The ‘Pro-Establishment’ Radical Right

Abstract

Japan has witnessed the rise of nativist demonstrations and hate crimes since the late 2000s, leading the Diet to enact the country’s first anti-racism law in 2016. The aim of this chapter is to examine the pro-establishment nature of Japan’s nativist movement. The movement often criticizes the ruling right-wing establishment but should be regarded as a detachment force of the establishment in two ways. First, Japanese nativism is a variant of historical revisionism and the emergence of nativist violence is a ‘by-product’ of the rise of historical revisionism among the right-wing establishment in post-Cold War Japan. Although the nativist movement and the right-wing establishment are not directly associated with each other, the former took full advantage of the discursive opportunity opened by the latter. Second, the general public favours the nativist movement as part of the conservative establishment.