Japan's "Amazing Japan" Narrative in Classrooms and on TV

Japan’s airwaves and bookstores filled with “Japan is amazing” content between 2012 and 2014, and the same narrative reached junior high classrooms. Scholars call these products “consciousness goods” — cultural goods that sell emotion and pride by praising Japan’s supposed unique superiority.

The boom overlapped with Shinzo Abe’s second term as prime minister and his cabinet’s “Cool Japan” strategy. Public broadcaster NHK and nearly every commercial network produced such programs, and many viewers saw or heard the self-congratulatory entertainment. Books followed the same pattern, with titles openly praising Japan and repeating slogans such as “pride as a Japanese” and “the brilliance of Japanese culture.” Researchers say the works rest on an essentialist view of culture that treats “Japan” as a single entity with fixed, superior traits.

A teacher’s classroom stories

Takeshi Hattori’s book matters because it records actual classroom practice. A social studies teacher at a public junior high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, he combined “moral education” with stories of historical figures to cultivate national pride in his students. Most of the material, however, comes from before Japan’s defeat in World War II: Japanese troops sent to Siberia to rescue Polish exiles, Major General Higuchi and Colonel Inuzuka rescuing Jews, letters left by kamikaze pilots, Yoichi Hatta, who was beloved in Taiwan, and Japan’s rescue of survivors from the Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul.

The stories may have factual bases, but moving them directly into 21st-century classrooms produces a clear sense of anachronism. They are pulled from their historical contexts and simplified into examples of “how amazing Japanese people are,” ignoring the colonial and wartime settings in which the events occurred. For junior high students who lack a full sense of historical judgment, this kind of narrative can foster a one-sided, even glorified, image of the nation.

Where entertainment ends and propaganda begins

TV variety shows reach far more people than classrooms do. When “Japan is amazing” becomes a common entertainment theme, viewers absorb an unexamined national narrative in a relaxed setting. Government-funded programs, human resources training sessions and cultural courses extend the reach further. Critics argue this is not merely an expression of cultural confidence but something closer to soft nationalist propaganda, echoing historical revisionism.

Supporters might counter that praising one’s own culture strengthens cohesion and that the stories convey mutual aid and self-sacrifice. The problem is that when the narrative systematically avoids Japan’s role as perpetrator in modern history and presents only episodes of “rescue” and “devotion,” it amounts to selective historical memory.

The popularity of “Japan is amazing” books reflects anxiety over identity during a period of stalled economic growth. Compressing complex history into moving stories may bring brief pride, but it does not help produce citizens with discernment. When classrooms and television produce the same narrative, the question worth asking is how the next generation will understand their country’s place in the world.