“Comfort Women Bashing” and Japan’s Social Formation of Hegemonic Masculinity

Abstract

In this chapter, Yuki Tanaka analyzes Japan’s present social formation, which allows Japanese men, in particular nationalistic male politicians, to openly exercise hegemonic masculinity. For this purpose, I examine Japan’s current socioeconomic systems, which clearly discriminate against women. I focus on various social problems that confront Japanese women such as the employment system, domestic violence and sexualized popular culture, which widely disseminate ideas of hegemonic masculinity into Japanese society, influencing everyone, including women. In conclusion, I make a proposal for setting up a law equivalent to Article 130 of the German Criminal Law (the so-called Auschwitz Lie Law) as a countermeasure to confront “comfort women bashing,” which is rapidly gaining momentum and adversely impacting popular thinking about Japan’s war responsibility.