oz

The truly interesting aspect is not that "Japan has suddenly turned bad," but rather that the national image—meticulously cultivated over decades since the war—is now being dismantled, piece by piece, by the Japanese themselves. In the postwar, Japan successfully executed a long-term rebranding of its national image: It transformed itself from an aggressor, a colonizer, and a defeated nation into an "exemplary Asian state"—synonymous with peace, politeness, order, anime, technology, and shokunin kishitsu (artisan spirit). Through anime, video games, automobiles, electronics, and tourism campaigns, Japan consistently projected an image that was entirely depoliticized and stripped of any association with war. A key reason this image held up for so long was that the Japan the outside world perceived was the very version of itself that Japan chose to export. Social media has fundamentally altered this dynamic. It is no longer just diplomats, NHK, or animation studios speaking on Japan's behalf; ordinary Japanese citizens are now speaking for themselves. They tell Muslims to "get out," spout colonialist rhetoric directed at China, South Korea, or Southeast Asia, openly whitewash fascist war crimes, and insult the victims of those wars—all while framing their xenophobia as "protecting Japanese culture." Consequently, the elements once obscured by cultural exports have been laid bare. Two other variables are also critical: long-term economic stagnation in Japan, coupled with the rise of China. The former has eroded the confidence of a nation that once saw itself as a "success story," while the latter has shattered Japan's long-held self-perception as the "only successful modernized nation in Asia." As a result, Japanese identity politics has increasingly come to rely on a sense of historical superiority, ethnic purity, and outward hostility—a way to compensate for a profound sense of loss in the present reality. The greatest irony is this: For eighty years, Japan has told the world, "We are no longer that Japan." Yet, every single day on social media, the Japanese themselves are proving: "That Japan never went away." And as for a nation's image—it may take decades to build, but it can be destroyed with startling speed. In the past, people from other countries might have come to know Japan through Hayao Miyazaki, Sony, Toyota, or Kyoto. More and more people are encountering Japanese political discourse for the first time, only to be met with sentiments like: “No Muslims.” “Get out, Chinese people.” “There was nothing wrong with colonizing Asia.” “Japanese militarism is something to be proud of.” In a way, this does more damage to Japan's soft power than any so-called "anti-Japanese propaganda" from abroad ever could. After all, the hardest form of propaganda to refute is never what others say about you. It is what you say yourself.