ABSTRACT
This chapter examines two annual public events held by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF): an air show conducted at Hamamatsu Air Base and an open day organized by an infantry regiment in a camp in the north of Kyoto Prefecture. The SDF exists in a context marked by powerful constitutional limits, a strong anti-militaristic culture, and the suspicion constantly voiced by the country's Asian neighbors about Japan's potential for remilitarization. The chapter argues that the armed forces actively seek legitimacy, acceptance and support through aestheticizing violence, or domesticating it. The militaries of today's industrialized democracies have been undergoing sweeping shifts in their domestic status, structure, missions and, most importantly, the ways they use the violent means at their disposal. The chapter attempts to raise questions about how anthropology may explore the relationship between military violence and its acceptability. It goes on explicitly to problematize the concept of normalizing military violence through public events.
