ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Naoko Kumada argues that while the post-war national legislature in Japan invalidated the pre-war militarism, contemporary Japan is seeing a revival of these narratives through educational reform under the Abe administration. Kumada ultimately argues that this revival must be critically examined in the historical context of Shinto nationalism and its consequent ultra-nationalist outcomes. While the government moves on constitutional reforms to pave the way for the re-arming of Japan, educational reforms are drawing once more on the ideology of wartime Japan. Kumada asserts that, therefore, we are observing a shift in the post-war Japanese nationalism, and the resurgence of religious nationalism of a peculiarly total character. It is these developments, she argues, which will ultimately normalize militarism, and, subsequently, any violence associated with that in the future.
