Suchergebnisse

The research was focused on the political identity dynamics of the Japanese people through their attitude towards specific political issues, concepts, and doctrines, through ideas about the role of their country in the world, their attitude to "constituent Others" and their military history, as well as the analysis of differences between identities at the macro and micro levels during the emergence of the official course towards transforming Japan into a "normal country". The solution to this problem is relevant in regards to Russia building a constructive policy in relation to Japan. The article analyzes a series of special and longitudinal studies characterizing generational change over the past 20 years in order to determine how much Japanese political preferences have changed in reference points that reflect their political identity, and which of these points allow us to identify significant determinants. As a key determinant of these surveys, the authors selected the degree of stability of pacifist self-consciousness, while analyzing the cumulative effect of several major factors in the formation of pacifism as the core of Japanese political identity:

a) the archetypal principle of harmony (wa), expressed in the tendency of the Japanese people to smoothen out potential conflicts and in the outstanding ability to adapt and to adopt, b) the long-term implications of the constructivist paradigm in political rhetoric concerning the problem of national security; c) the impact of pacifist cultural and political discourse; d) the victimization complex that has developed in the wake of the defeat; and e) the absence of a clear perception of military threat in the society. Together, they make us believe that pacifist self-identification has a large margin of stability, and speak to the bifurcation of the current political identity of the Japanese people, which is experiencing a multi-vector pressure of the 'power' strategy of political realism and value-oriented approaches of constructivism. The authors identify the main directions of stratification of the political identity of Japanese society, point to some emerging trends in the realm of ideas on security policy, draw conclusions about the real place and influence of reflection on the Russian-Japanese territorial issue in the structure of Japanese political identity.

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.

AbstractThe current efforts of Moscow and Tokyo to unblock the territorial impasse are complicated by some barriers of a socio-psychological character, including mutual mistrust and contradictory images of past events. Public opinion surveys reveal predominant vectors in Russo-Japanese relations, which the authors believe strongly correlate with the evolution of the contradictory images. Apparently, these images surprisingly exhibit interrelated 'mirror' dynamics connected with the independent variable – events happening in bilateral relations. Apparently, these images surprisingly exhibit interrelated 'mirror' dynamics connected with the independent variable – events happening in bilateral relations. The authors also investigate how public opinion has a real impact on politics and relations between states. In the authors' opinion, Russia and Japan definitely do not have major unresolved problems in their bilateral relations, with the exception of the territorial problem. However, why is the public so suspicious of Russia? Can the territorial dispute be the only reason? It is far from that. The analyzed arguments give grounds to believe that it is very difficult for Japan and Russia to find a mutually acceptable solution, as their relations are not free from suspicion and mutual mistrust which are deeply rooted in the history of their relations. It will be much easier to overcome the mistrust and, accordingly, to reach agreement on the territorial issue when they manage to calmly analyze the historical grudges, understand their nature and origin, and realize that this is history, which has no contemporary value.