Japans Neuerfindung als »Umweltnation« : Nationalismus zwischen Isolation und internationaler Integration im Post-Fukushima-Japan

Re-Inventing Japan as an »Environmental Nation«: Nationalism between Isolation and International Integration in Post-Fukushima Japan

Japanese nationalism has attracted much attention since the late 1990s when issues regarding historical revisionism or nationalism in pop culture, on the Internet, and surrounding sport events became the subject of heated debates in Japan and also abroad. However, recent efforts to re-invent Japan as an »environmental nation« living in »harmony with nature« remained relatively unnoticed by scholarly research. Against the background of globalization processes and challenges such as climate change, this notion was increasingly promoted since the 2000s by political initiatives and intellectuals alike. These efforts promised to be a way to gain more international influence despite Japan’s constitutional limitations (Article 9). This paper analyzes these initiatives and examines what impact the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake of 2011 and the nuclear disaster in Fukushima had on the attempt to remake Japan’s image into an »environmental nation« and how Japan’s endeavors since the 1990s to gain more international influence were also challenged by recent calls for a more isolationist position.