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The Ambivalent Relationship of Japan's Soft Power Diplomacy and Princess Mononoke: Tosaka Jun's philosophy of culture as moral reflection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2014

KOSUKE SHIMIZU
KOSUKE SHIMIZU*
Affiliation:
Professor of International Relations at Faculty of International Studies, Ryukoku University, Japanshimizu@world.ryukoku.ac.jp
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Abstract

Culture is a demanding word, particularly when it is used in the context of the contemporary academic discipline of international relations (IR). It is often employed in order to distinguish one identity from another, allegedly illuminating idiosyncrasies embedded in a particular society or group of people. The essentialized understanding of culture is also detectable in the case of the current debate on the non-Western international relations theories (IRT). Non-Western politicians and scholars often employ the term culture in order to distinguish their values from alleged Western values. However, culture has another important function mainly advanced by a left-wing Kyoto School philosopher Tosaka Jun, that is, culture as a mirror for critical reflection for morality (Tosaka, 1966). This article is based on Tosaka's argument that culture has an important function for moral reflection beyond that of a mere means to identify one's distinctiveness from the West, and it criticizes Japan's soft power diplomacy or the total absence of it from that point of view. It also argues that this absence is the result of the soft power discourse's over-simplified interpretation of culture that results in confrontation between the West and the rest, particularly when it is employed in non-Western IRT discourses. Towards the end, I examine Miyazaki Hayao's films, Princes Mononoke in particular, as examples of cultural works facilitating a moment of critical reflection, and I extract embedded messages of relevance to critical reflection on contemporary IR literature, particularly non-Western literature.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 683 - 698
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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