Instead of the standard division of postwar Japanese political history into three periods—early postwar, postwar and post-postwar—it can be argued that it is better to make the simpler and more dynamic distinction between the rise of the left up to the 1970s and then the rise and dominance of the New Right from the late 1980s onwards. Most historians of the postwar period tend to focus on cultural continuity or gradual change but such narratives mask dramatic changes so that the meaning of left and right, and even what it means to be Japanese, has seen a much more radical shift overtime during the period than most historians and certainly most Japanese seem willing to acknowledge. Looking at the change in the left and right in Japanese postwar history helps to make more sense of key events and obvious shifts in the political landscape overtime than can be understood through standard historical accounts of postwar Japan.

Introduction

When I first came to Japan in 1980 as a university student, Japanese students were strongly influenced by the ideas of the political left. The word feudal (hōken) was used to discuss what they viewed as outdated traditional practices, drawing for the most part unconsciously on earlier Marxist debates. Few young people admitted to supporting the conservative ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In contrast, in 2019, when I began to work at a Japanese university for the first time in many years, all the young people I met demonstrated immense pride in Japan rather than being critical of it. At first, they would invariably ask if I like Japan and seemed to crave reassurance that Japan was a great and special place. It is not that students in 1980 did not love Japan, with some exceptions, but that my recent conversations with young people focused on nationalistic pride. At the time, Abe Shinzō was still prime minister and his book Towards a Beautiful Country (Utsukushii kuni e), which he published in 2006 during his rise to power, was in the background, in sharp contrast to the ideas of the political left in the 1970s.

There is a clear explanation for this shift from left to right among young people. In explaining it, it is necessary to rethink the periodization of what is meant by postwar Japan.