Understanding Japan’s national identity

In 2013 the then Prime Minister Abe announced the reinterpretation of the Japanese Constitution and its implication to Japanese security and similarly, in 2022 when the Kishida Cabinet announced Japan’s National Security Strategy, National Defence Strategy, and Defence Build-up Program, articles were published under headlines such as “Japan Abandons Pacifism” (Watson 2022) or “The tragic death of Japan’s Pacifist brand” (Snow 2015). Pacifism (or antimilitarism) as a norm and Pacifist State (and its variations) has been used by Constructivist scholars to explain Japanese Foreign policy and Security policy since the end of World War II. But what is this phenomenon of identity, and how is the Japanese identity constructed? Who are the participants? What are the processes through which the so-called Japanese identity emerges? My presentation will answer these questions by showing a potential process model of how identities are negotiated and some examples of times when Japan’s identity came under scrutiny to test the proposed model.

Dorothy Pihaj is a PhD Candidate at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, who recently defended her thesis. She has been interested in Japanese Foreign Policy and Security policy throughout her higher education. She studied Japanese Studies at Eotvos Lorand University and did her Master's in International Relations at the same university. Her PhD thesis was the continuation of her master’s one that aimed to provide a well-rounded analysis of Japanese Security Policy and the implications of the findings of the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security juxtaposed to the sensational discourse of the news articles. Her research interests were mainly identity, constructivism, Japanese Foreign and Security Policy, conflict resolution and peacekeeping operations.