Lecture
Manga and Militarism
- Date
- Friday 20 March 2026
- Time
- Serie
- Leiden Lecture Series in Japanese Studies
- Address
-
Herta Mohr
Witte Singel 27A
2311 BG Leiden - Room
- 0.02
Abstract
During the Cold War, Japan’s post-World War Two military, the Japan Self-Defense Force (JSDF), were an entity that were noticeable in popular culture by their absence. Their erasure from the popular imaginary is part of Japan’s “culture of antimilitarism”: a societal consensus sceptical of military violence as a means of securing the state and uncomfortable with the military as an institution. It constrained Japan’s scope for remilitarisation during the Cold War, and it is often cited by those sceptical of Japan’s capacity to embark on a new security trajectory. In this talk, I outline a formation of manga that are rehabilitating the JSDF in Japan’s popular imaginary, posing an interpretive challenge to the “culture of antimilitarism” that unwinds the social constraints on remilitarisation, thereby clearing the way for the new security trajectory reflected in the “three security documents” announced on 16th December 2022. I explore the industry origins of this new formation and unpack three different patterns of JSDF violence: constrained, frantic, and dominant, that rehabilitate military violence and thereby rehabilitate the JSDF as a military institution. Using a New Durkheimian perspective of society, the talk will illustrate (pun intended) how manga function as prominent cultural artefacts that shape Japan’s societal consensus; and will outline a process of “cultural remilitarisation” recalibrating Japan’s societal consensus to support remilitarisation.
About the speaker
Dr. Max Warrack is a Teaching Fellow in Politics and International Studies (East Asia) at the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. He was awarded his PhD in Politics and International Studies from the same university in 2023. His work focuses on contemporary Japanese militarism and the broader relationship between politics and the media-entertainment industry. He has published with The Pacific Review; and reviewed articles for Memory, Mind & Media, the Journal of War & Culture Studies, and The Pacific Review.