ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the economic boom of the 1980s, "Japan-bashing", and the birth of kokusaika, which is the Japanese-style internationalization. It examines the post-bubble challenges of the 1990s and the switch from kokusaika to globalization. There are two diametrically opposed meanings for the term kokusaika: a Japanese-only nationalism that reinforces a "closed" national identity, and a more universalistic, global concept "transcending any idea of national identity". The chapter traces the emergence of the Cool Japan movement, which, in its desire to control and manipulate national images, has echoes of earlier kokusaika ideology, and identifies some of the problems with the Cool Japan project. It argues that Japan's reluctance to move beyond internationalization, embrace globalization, and truly open up severely limits any influence it hopes to obtain through its soft power diplomacy. The emergence of "kizuna" (human bonds) as the dominant metaphor to describe post-3/11 Japanese society hints at a new style of Japanese-only nationalism.
