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Precis: " A Genealogy of 'Japanese' Self-images" (2002) by Eiji Oguma

In Eiji Oguma’s book “A Genealogy of ‘Japanese’ Self-images” (2002), he examines how and when the "myth of of the homogenous nation” emerged as the dominant self-image of the Japanese since the Great Japanese Empire. By analyzing the different theories and debates of historians, sociologists, and other scholars of the Japanese self-image, excluding debates on Nihonjinron, in order to put emphasis on the concepts that premised the various discourses discussed by individual thinkers as the identity of the Japanese nation, Oguma shows that the main focus of all the concepts point toward the theory of the Japanese nation as it emerges from the dominant majority, and that the emphasis of the myth relies on historical consciousness and debates on the origins of the Japanese nation. Through the application of history of ideas as the methodology and sociology as the fundamental approach, Oguma concludes that the use of “theory of ethnic homogeneity” was for protection when Japan was weak (postwar as consequence of the defeat), and the “mixed nation theory” was used to interact with the outside world when Japan was strong (as promoted in the national ideology for assimilation for the empire.) Furthermore, through brief introduction and comparison to western scholarships in the formation of consciousness of the majority such as Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, Oguma situates the discourses on Japanese nation and self-image as something that is not isolated to the country itself, nor is it exclusively a result of intra-national events. This book can serve as a valuable source for researchers and students pertaining to the subject matter, especially as it tries to analyze the differing discourses on Japanese self-image without settling to define which is superior over the other, rather by emphasizing the importance of relations (national and international) as a key factor for the discourses.

(October 11, 2018)

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