New nationalism?

There was a very interesting panel discussion at Temple University in Tokyo about the LDP’s efforts to amend the Constitution and what this portends for human rights. It was noted that part of this LDP effort rests upon a rejection of what is called the Western conceit of universal human rights and an appeal to crafting a Constitution more in line with what the LDP sees as Japanese tradition.

In the question-and-answer session, one of the people asked why this nationalistic LDP effort seems to have more appeal to young people now than it had to young people in, say, the LDP’s early years. Why are today’s young people more nationalistic than young people were in, say, the 1960s? The answer was, basically, “I don’t know. Perhaps because they have been domesticated.” But I wonder if the question’s premise is true. Are young people today more nationalistic than young people were in the early 1960s?

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Today, the LDP is positioning its effort as an effort to decouple Japan from a U.S.-imposed Constitution. Never mind that the LDP proposals have a very Chinese ring with the emphasis on the preservation of public order, they are not being proposed as a turn toward China. Rather, they are being advertised as an effort to enable Japan to chart its own course. And it is this appeal that finds support among young people. Is there any real difference in the degree of nationalism involved?

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