The Right Wing in Japan You Don't Know

The recent assassination of Amber is probably the most shocking political news of the year. Aside from the world mourning the politician, unsurprisingly, Chinese schadenfreude continues to lead the world. In the first half of the year, the duty of a dutiful son in the Russian-Ukrainian war has not been completed, and this has begun to dance again. A nationalist who burns, kills and loots in other countries is considered to embody a man's Jedi counterattack after he can't bear it, while another nationalist who is committed to improving the country's defense capability is considered to be fighting for the resurrection of militarism. spiritualism. Why are these two nationalists treated differently in the hearts of Chinese netizens? What's the root cause here? Today we will talk about this topic.

Hello everyone, I'm Marley, this is a small channel that advocates thinking and tearing fifty cents by hand. In each issue, we will combine a political and economic case to discuss the reasons behind him and different thinking dimensions.

As for what kind of stuff the goose father is, people with a clearer mind can't be more clear. We won’t discuss too much today. Interested friends can read my previous issue devoted to the ethnic origins of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Today we will focus on talking about why China (even South Korea) likes to hold on to Japan's pigtails. Check it out for yourself), so we still focus on the Chinese.

As far as I know, there are only two spectacular scenes of "Sending the Prime Minister off the Ten Mile Street", one is the death of Zhou Enlai in 1976, which everyone is familiar with, and the other is Abe's funeral today. What these two leaders have in common is that they are hard-edged externally, they fight for every inch of land, and they are amiable and sympathetic to the public. So why is Abe an uncompromising and unfriendly image of China in the eyes of the Chinese? In addition to the stereotype of Japan's past history, another important reason is that after several years of baptism, the Chinese still have little knowledge of modern politics.

I have mentioned more than once in the previous program that many words in Chinese today originate from Japanese that were introduced from Japanese by early thinkers and revolutionaries after the Meiji Restoration. This includes the word "politics". Although the term "politics" appeared very early in ancient Chinese, the meaning of "politics" in ancient China was completely different from that of "politics" in the West (or ancient Greece). There is no corresponding word for it. Sun Yat-sen believed that "governance is for everyone, governance is management, and managing people's affairs is politics." Therefore, the term "modern politics" has officially entered China. If we have to discuss the origin of the word, it will be endless. It is undeniable that the influence of Japanese culture in China since modern times cannot be washed away. Officially, because of this wonderful symbiosis of the same text and different species, it is inevitable that some texts are incorrect and self-righteous in the Chinese people's understanding of the ideological products imported from Japanese.

Since Abe came to power, we have often heard the saying of "the rise of right-wing forces in Japan". Whenever there is a conflict between China and Japan, public opinion often uses words such as "right-wing" and "right-leaning" to criticize relevant Japanese politicians and values. It seems that right-leaning in the Chinese context represents fascism and militarism. But in fact, this is a common-sense error and ignorance of international politics. In the political spectrum of the world, the difference between left and right is only the focus of political ideas. In simple terms, the left represents freedom, equality, and radicalism, while the right represents conservative, tough, vested interests, etc. However, at the actual operational level, there will be a lot of integration and wrestling, so it is difficult to use the distinction between left and right to simplify. Define their respective political demands.

Let's take Japan as an example. Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party are generally considered to be typical right-wing parties, and Abe is a hawk in the right wing, so he left many Chinese with the impression of "right-wing" during his term of office. . I don’t know if it’s because the propaganda agencies deliberately set the rhythm, or if China and Japan have different understandings of Chinese characters. In fact, in Japan, “right wing” and “right wing” are two completely different concepts. In the Japanese context, "rightist" belongs to the concept of a political faction. As mentioned earlier, it only represents the ruling policy of a certain party. Most of them hope to normalize Japan and even get rid of the control of the United States, although Japan also has "Left" parties, such as the Socialist Party, have very little influence in parliament. Looking at the history of Japan's ruling party after the war, it was almost occupied by right-wing or center-right parties represented by the Liberal Democratic Party, which means that the political and economic foundation of the entire Japanese society was established and dominated by the right-wing party. It is estimated that this will be the case in the future, even more right-leaning. If Japan has been in power for a long time by a rightist, will China and South Korea, as neighboring countries, have to launch an unbearable anti-fascist war with Russia to solve this problem?

When it comes to the "right-wing" in Japan, it is a different concept. The so-called right-wing generally refers to right-wing groups. Objectively speaking, there is indeed a conservative and tough force in Japan. They deny that Japan launched a war of aggression, do not recognize the trial of Japanese war criminals by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and advocate the revision of Japan's pacifist constitution. According to statistics, there are more than 1,000 right-wing groups in Japan, large and small, with different views. On the whole, they support xenophobia, constitutional revision and even militaristic expansion. You can understand it as the Japanese wolf warrior faction, which is similar to the nature of the Tianan Society or the Hong Kong underworld we mentioned earlier. They are just a group of civil groups who love life and cosplay, and they have no direct relationship with these politicians involved in politics. relation. And the word "right-wing" in Japanese usually has a derogatory connotation. Because many right-wing groups advocate some extreme practices, such as assassination, coup d'etat, etc., most of the assassins who assassinated politicians in Japanese history were right-wing extremists. Two different things.

So in fact, the Chinese have long confused the concepts of "right wing" and "right wing" in Japan. From a political standpoint, the right-wing must support right-wing parties, and among the right-wing parties, the views of the hawks and the right-wing will overlap more, but the doves and the right-wing have almost nothing in common. For example, the previous Junichiro Koizumi, Abe and others, they are committed to the normalization of the country and other political views inevitably overlap with the right wing, but it does not mean that they are a group. In modern democracies, politicians must abide by basic political rules and international play, and everything must be done in accordance with procedures, and it is impossible to implement those extreme claims of right-wing groups. The so-called Japanese right-wing groups that we often hear of history textbooks that "beautify" the war of aggression actually have a very low adoption rate in Japanese schools, and support for such textbooks is also quite limited for Japanese companies. The Japanese government and most ordinary Japanese people do not It is denied that Japan has ever had a war of aggression against China, and it has caused great pain to China and even Asia.

Now let’s talk about the so-called right-wing prime minister’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. It’s already a menstrual post. Here I quote the Japanese scholar Yasuda Fengjun saying that China and Japan have fundamentally different concepts of life and death. The wrongdoer never seems to forgive, that is, the so-called dead must make atonement. In one of his travel experiences in China, he found that people admired the patriotic general Yue Fei, and even spit on the statue of the traitor Qin Hui, so it is not difficult for us to understand why the Chinese like to use the phrase "Nailed on the pillar of shame in history" ", "Death is not a pity". Words like "and the dead are great" seem to apply only to those who were great in life.

The Japanese view of death and life should be able to say that "death is atonement". No matter what merits and sins he had committed during his lifetime, the deceased can become the object of sacrifice. Even "invaders against Japan" can be worshipped. In the late 13th century, Kublai Khan sent an army of 10,000 people to the south into Japan twice. The invading army was mainly from the Southern Song Dynasty and Goryeo. On the way, he went to Japan to massacre and kidnap residents on Tsushima Island and Iki Island. Finally, he joined forces with Japanese samurai on the coast of Kyushu. In the bloody battle, the fallen corpses were scattered everywhere. However, at the Yuankou Shrine in Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu, in addition to worshipping the heroic spirits of the country, even the souls of invaders such as soldiers of the Yuan Dynasty are also worshipped at the same time. Yasuda said that the consciousness behind these traditional folk customs of the Japanese is very complex, which is a composite product of many spiritual elements, such as the East Asian-style ancestor worship customs, the Buddhist concept of pure land, and the pantheism of the indigenous people of the Japanese archipelago.

So what are the intentions of different people to visit Yasukuni God? I don’t want to speculate. I will list a fact here. Although the Yasukuni Shrine was under state administration before the war, it was changed to a religious legal person after the war, but its back is still There is a very strong concept of traditional Japanese folklore. Among the nearly 2.47 million heroic pillars placed at the Yasukuni Shrine, there are only 14 "A-class war criminals" and only a few hundred "BC-class war criminals". Most of the others are ordinary officers and soldiers and other souls who gave their lives for the country. From the standpoint of the Japanese, especially the survivors of the fallen, the main deities of the Yasukuni Shrine are ordinary people, who are not deeply aware of the existence of "war criminals". In the consciousness of many Japanese people, there is no contradiction between "reflecting on the past and facing history" and "visiting the Yasukuni Shrine and thinking about the deceased". Speaking of which, I am sure that many patriotic youths and their families who were brutally killed by the Japanese army cannot accept it. Here I express my complete understanding of the psychology of the victims. But from an individual point of view, let's imagine that if you are a murderer's family, don't you have the right to put a plant of incense on your son, husband, and father during Qingming? Who wants to bear the notoriety of being scolded for the rest of their lives?

Therefore, by understanding different cultural connotations and returning to human nature, we can let go of historical grievances and allow ourselves to see the facts clearly.

The issue of Japan's constitutional revision is also considered to be a major move by the right-wing forces. In the perception of Chinese public opinion, constitutional revision is equivalent to the resurrection of militarism, which is equivalent to the imminent arrival of the Third World War. As we all know, Japan's pacifist constitution, as a punitive constitution after the war, did have a deterrent effect. The Japanese warriors of the year were also convinced and willing to become the younger brother of the United States and served as the watchdog for the elder brother for more than 70 years. As a nation with such strong self-esteem, it seems that the rightists in Japan want to realize the ideal of the great rejuvenation of the Yamato nation as soon as possible. This is understandable in any country.

Every year, May 3 is a special holiday for the Japanese nationals - Constitution Day. Every year at this time, major media in Japan carry out polls on whether it is necessary to amend the constitution. Since the birth of this poll, whether or not to amend the constitution has always been an unavoidable topic among the people. Those who support the revision of the constitution are generally around 40%. Affected by the Russian-Ukrainian war this year, the number of people who support the revision of the constitution this year is said to have reached a record high. Japanese columnist Yoshi Kato said that more and more Japanese believe that the current constitution is difficult to adapt to the new era, but the concept of maintaining a "peaceful constitution" still has a deep foundation. (Sino-British joint declaration of historical document material) In addition, the large number of "hard to say" answers does not mean that they have no answers, but reflects that the Japanese still have a complicated attitude towards "that war".

Article 96 of the Japanese Constitution stipulates that constitutional amendments must first be approved by more than two-thirds of the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then put to a referendum, which must be approved by more than half. This is also the basic threshold for most democratic countries to amend the constitution. It is because of this threshold that Japan and most democratic countries have difficulties in amending the constitution. Many Chinese feel that the hawkish Abe's promotion of constitutional revision is mainly aimed at China. Let's think about it from another angle. If you are really strong and powerful, why should you be afraid of "warning the resurrection of Japanese militarism"? Many Japanese people, whether they are constitutional revisionists or constitutional defenders, are surprised and inconceivable when they hear this theory. You think too highly of us. Just like when Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons and abandoned its martial arts, now I say I want to join a fight club to practice my body, but my ex-husband Russia quit, saying that you are provoking me, you can only be a widow for the rest of your life, and I will beat you up. This kind of logic can only be explained by the deep love between father and son.

Since China has entered the era of acceleration, it has always been possible to change the way to play with less and less good friends. This is really the policy of the Party Central Committee and the perfect combination of the broad masses of the people. Since the anti-Japanese sentiment kicked off, the Japanese people's favorability toward Chinese people has hovered almost overwhelmingly at around 10%, which means that 9 out of 10 Japanese people have a negative attitude towards China or the Chinese. This is really unprecedented in two countries with similar cultures and neighbors, and no one has come since. China's political understanding is either black or white, which has caused the citizens to look at issues in a low-political, commercial and populist manner.

Although the behaviors and habits of the Japanese do not represent universal values and absolute correctness, they blindly regard "constitutional revision", "military normalization", "visiting the Yasukuni Shrine" and other behaviors as well as "Japanese right-wing" and "militarism" as simple and crude. Equally, and scolding "the failure to reflect on historical crimes", this approach obviously lacks understanding of Japanese culture and political structure, can only show one's own ignorance, fuel the fire, and cannot produce any constructive results. On the contrary, in disguise, many people with centrist positions have also begun to turn to the right and even the right. While the Chinese are laughing at the collective right turn of the world, never thought that all this is your own credit. The normal relations between China and Japan and China and the United States, which were finally established by the forefathers of the Republic, have all vanished in less than 50 years.

Sending the Prime Minister from Shili Changjie, and wishing Mr. Ampei a good journey! I'm Marley, just subscribe and like it when you see it here, we'll see you next time, bye bye!