This essay will examine the use of nationalism in modern Japanese political discourse. Three major parties exist in Japan: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Democratic Party (DP), and Japanese Restoration Party (JRP). Each party encourages nationalism to some degree. Despite this difference in degree, the parties provide a concrete manifestation of using history for political purposes. The paper argued for the use of nationalism by political parties en masse throughout the essay. Therefore, all parties will occasionally be referenced in the paper, but will merge into an aggregate of Japanese politics. For the overview of topics: Japanese political parties’ use of nationalism, comparisons to other Western countries, and an extrapolation based on the prior examples into the future of Japanese politics regarding nationalism.
