I’ve seen people talking about the recent election, and the term Right-wing comes up often, but when I hear Right-wing, I think I’m terms of the US right wing that’s very extreme and regressive.
What does it mean in the context of Japanese politics?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vw8ii9/what_does_rightwing_mean_in_japanese_politics/
11 comments
In the U.S., not accepting immigrants is treated as far right-wing but that is the middle way in Japan. Some far right wing people are extreme but basically it’s normal cuz people are generally more conservative in a US term.
It’s definitely not a clear scale, and it varies from issue to issue. Some parties can be more to the right on some issues and more to the left on other issues.
For example, when it comes to defense, “right-wing” parties tend to support increased defense budget and constitutional revisions to allow Japan to have a military and give more authoritarian control to the government. Left wing parties say that there should be a bigger focus on diplomacy (building strong ties with ASEAN etc), and that the increased military spending could instead be used to forgive the student debt of everyone in the country.
For issues like gay marriage and LGBT rights, it’s pretty much the LDP vs everyone else. (LDP is basically the only major party in opposition)
Right-wing parties tend to support reducing regulations and public spending (edit: on areas like social security), whereas left-wing parties tend to support creating a larger safety net.
Parties with large corporate benefactors tend to approve policies that support their benefactors regardless of being on the left or the right.
Economically, it’s all over the place. There are both fiscally liberal right-wing and left-wing parties, as well as fiscally conservative right-wing and left-wing parties. Even within a single party, opinion here can be quite divided.
This is a good website for seeing where each party stands on each issue:
https://choiceisyours2021.jp/
“Right-wing” in Japan isn’t terribly different from right-wing anywhere else, at least in the broad strokes. Ultimately, it’s all about reinforcing the power of the tiny segment of society that already wields the most power. The devil is just in the details – right-wing politicians moderate their public performances based on what the public will tolerate and is aware of – good examples of this might be to compare the way the Japanese right-wing and the US right-wing talk about militarism and LGBTQ+ rights.
The extreme nationalist of Japan, so to speak, right-wing guys, Netouyo guys on the internet are the official supporters of Japanese Imperialism.
Until now, they’ve been denying the fact that they were parts of AXIS based on Nazism & Japan’s brutal behaviors in WW2.
On top of that, they also wanted to deny the critical fact that they invaded territories of the US, particularly the combat of Pearl harbor.
Furthermore, they’ve been urging that Japan should have aggressive military organizations instead of the current defensive military but the US does not like those guys’ aggressive theories since Japan is a criminal nation in WW2.
But the former PM of Japan, Shinzo Abe aspired to fix the current peace constitution of Japan to attack other countries first…however, most citizens didn’t like that.
Because those citizens didn’t want to go on the battlefield as troopers.
So the former US leader Donald. J. Trump used to say that Americans shouldn’t forget the historic event in Pearl harbor even though the former PM of Japan, Shinzo Abe was his best buddy.
As a result, Shinzo Abe’s ruling party became the winner of this election, thus, lawmakers of Japan are going to fix or reform Japan’s current peace constitution to be a military nation.
Finally, Shinzo Abe would complete his life mission through his death.
Look up the Nippon Kaigi. They are essentially the LDP or at least have a huge influence over the party.
If you ever are in central Tokyo near government buildings in the Kasumigaseki area, it’s the black vans driving around blaring imperialist era propaganda from loud speakers. Waving their rising-sun flags and believing that the emperor is the only true leader of Japan.
The delusion that whatever you are doing is holding onto the past even though 99% of the that past is just make believe and never really existed.
The US Democrats are pretty much the same as other country’s conservative parties. The LDP is a right wing party in Japan.
Right wing means something a little different in the Japanese context (compared to say the U.S.) although there are areas of consonance. Japanese “right-wingers” are unlikely to call for lower government spending or lower taxes. Ironically, it is the more so-called “left-wing” parties in the Japanese context who are in favor of lowering (or eliminating) the consumption tax (although some anti-LDP right-wingers like the cranks at the NHK Party might also be opposed to this tax). Of course, the left-wing argument about the consumption tax would be that consumption taxes are regressive.
Japan’s universal healthcare was also introduced under an LDP government, and LDP governments were the ones who ramped up government spending/stimulus packages on infrastructure, etc. after the bursting of the economic bubble. I hardly think there’s any political party as conservative as the Republicans on economic issues in the Japanese context. The LDP is a little neoliberal, but under present prime minister Kishida, it seems more and more into “humane capitalism” rather than free markets, although it remains to be seen if Kishida’s “humane capitalism” is more rhetorical or something that is introduced into policy. I believe some people think that the Komeito is conservative, but Komeito politicians (e.g. [here](https://twitter.com/masaaki_taniai/status/1532552632791109633)) strongly protest against being called right-wing and describe themselves as centrists. The Komeito is pretty focused on micro and everyday issues and daily social welfare. Their focus on things like reducing school tuition fees, bringing AC to classrooms, reducing mobile phone fees, etc. sound pretty boring, but could hardly be considered right-wing. Their characterization as right-wing perhaps comes from their many years association with the conservative LDP.
On social issues though there is a clear right wing in the Japanese context. Maybe not gun fanatics like the Republicans and others in the U.S. context, but many LDP politicians have a reactionary and backward worldview as far as Japan’s history as an empire is concerned. Comfort women denialists and war crimes denialists have a space in the LDP. Most LDP politicians are also against same-sex marriage, although there is little in Japanese tradition that is vehemently opposed to homosexuality. I think right wing in the Japanese context is much more related to nationalism and xenophobia. Left and right don’t neatly map on to the Japanese political spectrum. It’s funny that calls for revising the Japanese constitution comes from conservative parties like the LDP, while calls to preserve it come from left wing parties like the Japanese Communist party. In the U.S. context, conservatives and Republicans are the originalists, and some liberals and Democrats may want to revise the U.S. constitution.
I wonder if the NHK Party is the most reactionary and right wing in the Japanese political spectrum. They seem to be a loony fringe, with possible rhetorical links to QAnon and other such conspiracy theorists.
Tl; dr: Right wing and left wing mean something different in the Japanese context (especially on social issues), although the right wing in Japan (like elsewhere) is conservative on social issues (especially on stuff like nationalism, xenophobia, opposition to LGBTQ rights, etc.)
It means denying what your country did in WW2
Historically revisionist.