The North Korean abduction issue: emotions, securitisation and the reconstruction of Japanese identity from ‘aggressor’ to ‘victim’ and from ‘pacifist’ to ‘normal’

Hagström, Linus; Hanssen, Ulv

doi:10.1080/09512748.2014.970043

Cited by 27 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In this vein, Hagstrom and Hanssen (2015) illustrated the ways in which Japan reconstructs its ‘normal’ identity and subsequently its ‘more assertive’ security and defense policies by defining itself as a victim to North Korean aggressive policies. Similarly, Tamaki (2010, 2015) highlighted how Japan's narrative on a widely defined ‘Asia’ has prompted Tokyo to engage in its program of colonialism before World War II and compels policymakers to address territorial disputes with Asian neighbors in the present.…”

Section: Hierarchy Ir and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing hierarchy as the key international relations concept and its implications for the study of Japanese national identity

Kolmaš

2018

Japanese Journal of Political Science

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For the last few decades, the discipline of international relations has been littered with anarchy. Since Waltz's Theory of International Politics, it has been assumed that states are formally equal sovereign unitary actors operating in an anarchic world system and that their identities and interests are defined by the very existence of anarchy. This article shatters this conception. It offers a ‘hierarchical worldview’ in order to illustrate that the very concepts of state, sovereignty, and anarchy are discursive creations inherently tied to the practice of hierarchy. I use a case study of Japanese national identity to illustrate this practice. The narratives of Japan as an autonomous and sovereign state were inextricably linked to Japan's hierarchical relationship toward Asia and the West (pre-war) and the USA (post-war). Japan's sovereignty and autonomy were then formulated within the practice of hierarchy.

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Section: Hierarchy Ir and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconstructing hierarchy as the key international relations concept and its implications for the study of Japanese national identity

Kolmaš

2018

Japanese Journal of Political Science

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“…Moreover, although the North Korean rhetoric sounds belligerent, it could also be interpreted as strongly defensive ( Hagström and Turesson, 2009 ). Interestingly, the Japanese construction of North Korea as a threat also does not primarily invoke North Korea’s development of weapons systems, but rather Pyongyang’s abduction of some 17 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s — what is known as the ‘abduction issue’ ( Hagström and Hanssen, under review ).…”

Section: The Tendency: Japan’s ‘Normalisation’ or ‘Remilitarisation’?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, there is the ‘undemocratic’, ‘modern’ and ‘aggressive’ China (and North Korea, for that matter), which underscores Japan’s own ‘normality’ as a ‘Western’, ‘democratic’, ‘postmodern’ and ‘peaceful’ state (cf. Hagström and Hanssen, under review ). However, China is also curiously ‘normal’ in the neo-Bismarckian sense (and so is North Korea) — the securitisation of which further enables the securitisation of Japan’s own ‘abnormality’ or ‘weakness’, that is, the securitisation of Self — thereby making the political agenda to further ‘normalise’ or ‘remilitarise’ Japan conceivable, communicable and indeed coercive ( Hagström, 2012 ).…”

Section: Japanese Identity and Differencementioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘abnormal’ state: Identity, norm/exception and Japan

Hagström

2014

European Journal of International Relations

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The term ‘abnormal’ has frequently been used to describe post-war Japan. Together with the idea that the country will, or should have to, ‘normalise’ its foreign and security policy, it has been reproduced in both academia and Japanese society. Why is Japan branded as ‘abnormal’, and from where does the desire to ‘normalise’ it come? Drawing on a relational concept of identity, and the distinction between norm and exception, this article argues that the ‘abnormality–normalisation nexus’ can be understood in terms of three identity-producing processes: (1) the process whereby the Japanese Self is socialised in US/‘Western’ norms, ultimately constructing it as an Other in the international system; (2) the process whereby the Japanese Self imagines itself as ‘legitimately exceptional’ (what is called ‘exceptionalisation’), but also ‘illegitimately abnormal’ — both of which are epitomised by Japan’s ‘pacifism’; and (3) the process whereby both the Self’s ‘negative abnormality’ and China/Asia are securitised in attempts to realise a more ‘normal’ (or super-normal) Japanese Self. How Japan is inter subjectively constructed on a scale between ‘normal’ and ‘abnormal’ enables and constrains action. Although Japan has not remilitarised nearly as much in the 2000s as is often claimed, these processes might very well forebode an exceptional decision to become ‘normal’ and therefore more significant steps towards remilitarisation.

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“…Other scholars identify competing or complementary explanations at the individual and institutional levels: the advent and increasing power of conservative and revisionist politicians, such as current Prime Minister Abe Shinz o (Pugliese and Insisa 2017); the growing intra-governmental clout of Japan's defence establishment since the Defense Agency was promoted to the status of fully fledged ministry in 2007 (Schulze 2018); and the emergence of threat constructions relating primarily to China's rise and North Korea (for example , Gustafsson 2015a;Suzuki 2015;Hagstr€ om and Gustafsson 2015;Hagstr€ om and Hanssen 2015;. This article suggests that transnationally powerful narratives underpin and enable all the above-mentioned factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long live pacifism! Narrative power and Japan’s pacifist model

Gustafsson

Hagström

Hanssen

2019

Cambridge Review of International Affairs

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International relations research acknowledges that states can have different security policies but neglects the fact that 'models' may exist in the security policy realm. This article suggests that it is useful to think about models, which it argues can become examples for emulation or be undermined through narrative power. It illustrates the argument by analysing Japan's pacifism-an alternative approach to security policy which failed to become an internationally popular model and, despite serving the country well for many years, has even lost its appeal in Japan. Conventional explanations suggest that Japan's pacifist policies were 'abnormal', and that the Japanese eventually realized this. By contrast, this article argues that narratives undermined Japan's pacifism by mobilizing deep-seated beliefs about what is realistic and unrealistic in international politics, and launches a counter-narrative that could help make pacifism a more credible model in world politics.

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The North Korean abduction issue: emotions, securitisation and the reconstruction of Japanese identity from ‘aggressor’ to ‘victim’ and from ‘pacifist’ to ‘normal’

Cited by 27 publications

References 19 publications

Reconstructing hierarchy as the key international relations concept and its implications for the study of Japanese national identity

Reconstructing hierarchy as the key international relations concept and its implications for the study of Japanese national identity

The ‘abnormal’ state: Identity, norm/exception and Japan

Long live pacifism! Narrative power and Japan’s pacifist model

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