Sunday, February 5, 2012

Japan's Populist Right


In a previous post, Shisaku's Michael Cucek pointed out the national ambitions of Hashimoto Toru. Much of Hashimoto's celebrity results from his revisionist historical views and social conservatism. Hashimoto's nationalism, however, is different from Japan's mainstream conservative nationalists. It is rawer and draws from the despair of the average Japanese who see a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

This reactionary populism also manifests itself in the rhetoric of former General Tamogami Toshio and his Gambare Nippon movement. Both eschew "establishment" conservatism.  Above is a report by the Shingetsu News Agency of a Gambare Nippon rally outside the Yomiuri Shimbun against the newspaper's support for expanding Imperial succession through the female line. The Yomiuri is the paper of record for Japan's establishment.

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