The Greatest Myth of Modern Japan

Ideological Discourse on Japanese Uniqueness

What makes Japan what it is? What makes Japanese people Japanese?

The tension between evolution and identity is a perennial philosophical question. The famous thought experiment the Ship of Theseus is a good example of this paradox. The experiment asks whether a ship that has had all its parts replaced remains the same ship, questioning what the true essence of a ship is. Such a doubt becomes even stronger when it comes to more abstract entities, such as nations.

Unlike stars, nations do not exist as a result of some natural laws. They are constructed entities, formed in places through historical, cultural, and ideological processes. Nations are not only formed by such processes, but they also evolve through them. The fact that nations evolve raises the question of their continuity.

Japan, my adopted country, is a very interesting case in this regard. Contrary to popular belief, the discourses that help shape the idea of “Japan” are intellectually constructed, regularly reactivated, but clearly based on inaccuracies. Often little to none of the concepts associated with “Japaneseness” are connected to real history and the people who live on the islands of Japan.

This is problematic because it leads people, even Japanese themselves, to interact with Japan and Japanese people in an ill-informed manner, often leading to disrespectful behavior or racist judgments.

In this article, I would like to discuss some of them. My point, of course, is not to say that Japan does not exist, which would be a radical and misleading conclusion, but to show that there is nothing obvious or uniform about how the Japanese see themselves or how they are seen by others.