Profile and Major Trends of Japanese Political Identity: Evidence from 1989–2018 Sociological Surveys

Abstract

The difference between non-Western and Western matrices of political identity has been attracting the attention of researchers since the end of the 19th century. This issue is located at the intersection of sociology and political science. The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of political identity in Japan based on public data from the past 20 years, which is analyzed while taking into account the characteristics of the national political system and the political culture of this country. The authors focus on the idea of Japan’s self-image, the most important tasks and preferred forms of governance, attitudes towards government institutions, as well as certain qualities of citizens in terms of their self-assessment as subjects. The article combines sociological methods for analyzing opinion polls with a historical and cultural approach, as well as the method of “deconstruction”, which involves defining the basic concepts, narratives, myths and other forms of discourse that have been transformed into elements of political identity or which influence its formation. Opinion surveys show that traditional mental patterns continue to play a significant role in shaping the configuration of the political identity of the Japanese, identifying such features as a trust in the patronizing representatives of the political class, an urge for social protection from the authorities, a high degree of national unity, support from the state as the main political entity, and a low level of individual participation. In the context of nonlinear dynamics of socio-political transformations, such unique features derive from the desire to rely on patrimonialism and other traditions.