, in

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

pronunciation as or is one of the terms used to describe

Japanese nationalism Japanese nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese people, Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas and sentimen ...

. Terms similar to include and . ''Kokusui shugi'' emphasizes the uniqueness of Japanese culture and tradition against and pursues

conservatism Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, Convention (norm), customs, and Value (ethics and social science ...

; is used in a similar sense.

History

''Kokusui shugi'' was based on ''

Sonnō jōi was a '' yojijukugo'' (four-character compound) phrase used as the rallying cry and slogan of a political movement in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, during the Bakumatsu period. Based on Neo-Confucianism and Japanese nativism, the movement sou ...

'', which emerged before the end of the

Edo Shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. After the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

, it appeared as a reaction to the Europeanization policy pursued by the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

government; at that time, the Japan's government was promoting Japan's modernization through the active introduction of Western culture. The term "Kokusui shugi" appears in the Japanese newspaper 『日本人』, which was founded in 1888 in , where

Shiga Shigetaka was the editor of the magazine ' during the Meiji period, in which he argued against extreme Westernization (Japanese: 欧化主義). Biography He was born in Yasuo-cho, Okazaki, Mikawa Province (present-day Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture ), ...

and

Miyake Setsurei was a Japanese philosopher and author. He helped found the Society for Political Education and its magazine ' (日本人, later known as ''Nihon Oyobi Nihonjin''). Biography He graduated from the University of Tokyo's Department of Philosoph ...

belonged; they opposed the Japanese government's Europeanization policy at the time. Unlike the early ''kokusui shugi'', in the middle of the

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

, the ''kokusui shugi'' ideology embraces Europeanization while preserving the traditional culture and lifestyle of Japan in order to develop Japanese civilization independently. ''Kokusui shugi'' served as a right-wing principle of action in favor of traditions or the state system and opposed the socialist mass movement; from the events of Manchuria in the early

Shōwa era The was a historical period of History of Japan, Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death on January 7, 1989. It was preceded by the T ...

to the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

, it also transformed into the

ultra-nationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific i ...

ideology of the . As such, the ''Kokusui shugi'' ideology is consistent in that it is a ''

kokutai is a concept in the Japanese language translatable as "system of government", "sovereignty", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; body politic; national entity; basis for the Emperor's sovereignty; Japanese constitut ...

'' theory that insists on the permanence of the ''

Tennō The emperor of Japan is the hereditary monarch and head of state of Japan. The emperor is defined by the Constitution of Japan as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, his position deriving from "the will of ...

''-central system, which has never been cut off from bloodline, while changing with the times.

References

Conservatism in Japan Essentialism * Right-wing politics in Japan {{Empire of Japan ja:国粋主義

History

See also

References