'Japan is great' genre booms in bookshops

Exceeding even recent American triumphalism, a spate of bestsellers in Japan is reflecting a new national bent for self-congratulation.

Featuring on bookshop chain Kinokuniya's paperback bestseller rankings in recent months have been titles such as Japan, Foreigners Cry Out with Admiration (published by Takarajimasha), Why the People of the World Hanker After Japan (Koumyou Shisou Sha), and two Kodansha books: The Ministry of Finance and Leading Newspapers Have Concealed It: The Japanese Economy is Top in the World and Japan Just Like Switzerland: The Wealthiest Country in the World.

The number one bestseller for March on book chain Bunkyo-do's rankings, and also high on Amazon's Japan bestseller list, is a Kodansha title from US author Kent Gilbert, which loosely translates as Japan is Blessed, unlike China and Korea which are handicapped by Confucian Dogma.

The recent boom follows on from earlier publishing hits which have slammed Japan's neighbour rivals, such as Manga Kenkanryū (Hating the Korean Wave) by Sharin Yamano, published by Shinyusha in 2005, reported to have sold a million copies.

Linking the new jingoistic publishing epidemic to the historical revisionism kicked off in Japan in the mid-1990s, and the junta propaganda proceding WWII, critics and academics say there is cause for concern. An ultra-nationalist movement supported by the present prime minister, Shinzo Abe, which has sought to whitewash Japanese atrocities in WWII and introduced revisionists texts into Japan’s schools, is also sympathetic to the flag-waving titles, they say.

Detractors from the new mood of nationalism see shades of a revival in the “Japan is the greatest” and “land of the Gods” mythology that led to the country’s aggression in WWII and ultimately to Japan’s destruction. There is an “eerie similarity of the ‘Japan is great’ boom in the media today with that of the 1930s,” wrote professor Nakano Koichi in a preface to “Japan is Great” a series of articles published by The Asia-Pacific Journal recently.

With Japan’s economy limping badly, and being surpassed rapidly by rivals Korea and China, critics see the genre as divorced from reality. The secretary of “Booklovers against Racism”, Iwashita Yu, told The Asia-Pacific Journal that the publications are a dangerous exercise in narcissism. “Their goal has become confirming what they want to be said. It is extremely dangerous that they cannot see themselves objectively,” he said.

Other pundits put the sudden rush to see Japan acclaimed down to the approaching 2020 Olympics. “Since the original bid process promoted those so-called unique aspects of Japan, anyone who thought they could exploit Japanese exceptionalism for financial gain has done so,” Japan media expert Philip Brasor told The Bookseller.