Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T22:30:57.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Ambivalent Relationship of Japan's Soft Power Diplomacy and Princess Mononoke: Tosaka Jun's philosophy of culture as moral reflection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2014

KOSUKE SHIMIZU
KOSUKE SHIMIZU*
Affiliation:
Professor of International Relations at Faculty of International Studies, Ryukoku University, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Culture is a demanding word, particularly when it is used in the context of the contemporary academic discipline of international relations (IR). It is often employed in order to distinguish one identity from another, allegedly illuminating idiosyncrasies embedded in a particular society or group of people. The essentialized understanding of culture is also detectable in the case of the current debate on the non-Western international relations theories (IRT). Non-Western politicians and scholars often employ the term culture in order to distinguish their values from alleged Western values. However, culture has another important function mainly advanced by a left-wing Kyoto School philosopher Tosaka Jun, that is, culture as a mirror for critical reflection for morality (Tosaka, 1966). This article is based on Tosaka's argument that culture has an important function for moral reflection beyond that of a mere means to identify one's distinctiveness from the West, and it criticizes Japan's soft power diplomacy or the total absence of it from that point of view. It also argues that this absence is the result of the soft power discourse's over-simplified interpretation of culture that results in confrontation between the West and the rest, particularly when it is employed in non-Western IRT discourses. Towards the end, I examine Miyazaki Hayao's films, Princes Mononoke in particular, as examples of cultural works facilitating a moment of critical reflection, and I extract embedded messages of relevance to critical reflection on contemporary IR literature, particularly non-Western literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 683 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acharya, Amitav and Buzan, Barry (2010), Non-Western International Relations Theories: From and Beyond the West, Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Aoki, Tamotsu (2003), Tabunka Sekai (Multicultural World), Tokyo: Iwanamishoten.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah (1963), Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah (1968), The Origins of the Totalitarianism, San Diego: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Aso, Taro (2006), ‘A New Look at Cultural Diplomacy: A Call to Japan's Cultural Practitioners’, Speech by Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Aso at Digital Hollywood University, available at MOFA, http://www.mofa.go.jp/announce/fm/aso/speech0604--2.html (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks, Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith trans., New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Heng, Yee-Kuang (2010), ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Softest of Them All? Evaluating Japanese and Chinese Strategies in the “Soft” Power Competition Era’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 10: 275–304.Google Scholar
Hirano, Kenichiro (2005), Sengo Nippon no Kokusai Koryu (International Exchange in the Post-War Era), Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel (1993), ‘Clash of Civilizations’, Foreign Affairs, 72 (3): 22–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishihara, Shintaro (1994), Kakuare Sokoku: Hokoreru Nipponkoku Sozo no Tameni (Be This Motherland: For the Establishment of Japan with Honour), Tokyo: Kobunsha.Google Scholar
Iwabuchi, Koichi (2007), Bunka no Taiwaryoku: Sofuto Pawa to Burando Nashonarizumu wo Koete (The Dialogic Power of Culture: Beyond Soft Power and Branding Nationalism), Tokyo: Nipponkeizaishimbun.Google Scholar
Katsumata, Hiro (2012), ‘Japanese Popular Culture in East Asia: A New Insight into Regional Community Building’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 12: 133–60.Google Scholar
Kondo, Seiichi (2004), ‘Bunka Gaiko Saizensen’ (The Forefront of Cultural Diplomacy), Tokyo: MOFA, http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/press/staff/bunkagaiko/040429.html (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Kondo, Seiichi (2008), Bunka Gaiko no Saizensen Nite: Bunka no Fuhensei to Tokushusei wo Meguru 24 no Essei (At the Forefront of Cultural Diplomacy: 24 Essays on Cultural Universality and Particularity), Kamakura: Kamakura Shunjusha.Google Scholar
Kondo, Seiichi and Takemura, Kenichi (2010), ‘21 Seikino Kunizukuri wa Keizai Seicho Ippento Dehanaku Bunka Geijutsu Shinko ga Daiji Desu: Kondo Seiichi Bunka Chokan Tono Taidan’ (What is Important for the Nation Building for the 21st Century is not just Economic Growth but also the Promotion of Culture and Arts: An Interview with Kondo Seiichi, Commissioner for Cultural Affairs), Keizaikai, 932: 74–7.Google Scholar
Kondo, Seiichi (2013), ‘Nihonjin to Nihon Bunka’ (Japanese and Japanese Culture), Nippon.Com, http://www.nippon.com/ja/column/g00085/#auth_profile_0 (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Kosaka, Masaaki, Nishitani, Keiji, Koyama, Iwai, and Suzuki, Sigetaka (1943), Sekaishiteki Tachiba to Nihon (World Historical Standpoint and Japan), Tokyo: Chuokoron.Google Scholar
Machimura, Nobutaka (2005), Japan's Global Strategy and the Japan–US Global Partnership on the 60th Anniversary of the End of World War II, available at MOFA, http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/un/fmv0504/speech.html (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Marukusu, Kyoichi (1991), Gendai kokusai shakai no shiza (The Standpoint for Contemporary International Society), Tokyo: Maruzen.Google Scholar
Matsumura, Masayoshi (2002), Kokusai Koryushi: Kingendai Nippon no Kohobunka gaiko to Minkan Koryu (The History of International Exchange Programme: Japan's Public Diplomacy and Private Exchange), Tokyo: Chijinkan.Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2007), Magnetism of Japan: Nihon no Sofuto Pawa wo Otte (The Magnetism: On the Soft Power of Japan), www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/annai/listen/interview2/intv_01.html (accessed 6 July 2012).Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2010), Gaiko Seisho (Diplomacy Blue Book), Tokyo: MOFA, www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/bluebook/2010/pdf/pdfs/3_3.pdf (accessed 3 July 2012).Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2013a), Kaigai Shuyo Media no Nihon Kanren Hodo (Japanese Related Report of Foreign Media), Tokyo: MOFA, http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/press/sekai/2013/0319.html (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) (2013b), Poppu Karucha Gaiko (Pop-Culture Diplomacy), Tokyo: MOFA, http://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/gaiko/culture/koryu/pop/ (accessed 30 April 2013).Google Scholar
Miyazaki, Hayao (1996), Shuppatsuten: 1979–1996 (The Beginning: 1979–1996), Tokyo: Tokumashoten.Google Scholar
Miyazaki, Hayao (2008), Orikaeshiten: 1997–2008 (The Turn: 1997–2008), Tokyo: Iwanamishoten.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Ichiya (2013), Kontentsu to Kokka Senryaku: Sofuto Pawa to Nihon Saiko (Contents and State Strategy: Soft Power and Japan's Reconstruction), Tokyo: Kadokawa.Google Scholar
Nakanishi, Terumasa (1992), Motto Sumatoni Taikoku Nippon: Nippon Gaiko Ishin ni Mukete (Be a More Smart Japan as a Big Power: For the Diplomatic Restoration of Japan), Tokyo: Kobundo.Google Scholar
Neki, Akira (2001), Nippon no Bunka Seisaku: ‘Bunka Seisakugaku’ no Kochiku ni Mukete (Japan's Cultural Policies: Towards the Construction of ‘Cultural Policy Studies’), Tokyo: Keiso Shobo.Google Scholar
Neki, Akira (2010), Bunka Seisakugaku Nyumon (An Introduction to Cultural Policy Studies), Tokyo: Suiyosha.Google Scholar
Nishida, Kitaro (1950), ‘Nihonbunka no mondai’ (The Question of Japanese culture), in Nishida Kitaro Zenshu (Collection of Nishida Kitaro), Tokyo: Iwanami, Vol. 12, pp. 275–383.Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph (2004), Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, New York: Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Nye, Joseph S. (1990), Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, Basic, New York.Google Scholar
O’Hagan, Jacinta (2002), ‘Conflict, Convergence, or Coexistence?: The Relevance of Culture in Reframing World Order’, in Falk, Richard, Edwin, Lester, Ruiz, J., and Walker, R.B.J. (eds.), Reframing the International: Law, Culture, Politics, New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Otmazgin, Nissim Kadosh (2008), ‘Contesting Soft Power: Japanese Popular Culture in East and Southeast Asia’, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, 8: 73–101.Google Scholar
Ozawa, Ichiro (1993), Nippon Kaizo Keikaku (The Reorganization Plan for Japan), Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Shimizu, Kosuke (2006), ‘Discourses of Leadership and Japanese Political Economy: Three Phallus-Centrists’, Afrasian Working Paper Series No. 10, Kyoto: Afrasian Centre for Peace and Development Studies.Google Scholar
Takenaka, Heizo (1999), Sofuto Pawa Keizai: 21 Seiki Nippon no Mitorizu (Soft Power Economy: Japan's Blueprint in the 21st Century), Tokyo: PHP Kenkyusho.Google Scholar
Tosaka, Jun (1966), ‘Dotokuno Kannen’ (The Concept of Morality), in Tosaka Jun Zenshu (Completed Works of Tosaka Jun), Tokyo: Keisoshobo, pp. 211–68.Google Scholar