Japan's Far Right in East Asian Geopolitics : The Anatomy of New Xenophobic Movements

This paper seeks to explain the sudden rise and success of Japan's xenophobic far right movements in the late 2000s. While older far right groups were royalists and anti-communists indifferent to immigration issues, new right extremists specialize in attacking Korean and Chinese migrants with strong xenophobic sentiments. Although far right movements accuse Koreans and Chinese of enjoying ‘special privileges,’ such accusations are ungrounded in reality. Yet far right movements have succeeded in recruiting many young supporters. Why is this the case? Based on in-depth interviews with new right activists, I aim to clarify what is behind the hate against Koreans and Chinese, focusing on the influence of East Asian geopolitical predicaments. I argue that the new xenophobic right is generated by entrenched cold war sentiments and the lack of reconciliation between Japan and other East Asian countries. The data reveal that new far right activists were first fascinated by historical revisionism that justifies Japan's imperialism and/or outrages against the abduction of Japanese nationals by North Korea. They believe Japanese sovereignty is threatened by both South Korean and Chinese protests against Japan's revisionism and the North Korean abductions. Far right activists then began to identify the Korean and Chinese governments with Korean and Chinese migrants, thereby regarding them as ‘enemies within’ who engage in subversive activities.