Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-px5tt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-11T08:09:52.687Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Koreans, Go Home! ‘Internet Nationalism in Contemporary Japan as a Digitally Mediated Subculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Rumi Sakamoto
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

On 18 September 2009, a person using the online name of ‘xegnojw’ posted a four-minute video on YouTube entitled ‘Japanese Racists Hoot Down Korean Tourists in Tsushima’. It depicted members of a Japanese nationalist group harassing Korean tourists on Tsushima, a Japanese island 138 km from Fukuoka and 50km from Busan. This island has been attracting attention from Japanese nationalists because of the increasing presence of Korean tourists and Korean investment since the 2002 opening of high-speed ferry service between Busan and Tsushima. Nationalist campaigns over the island intensified when Korea's Masan City adopted the ‘Tsushima Day’ bill in 2005, claiming that Tsushima should be a Korean territory, thereby countering Shimane prefecture's ‘Takeshima Day’, establishing Japanese claim to Korea's Dokdo island. The YouTube video in question captured several flag-holding Japanese men and women yelling: ‘Go home, Koreans!' and ‘We won't allow a Korean invasion!' at tourists fresh off the ferry from Busan. Though not physically violent, the atmosphere was tense and disturbing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 10 , March 2011 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2011

References

Anderson, B. (1991) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Bakker, P. (2001) ‘New Nationalism: The Internet Crusade’, Paper presented for the 2001 International Studies Association Annual Convention, Chicago, IL, 20-24 February 2001.Google Scholar
Bureuilly, J. (1994) Nationalism and the State. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Candan, M. and Hunger, U. (2008) ‘Nation Building Online: A Case Study of Kurdish Migrants in Germany’, German Policy Studies 4 (4): 125–153.Google Scholar
Card, J. (2006) ‘A Chronicle of Korea-Japan Friendship’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus..Google Scholar
Chan, B. (2006) ‘Virtual Communities and Chinese National Identity’, Journal of Chinese Overseas 2 (1): 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksen, T. H. (2007) ‘Nationalism and the Internet’, Nations and Nationalism 13 (1): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, E. (1983) Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gries, P. H. (2005) ‘Chinese Nationalism: Challenging the State?’, Current History 104 (683): 251–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Honda, Y. (2007) ‘Focusing on Contemporary Japan's “Youth” Nationalism’, Social Sciences Japan Journal 10 (2): 281–286.Google Scholar
Iida, Y. (2003) ‘Shikaku ideorogī to fetisshu to shite no nashonarizumu [nationalism as a visual ideology and fetish]’, Gengobunka kenkyū kiyō 15 (1): 91–104.Google Scholar
Iwasaki, M. et al. (2008) ‘The Topology of Post-1990s Historical Revisionism’, positions 16 (3): 507–538.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
J-Cast News (2009) ‘2 channerā: igaina jituzō [unexpected reality of 2-chan users]’, [online] Available here [Accessed: 4 Feb 2011].Google Scholar
Kimura, M. (Interview) ‘Uyoku wa netto-uyoku o dō miteirunoka [right-wingers’ perspectives on netto-uyo]’, in Kobayashi, D. (ed.) Netto-uyoku tte donna yatsu? [Netto-uyoku - who are they?] Tokyo: Takarajimasha: 128–131.Google Scholar
Kondo, R. and Tanizaki, A. (2007) Netto-uyoku to sabukaru minshu-shugi [netto-uyoku and subcultural democracy]. Tokyo: San'ichi shobō.Google Scholar
Kosugi, R. (2006) ‘;Youth Employment in Japan's Economic Recovery: “Freeters” and “NEETs”, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.Google Scholar
Langman, L. (2005) ‘From Virtual Public Spheres to Global Justice: a Critical Theory of Internetworked Social Movements’, Sociological Theory 23 (1): 42–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, S-D. (2006) ‘China's Popular Nationalism on the Internet: Report on the 2005 Anti-Japan Network Struggles’, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 7 (1): 144–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavan McCormack, G. (2011) ‘Small Islands – Big Problem: Senkaku/Diaoyu and the Weight of History and Geography in China-Japan Relations’, The Asia-Pacific Journal 19 (1. 1) January.Google Scholar
Maruyama, M. (1964) Gendai-seiji no shisō to kōdō [thoughts and actions in contemporary politics]. Tokyo: Miraisha.Google Scholar
McLelland, M. (2008) ‘“Race” on the Japanese Internet: Discussing Korea and Koreans on “2-channeru”’, New Media & Society 10(6): 811–829.Google Scholar
Miyamoto, M. (2009) Tsushima ga abunai [Tsushima under threat]. Tokyo: Sankei-shimbun.Google Scholar
Miyoshi, M. (1989) ‘Against Native Grain’, Miyoshi, M. and H.D. Harootunian (eds.) Postmodernism and Japan. Durham: Duke University Press: 143–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris-Suzuki, T. (2011) ‘Guarding the Borders of Japan: Occupation, Korean War and Frontier Controls’, The Asia-Pacific Journal 9 (8. 3).Google Scholar
Negroponte, N. (1996) Being Digital. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Nimiya, K. (2003) Koeni dashite yomenai netto keijiban [Internet BBS that cannot be read aloud]. Tokyo: Chukō shinsho rakure.Google Scholar
Oguma, E. (1995) Tan'itsu minzoku shinwa no kigen [The origin of the homogeneity myth]. Tokyo: Shinyōsha.Google Scholar
Oguma, E. and Ueno, Y. (2003) Iyashi no nashonarizumu (Nationalism as Healing). Tokyo: Keiōgijuku-daigaku shuppankai.Google Scholar
Ogura, T. (2005) ‘Sengo nashonarizumu no shūen to arata na nashonarizumu no taitō [the end of the postwar nationalism and the emergence of new nationalism]’, in Ishizaka, K. et al. Higashi-ajia: kōsakusuru nashonarizumu [East Asia: intermingling nationalism]. Tokyo: Shakaihyōronsha: 168–211.Google Scholar
Poster, M. (2001) (ed.) Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Poster, M. (1995) ‘Postmodern Virtualities’, [online] Available here [Accessed: 10 Feb 2010].CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rheingold, H. (1993) The Virtual Community. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Rheingold, H. (2003) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution: Ttransforming Cultures and Communities in an Age of Instant Access. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sanstein, C. (2001) Republic.com. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sasada, H. (2006) ‘Youth and Nationalism in Japan’, SAIS Review 26 (2): 109–122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seto, H. (2008) ‘Watashi wa naze netto-uyoku o shuchō surunoka [why do I insist on being a netto-uyo?]’, in Kobayashi, D. (ed.) Netto-uyoku tte donna yatsu? [Netto-uyoku – who are they?]. Tokyo: Takarajimasha: 73–78.Google Scholar
Sia, C-L., Tan, B. C. Y. and Wei, K-K. (2002) ‘Group Polarization and Computer-Mediated Communication: Effects of Communication Cues, Social Presence, and Anonymity’, Information systems Research 13 (1): 70–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, D. (2010) ‘The Making of Japan's New Working Class: “Freeters” and the Progression From Middle School to the Labor Market’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus..Google Scholar
Takahara, M. (2006) Fuan-gata nashonarizumu no jidai [The era of anxiety-type nationalism]. Tokyo: Yōsensha.Google Scholar
Tanimichi, K. (2005) ‘The Youthful Face of Japanese Nationalism’, Far Eastern Economic Review 168 (10): 33–36.Google Scholar
Tsuji, D. (2008) ‘Intānetto ni okeru “ukei-ka” genshō ni kansuru jisshō kenkyū: chōsa kekka gaiyō hōkokusho [An empirical study of right-leaning phenomenon on the Internet: a summary report] ‘[online] Available here [Accessed: 4 Feb 2011].Google Scholar
Turkel, S. (1997) Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Yamamoto, K. (2010) Kokkyō no shima ga abunai [Islands at national borders are under threat]. Tokyo: Asuka-shinsha.Google Scholar
Yang, G. (2003) ‘The Co-evolution of the Internet and Civil Society in China’, Asian Survey 43 (3): 405–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoshimi, S. and Kang, S-J (2001) Gurōbaru-ka no enkin-hō: atarashii kōkyō-kūkan o motomete [Perspectives on globalization: in search of a new public space]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.Google Scholar
Slater, D. (2010) The Making of Japan's New Working Class: “Freeters” and the Progression From Middle School to the Labor Market’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.Google Scholar
Wada, H. (2005) ‘Takeshima/Tokdo - A Plea to Resolve a Worsening Japan-Korea Dispute’, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus.Google Scholar
Zhou, Y., Chuang, Y-C. et al. ‘Living on the Cyber Border: Minjian Political Writers in Chinese Cyberspace (1)’, Current Anthropology 46 (5) 779–804.Google Scholar
Zizek, S. (1989) The Sublime Object of Ideology. London; New York: Verso.Google Scholar