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Constructed Threats : Analyzing how China and North Korea are securitized in Japanese conservative newspapers in relation to the topics of Japan’s constitutional amendment

Lin, Zijian (2019) CÖSM40
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Abstract
Achieving constitutional amendment has been a goal for the Japanese conservatives for a long time, especially after the Cold War, because Japan’s peace identity has been perceived increasingly “abnormal” by the conservative elites in Japan. It thus engendered the heated debates surrounding whether Japan should change its peace identity via controversial constitutional amendment, which conflicts against established the norm of peace. The conservative elites have tried various methods to push forward the agenda of constitutional revision. Existing research revealed that, on the level of Japanese government, securitization of China and North Korea was a common method to influence public attitudes toward constitutional amendment. However,... (More)
Achieving constitutional amendment has been a goal for the Japanese conservatives for a long time, especially after the Cold War, because Japan’s peace identity has been perceived increasingly “abnormal” by the conservative elites in Japan. It thus engendered the heated debates surrounding whether Japan should change its peace identity via controversial constitutional amendment, which conflicts against established the norm of peace. The conservative elites have tried various methods to push forward the agenda of constitutional revision. Existing research revealed that, on the level of Japanese government, securitization of China and North Korea was a common method to influence public attitudes toward constitutional amendment. However, since the general public usually relies on mass-media for the news, instead of analyzing the government documents, this thesis explored how Japanese conservative newspapers shaped this issue in the general public. Based on social constructivism in International Relation (IR), this thesis adopted securitization theory to analyze the contents of the newspapers. The aim was to reveal whether the conservative newspapers also used securitization strategy when reporting relevant issues. Which themes are commonly used by the newspapers when portraying foreign threats? The result indicated that the conservative newspapers indeed adopted securitization to change people’s attitudes toward constitutional revision. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Lin, Zijian
supervisor
organization
course
CÖSM40
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Japan, International Relation, Constructivism, Securitization, Conservative newspapers, North Korea, China
language
English
id
8997509
date added to LUP
2019-11-07 09:50:17
date last changed
2020-02-24 11:32:02
@misc{8997509,
  abstract     = {{Achieving constitutional amendment has been a goal for the Japanese conservatives for a long time, especially after the Cold War, because Japan’s peace identity has been perceived increasingly “abnormal” by the conservative elites in Japan. It thus engendered the heated debates surrounding whether Japan should change its peace identity via controversial constitutional amendment, which conflicts against established the norm of peace. The conservative elites have tried various methods to push forward the agenda of constitutional revision. Existing research revealed that, on the level of Japanese government, securitization of China and North Korea was a common method to influence public attitudes toward constitutional amendment. However, since the general public usually relies on mass-media for the news, instead of analyzing the government documents, this thesis explored how Japanese conservative newspapers shaped this issue in the general public. Based on social constructivism in International Relation (IR), this thesis adopted securitization theory to analyze the contents of the newspapers. The aim was to reveal whether the conservative newspapers also used securitization strategy when reporting relevant issues. Which themes are commonly used by the newspapers when portraying foreign threats? The result indicated that the conservative newspapers indeed adopted securitization to change people’s attitudes toward constitutional revision.}},
  author       = {{Lin, Zijian}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Constructed Threats : Analyzing how China and North Korea are securitized in Japanese conservative newspapers in relation to the topics of Japan’s constitutional amendment}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}