury Japan…......................................................36 2.1.5 Economic nationalism and war commemoration in 20th century Japan..............38 2.2 Patterns of Dependence: the Constitution of Japan..................................44 2.2.1 The American occupation and the process of drafting the Constitution..............45 2.2.2 Analysing the constitution....................................................................................47 2.3 Identity and domestic politics: changing models and actors....................57 2.3.1.Interpreting models of sociopolitical behaviour in Japan....................................59 2.3.2 Actors of domestic policies and the breakdown of the static national identity paradigma......................................................................................................................66 - CHAPTER THREE............................................................................81 Japan's national identity and regional integration 3.1 Regionalism and Regionalization............................................................82 3.1.1 I.R. Theories and Regionalism in East Asia.........................................................84 3.1.2 Socio-cultural regionalization in East Asia...........................................................85 3.1.3 Economic regionalism and regionalization...........................................................90 3.1.4 Japanese government role in improving regional integration...............................96 3.2. Japan's historical legacy and the reconstuction of memory....................102 3.2.1.Symbols and narratives........................................................................................102 3.2.2 Neo-Nationalisms and international relations in East Asia.................................106 3.3. Identity and agriculture in Japan.............................................................112 3.3.1.Declining population and the Gentan system......................................................114 3.3.2.The role of JA – Zenchu and its political dynamics.............................................117 3.3.3.FTAs: obstacles and measures.............................................................................121 Conclusions...........................................................................................126 - Appendix: Index of the Japanese terms...............................................................130 - Bibliography...........................................................................................................133 - Index of Figures and Tables - Chapter 1 1.1 Statistics relative to Japanese immigration and the Japanese in California (p.12) 1.2 Japanese Anti-American Propaganda (p.18) Chapter 2 2.1 Emperor, Empress and dignitaries at the ceremony for the promulgation of the Constitution (p.48) . 2.2 Nakane's model of Japanese society (p.61) 2.3 Trends in populations (p.70) 2.4 Proportion of elderly population by country (p.71) Chapter 3 3.1 Emerging Asian Regionalism (p.90) . 3.2 Japan's ODA Disbursement to China (p.99) 3.3.Japan's ODA -2009 (p.99) 3.4.Japanese FDI (p.100) 3.5 Chinese protests (p.110) 3.6 Size and age structure of the agricultural labour force, 1960-2005 (p.116) 3.7 Agricultural land necessary to sustain current food consumption (p.117) - Abstract/Sintesi Introduttiva - Il ruolo dell'identità nazionale giapponese è stato determinante nel condizionare le relazioni internazionali del paese nella regione. Costruita sotto le spinte di modernizzazione di fine '800, quando il paese ha dovuto re-inventare se stesso all'interno della dicotomia Occidente-Oriente, durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale è stata soggetta alle percezioni Orientaliste degli Stati Uniti, che hanno guidato la costruzione dell'immagine di "Altro". Nel dopoguerra queste percezioni sono state autoassimilate dal governo giapponese e proiettate verso la società nella sua volontà di ricostruire l'identità giapponese all'interno di coordinate pacifiste. Parallelamente, il sempre maggior ruolo del Giappone nei processi d'integrazione in Asia nelle forme di regionalismo e regionalizzazione, é contrastato dalla rinascita del sentimento nazionalista, soprattutto dagli anni 90, visto come reazione all' ”identità pacifista” e recupero di elementi propri dell'esperienza militarista e fascista giapponese. La tesi vuole dimostrare come le costruzioni d'identità, da una parte con il vittimismo e dall'altra con l'autoresponsabilizzazione sono sia ostacoli per la politica estera giapponese sia negazione della complessità dell'ibridismo culturale, politico, sociale giapponese per giustificare determinate politiche sociali e l'"unicità" giapponese. E' per questo che ho parlato di identità giapponesi (plurale), essendo questo un concetto multiforme e non statico, che si evolve nel tempo. Fino a che punto la costruzione dell'identità ha influenzato, negativamente o positivamente, lo sviluppo di politiche regionali da parte del governo giapponese? Come è stata creata, assimilata e proiettata verso l'esterno ? Qual è stata la posizione e il ruolo degli altri paesi dell'Asia Orientale all'interno dell' evoluzione storica di questa identità? Come si è evoluto il rapporto tra identità giapponese e regionalismo
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