This article examines Japanese colonial rhetoric of Cheju Island through three publications: Saishūtō Annai (1905), Nansen Hōkutsu Saishūtō (1912), and Mikai no Hōko Saishūtō (1924). In so doing, this article reveals three interlocking observations through which Japan constructed Cheju as a colonial site. The first centers on discourses of cultural affinity and difference, the second includes the rhetoric of the treasure trove (hōko), and the third entails a discourse of development. A close reading of these texts reveals Japanese imperialism as a contingent practice, shaped by local conditions and the ambitions of the metropole.

Imperial Army General and wartime Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki is widely reviled today as a dictator or a war criminal. But in the early years of his premiership (1941–1944), he was a media darling, praised as a decisive leader and a warmhearted human being. This article spotlights wartime storytelling about Tōjō’s past and family life. It shows how media used biographical stories to champion an emotional politics of hope and unite the public behind Japan’s wartime leadership. Lionizing Tōjō represented a cry of hope that a strong, compassionate, and dutiful leader could help Japan escape its wartime crisis unscathed.

This article re-examines parental rights to religious education in contemporary Japan in light of post-2022 debates over “religious abuse” and shūkyō nisei, or people raised in religious families. Drawing on Japanese law and comparative constitutional perspectives, it argues that parental religious education should be recognized under Article 20 of the Constitution of Japan, but only as a relational and child-centered right. This article further contends that legal intervention should focus on harmful methods and effects rather than on religious doctrine as such. Such a framework would better protect both children’s rights and religious pluralism.

The film Godzilla Minus One has sparked debates over whether it is an anti- or pro-war film, whether it rejects the kamikaze or rewrites history to enable Japan to win World War II. This article evaluates these arguments by relating the film to other works by director Yamazaki Takeshi, especially his kamikaze film The Eternal Zero. It argues that these films share an attempt to solve contradictions about war and memory through emotional affect and technology, using the gaze of characters to mark a magical futurity and suggest an implied multiverse where Japan can be both pro- and anti-war.

This article reconsiders nihonga (Japanese-style painting) through the case of Okinawa. While often framed as the bearer of “Japanese tradition,” nihonga emerged as a modern institutional category shaped by state policy and art education. In Okinawa, its transmission followed a discontinuous trajectory marked by annexation, war, and delayed institutionalization. Through an analysis of works by Taira Yūki (b. 1989), Nizoe Marina (b. 1993), and Kyan Chie (b. 1969), this article demonstrates how contemporary artists engage and reconfigure nihonga from within. Their practices reveal the genre not as a stable inheritance, but as a historically mediated framework shaped by uneven transmission and institutional structures.

Japan’s pursuit of counterstrike capability exposes tensions between the self-defense limits in Article 9 of its constitution, the evolution of an exclusively defensive defense posture, and international legal standards. Expanding self-defense to include counterstrike requires reconciling constitutional constraints, strategic necessity, and strict tests of necessity and proportionality under Article 51 of the UN Charter. These pressures show that counterstrike is not a technical upgrade but a fundamental challenge to Japan’s legal identity, strategic doctrine, and credibility in the Indo-Pacific.