Japanese nationalism

Japanese nationalism (Japanese: 国家主義, Hepburn: Kokka shugi^?) is the nationalism that asserts that the Japanese are a nation and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. It encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny. It is useful to distinguish Japanese cultural nationalism (see also nihonjinron) from political or state-directed nationalism (i.e., Shōwa statism), since many forms of cultural nationalism, such as those associated with folkloric studies (i.e., Yanagita Kunio), have been hostile to state-fostered nationalism.

In Meiji period Japan, nationalist ideology consisted of a blend of native and imported political philosophies, initially developed by the Meiji government to promote national unity and patriotism, first in defense against colonization by Western powers, and later in a struggle to attain equality with the Great Powers. It evolved through the Taishō and Shōwa periods to justify an increasingly totalitarian government and overseas expansionism, and provided a political and ideological foundation for the actions of the Japanese military in the years leading up to World War II.

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