Kanji Nishio
Kanji Nishio (西尾 幹二, Nishio Kanji, July 20, 1935 – November 1, 2024) was a Japanese intellectual and professor emeritus of literature at the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo, Japan.
Life and career
[edit]Nishio was awarded a degree in German literature and a PhD in literature from the University of Tokyo. He translated the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer into Japanese and wrote over seventy published works and over thirty translations.[1]
Nishio, who was regarded as a rightist intellectual,[2][3] was the head of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (新しい歴史教科書を作る会, Atarashii Rekishi Kyokasho wo Tsukuru Kai). This was founded in January 1997 by right-wing scholars and cartoonists to devise a new Japanese history textbook because they considered existing ones to be "self-torturing".[4] Nishio had a wide following in Japan.[5] He was quoted as saying "Why should Japan be the only country that should teach kids -- 12- to 15-year-old kids -- bad things about itself? I think it is ridiculous, and very sad and tragic that Japan cannot write its own patriotic history. We lost the war, and a fantasy was born that by talking bad about yourself, you can strengthen your position. I call that masochistic".[3]
He opposed immigration into Japan because he believed it would cause social disorganisation and threaten social cohesion; the subtitle of one of his works is "foreign workers will destroy Japan". Nishio claimed "This is not necessarily an economic problem. Frankly speaking, it is a problem of ‘cultural defense’".[6]
Nishio died on November 1, 2024, at the age of 89.[7]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Profile at the Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact.
- ^ Bessho Yoshimi and Hasegawa Eiko, ‘The Logic of Apologizing for War Crimes "as a Japanese"’, Review of Japanese Culture and Society, Vol. 11/12, Violence in the Modern World (Special Issue) (December 1999-2000), p. 42.
- ^ a b French, Howard W. (2001-03-25). "Japan's Resurgent Far Right Tinkers With History". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-09-30.
- ^ Yuri Kase, ‘Japan's Nonnuclear Weapons Policy in the Changing Security Environment: Issues, Challenges, and Strategies’, World Affairs, Vol. 165, No. 3 (Winter 2003), p. 130.
- ^ Jennifer Lind, ‘The Perils of Apology: What Japan Shouldn't Learn From Germany’, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 88, No. 3 (May/June 2009), p. 136.
- ^ John Lie, Multi-Ethnic Japan (Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 15.
- ^ 評論家の西尾幹二さん死去 保守派の論客、「つくる会」初代会長 (in Japanese)
