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{{Short description|Japanese political concept}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:Japanese words and phrases]]}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
[[File:Founding of the Nation by Kawamura Kiyoo.jpg|thumb|The nationalistic essence of ''kokutai'' is thought of as the uniqueness of the Japanese [[polity]] as issuing from a leader of [[Japanese imperial family tree|divine origin]].{{efn|In the illustration is the "Tokoyo no Naganakidori" (常世之長鳴鳥), a long-singing [[cockerel]] from the {{illm|Everlasting Land|ja|常世の国}} which appears in the [[Kojiki]] as the herald of Amaterasu.}}]]
{{nihongo|'''''Kokutai'''''|国体||"national body/structure of state"}} is a concept in the [[Japanese language]] translatable as "[[system of government]]", "[[sovereignty]]", "national identity, essence and character", "national polity; [[body politic]]; national entity; basis for the [[Emperor of Japan|Emperor's]] sovereignty; [[Japanese constitution]]" or [[nation]].

==Etymology==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2023}}
''Kokutai'' originated as a [[Sino-Japanese vocabulary|Sino-Japanese loanword]] from Chinese ''guoti'' ({{zh|c={{linktext|國體}}|p=guótǐ}}; "state political system; national governmental structure"). The Japanese [[Compound (linguistics)|compound word]] joins {{nihongo4||國|koku|"country; nation; province; land"}} and {{nihongo4||體|tai|"body; substance; object; structure; form; style"}}. According to the ''[[Hanyu Da Cidian]]'', the oldest ''guoti'' usages are in two [[Chinese classic texts]]. The 2nd century BC ''Guliang zhuan'' ({{zh|c=榖梁傳|l=Guliang's Commentary|labels=no}}) to the [[Spring and Autumn Annals]] glosses ''dafu'' ({{zh|c=大夫|l=high minister; senior official|labels=no}}) as ''guoti'' metaphorically meaning "embodiment of the country". The 1st century AD ''[[Book of Han]]'' history of [[Emperor Cheng of Han]] used ''guoti'' to mean "laws and governance" of Confucianist officials.

==Before 1868==
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2023}}
The historical origins of ''kokutai'' go back to pre-1868 periods, especially the [[Edo period]] ruled by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] (1603–1868).

[[Aizawa Seishisai]] (会沢正志斎, 1782–1863) was an authority on [[Neo-Confucianism]] and leader of the [[Mitogaku]] (水戸学 "Mito School") that supported direct restoration of the [[Imperial House of Japan]]. He popularized the word ''kokutai'' in his 1825 ''Shinron'' (新論 "New Theses"), which also introduced the term ''[[Sonnō jōi]]'' ("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").

Aizawa developed his ideas of ''kokutai'' using the idea that the Japanese national myths in the ''[[Kojiki]]'' and ''[[Nihon Shoki]]'' were historical facts, believing that the Emperor was directly descended from the sun goddess [[Amaterasu|Amaterasu-ōmikami]]. Aizawa idealized this divinely-ruled ancient Japan as a form of ''saisei itchi'' (祭政一致 "unity of religion and government") or theocracy. For early Japanese Neo-Confucian scholars, linguist [[Roy Andrew Miller]] says, "''kokutai'' meant something still rather vague and ill defined. It was more or less the Japanese 'nation's body' or 'national structure'."<ref name="Miller 1982">Miller, Roy Andrew (1982). ''Japan's Modern Myth''. New York: Weatherhill.</ref>{{rp|83}}

==From 1868 to 1945==

===From 1868 to 1890===
{{Unreferenced section|date=March 2023}}
[[Katō Hiroyuki]] (1836–1916) and [[Fukuzawa Yukichi]] (1835–1901) were [[Meiji period]] scholars who analyzed the dominance of Western civilization and urged progress for the Japanese nation.

In 1874, Katō wrote the ''Kokutai Shinron'' (国体新論 "New Theory of the National Body/Structure"), which criticized traditional Chinese and Japanese theories of government and, adopting Western theories of [[natural rights]], proposed a [[constitutional monarchy]] for Japan. He contrasted between ''kokutai'' and ''seitai'' (政体 "government body/structure"). Brownlee explains.

{{quote|The ''Kokutai-seitai'' distinction enabled conservatives to identify clearly as ''Kokutai'', National Essence, the "native Japanese", eternal, and immutable aspects of their polity, derived from history, tradition, and custom, and focused on the Emperor. The form of government, ''Seitai'', a secondary concept, then consisted of the historical arrangements for the exercise of political authority. ''Seitai'', the form of government, was historically contingent and changed through time. Japan had experienced in succession direct rule by the Emperors in ancient times, then the rule of the [[Fujiwara clan|Fujiwara]] Regents, then seven hundred years of rule by ''[[shōgun]]s'', followed by the allegedly direct rule of the Emperors again after the [[Meiji Restoration]]. Each was a ''seitai'', a form of government. In this understanding, the modern system of government under the Meiji Constitution, derived this time from foreign sources, was nothing more than another form of Japanese government, a new ''seitai''. The Constitution was nothing fundamental. <ref name="Brownlee 2000">Brownlee, John S. (2000). [http://www.adilegian.com/PDF/brownlee.pdf "Four Stages of the Japanese Kokutai (National Essence)"]. 2000.</ref>{{fcn|date=December 2024}}{{rp|5}}}} The concept of the ''kokutai'' was popularized during the Meiji era as Japanese elites had embraced a "crude [[Social Darwinism]]" as their guiding principles, seeing nations as being locked in perpetual struggle with one another for dominance, and as such the purpose of the Japanese state was first and foremost as a machine for conducting foreign policy.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=58}} In order to maintain support for the existing social system and for this view as the state for a machine for conducting foreign policy, the idea of the ''kokutai'' was popularized with the Japanese people being liked to one vast family under the rule of the patriarchal god-emperor.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=58}} The American historian M. G. Sheftall wrote that the concept of the ''kokutai'' was the ideological foundation stone of Japanese militarism, writing for millions of Japanese the ''kokutai'' was "...the mystical embodiment of the essential unity of the Japanese people, inextricably bound up with ''völkish'' ideas about the mythical divine origins of the nation, all under the august beneficence of the institution of the divine emperor and the proverbial protection of several millennia worth of ancestral ghosts. For the IJA [Imperial Japanese Army] and tens of millions of Emperor Meiji's subjects, the ''kokutai'' was not merely a source of pride and spiritual power for the nation, it was the lifeworld of the nation ''in toto'', not only in social and political terms, but also in theological and cosmological terms, and no means were too extreme and no sacrifice too great if deemed necessary for its survival".{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=60}} Sheftall wrote this way of viewing the ''kokutai'' as divinely sanctioned by a god-emperor led to a certain psychological in-balance as it was difficult for those who believed in the ''kokutai'' to accept any setback, which explains the immense rage that periodically erupted over any setback to Japan.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=63}} In 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth mediated by the American president Theodore Roosevelt ended the Russian-Japanese war, where Japan made gains, but nowhere near what was expected as the costs of the war had nearly bankrupted Japan, and thus the treaty was more favorable to Russia than it was assumed would be the case. The Treaty of Portsmouth led to anti-American rioting breaking out all over Japan and was presented in Japan as a national humiliation.  

[[Fukuzawa Yukichi]] was an influential author translator for the [[Japanese Embassy to the United States (1860)]]. His 1875 "Bunmeiron no Gairyaku" (文明論の概略 "An Outline of a Theory of Civilization") contradicted traditional ideas about ''kokutai''. He reasoned that it was not unique to Japan and that every nation could be said to have a ''kokutai'' "national sovereignty". While Fukuzawa respected the [[Emperor of Japan]], he believed ''kokutai'' did not depend upon myths of unbroken descent from Amaterasu.

===Meiji Constitution===
The [[Meiji Constitution|Constitution of the Empire of Japan]] of 1889 created a form of constitutional monarchy with the ''kokutai'' sovereign emperor and ''seitai'' organs of government. Article 4 declares that "the Emperor is the head of the Empire, combining in Himself the rights of sovereignty", uniting the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, although subject to the "consent of the Imperial Diet". This system utilized a democratic form, but in practice was closer to an absolute monarchy. The legal scholar Josefa López notes that under the Meiji Constitution, ''kokutai'' acquired an additional meaning.

{{quote|The Government created a whole perfect new cultural system around the Tennou [Emperor], and the ''kokutai'' was the expression of it. Moreover, the ''kokutai'' was the basis of the sovereignty. According to Tatsukichi Minobe, ''kokutai'' is understood as the "shape of the Estate" in the sense of "Tenno as the organ of the Estate", while the authoritarians gave the ''kokutai'' a mystical power. The Tennou was a "god" among "humans", the incarnation of the national morals. This notion of ''kokutai'' was extra-juridical, something more cultural than positive.<ref name="López 2006">Valderrama López, Josefa (2006). [http://seneca.uab.cat/hmic/2006/orientats/Kokutai.pdf "Beyond words: the 'kokutai' and its background"].{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} {{lang|es|Història Moderna i Contemporània}}. {{ISSN|1696-4403}}.</ref>}}

{{Conservatism in Japan|variants and movements}}

This stemmed from drafter [[Itō Hirobumi]]'s rejection of some European notions as unfit for Japan, as they stemmed from European constitutional practice and Christianity.<ref>W. G. Beasley, ''The Rise of Modern Japan'', pp. 79–80 {{ISBN|0-312-04077-6}}</ref> The references to the ''kokutai'' were the justification of the emperor's authority through his divine descent and the unbroken line of emperors, and the unique relationship between subject and sovereign. The "family-state" element in it was given a great deal of prominence by political philosophy.<ref name="beasley80">W. G. Beasley, ''The Rise of Modern Japan'', p. 80 {{ISBN|0-312-04077-6}}</ref> Many conservatives supported these principles as central to '''''<span class="anchor" id="Nihon shugi">Nihon shugi</span>'''''  (日本主義, "Japanism", or ''Nihon gunkoku shugi'', [[Japanese militarism]]), as an alternative to rapid Westernization.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/427 427–428]|quote=Japanists further circumscribed the permissible limits of political discourse. From the middle of the Meiji period, some conservatives had begun to advocate Nihon shugi, or Japanism, as an alternative to rapid Westernization. In particular, they wished to preserve traditional values and what they saw as Japan's unique national polity, or kokutai. For many conservatives in the Meiji era, the concept of the kokutai revolved around two principles. A divine line of emperors had ruled from time immemorial, and intimate familylike ties united the benevolent sovereign with his loyal subjects.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/427}}</ref> ''Nihon shugi'' is an ideology that values the traditional Japanese spirit and sets the tone of the state and society; it emerged in this period as a reaction to the [[Meiji government]]'s radical [[Europeanization]] policy.<ref name="kotobank">{{cite web |url=https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E4%B8%BB%E7%BE%A9-110186#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88 |title=日本主義 |access-date=12 March 2024 |website=kotobank.jp |language=ja }}</ref> Nihon shugi is a kind of "''kukka shugi''" (国家主義, lit. "statism" or "nationalism") ideology.<ref name="kotobank"/> ''Nihon Shugi'' opposed 'Europeanism' (欧化主義), [[democracy]] and [[socialism]], which were considered unrelated to Japanese traditions, and during the [[Taishō era|Taishō]] and [[Shōwa era]], it emphasized the ''Kokutai'' ideology centered on the emperor as opposed to [[Marxism]].<ref name="kotobank"/>

Initially, perceived threats to the ''kokutai'' were seen as coming from abroad, but starting in the early 20th century there was a tendency to see threats to the ''kokutai'' as coming from within.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=60}} The internal threats to the ''kokutai'' were seen first and foremost as class consciousness as Japanese peasants moved to cities to become the working class of the Japanese industrial revolution while other Japanese rose up to become a new middle class, both developments which were seen as threatening the ''kokutai'' between dividing Japanese society into classes with different interests.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61}} Other perceived threats to the ''kokutai'' were socialism and the rise of a trade union movement along with the rise of consumerism which were as seen as threatening the spiritual unity of the ''kokutai''.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61}} Finally, "Westernization" in a cultural sense was seen as damaging the ''kokutai'' by introducing foreign ideas into society.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61}} Paradoxically, the Russian-Japanese war emphasised these concerns about the cracks in the unity of the ''kokutai'' as it was believed that the principle reason for Russia's defeat was the gulf between the aristocratic officers of the Imperial Russian Army vs. the "salt-of-the-earth" common Russian soldiers, and that if a similar gulf were to emerge in Japanese society, then Japan too would be defeated in war.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61}} 

In 1910, the Army Minister [[Tanaka Giichi]] engaged in a project in "mass social engineering" by founding the semi-official ''Zaigo Gunjin Kai'' (Imperial Military Reserve Association) that worked closely with the Army Ministry to "spread militaristic thought among the population at large" as its founding charter put it.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61}} The purpose of the ''Zaigo Gunjin Kai'' was to solidify support for the ''kokutai'' as defined by the Imperial Japanese Army, which marked the beginning of the IJA as a political force.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=61-62}} In 1915, the Imperial Military Reserve Association founded the Youth Associations designed to provide realistic military training for Japanese high school students.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=62}} Later on in the 1920s, the Army Minister General [[Kazushige Ugaki]] founded the Youth Training Schools and the Attached Officer Program under which active duty serving officers worked as teachers in every elementary school and every high school in Japan.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=62}} Under the Attached Officer Program, IJA officers taught the youth of Japan military tactics and drill, gymnastics and what Sheftall called "a heavy dose of indoctrination in ultra-nationalistic ''kokutai'' ideology under the guise of 'civics'".{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=62}} This militarization of the educational system led to a marked xenophobic and militaristic mood amongst the Japanese people who had been indoctrinated into believing to fight and die for the god-Emperor as the leader of the ''kokutai'' was their highest duty.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=62}}

===Taishō Democracy===
From the [[Xinhai Revolution]] to the enactment of the [[Peace Preservation Law]] (1911–1925), the most important pre-World War II democracy movement "[[Taisho Democracy|Taishō Democracy]]" occurred. During the Taishō Democracy, the political theorist [[Sakuzō Yoshino]] (1878–1933) rejected Western democracy ''minshu shugi'' (民主主義 lit. "people rule principle/-ism") and proposed a compromise on imperial democracy ''minpon shugi'' (民本主義 "people based principle/-ism"). However, as [[Japanese nationalism]] grew, questions arose whether the ''kokutai'' emperor could be limited by the ''seitai'' government.

The [[Peace Preservation Law]] of 1925 forbade both forming and belonging to any organization that proposed altering the ''kokutai'' or the abolishment of private property, in effect criminalizing socialism, communism, [[republicanism]] and other anti-Tenno [[ideologies]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/390 390]|quote=At the same time that [the government] approved universal male suffrage, the Diet passed the Peace Preservation Law of 1925. Drafted by bureaucrats within the Ministry of Justice, the measure stipulated that anyone "who organizes a group for the purpose of changing the national polity (kokutai) or of denying the private property system, or anyone who knowingly participates in such group" could be jailed for ten years, or after the law was amended three years later, even executed.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/390}}</ref> The [[Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu|Tokkō]] ("Special Higher Police") was established to investigate political groups that might threaten Tenno-centered social order of Japan.<ref name="beasley184">W. G. Beasley, ''The Rise of Modern Japan'', p. 184. {{ISBN|0-312-04077-6}}.</ref>

===World War II===
[[Tatsukichi Minobe]] (1873–1948), a professor emeritus of law at [[University of Tokyo|Tokyo Imperial University]], theorized that under the Meiji Constitution, the emperor was an organ of the state and not a sacrosanct power beyond the state.<ref>[[Andrew Gordon (historian)|Andrew Gordon]], ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa to the Present'', pp. 198–199, {{ISBN|0-19-511060-9}}, {{OCLC|49704795}}</ref> This was regarded as ''[[lèse-majesté]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton |year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/428 428]|quote=In the 1930s, however, Japanists singled out Minobe for intense criticism. Battle was joined in 1934 when rightwing organizations, including the Imperial Military Reservists' Association, published accusatory books and pamphlets charging that Minobe's thoughts amounted to Ièse majesté.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/428}}</ref> Minobe was appointed to the [[House of Peers (Japan)|House of Peers]] in 1932 but forced to resign after an assassination attempt and vehement criticisms that he was disloyal to the emperor.<ref name="gordon199">Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa to the Present'', p. 199, {{ISBN|0-19-511060-9}}, {{OCLC|49704795}}</ref>

Great efforts were made to foment a "Japanese spirit" even in popular culture, as in the promotion of the "[[Ode of Showa Restoration|Song of Young Japan]]".<ref name="brendon441">[[Piers Brendon]], ''The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s'', p. 441 {{ISBN|0-375-40881-9}}</ref>

{{poemquote|
Brave warriors united in justice
In spirit a match for a million&nbsp;–
Ready like the myriad [[cherry blossom]]s to scatter
In the spring sky of the [[Shōwa Restoration]].<ref name="brendon441"/>
}}

The national debates over ''kokutai'' led the Prime Minister Prince [[Fumimaro Konoe]] to appoint a committee of Japan's leading professors to deliberate the matter. In 1937, they issued the ''Kokutai no Hongi'' (国体の本義, "Cardinal Principles of the National Body/Structure"<ref name="Gauntlett+Hall 1949">Gauntlett, John Owen and Hall, Robert King. ''Kokutai no hongi: cardinal principles of the national entity of Japan''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University press, 1949.</ref>). Miller gives this description. Increasingly, the ''kokutai'' was defined in militarised terms in the 1930s with calls being made for a ''gunkoku'' ("military nation") under which the entirety of the Japanese nation would be mobilised for war in peacetime with Japan to become a modern Asian version of ancient Sparta.{{sfn|Sheftall|2011|p=62}} 

{{quote|The document known as the ''Kokutai no Hongi'' was actually a pamphlet of 156 pages, an official publication of the [[Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology|Japanese Ministry of Education]], first issued in March 1937 and eventually circulated in millions of copies throughout the home islands and the empire. It contained the official teaching of the Japanese state on every aspect of domestic policy, international affairs, culture, and civilization.<ref name="Miller 1982"/>{{rp|92}}}}

It clearly stated its purpose: to overcome social unrest and to develop a new Japan.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/465 465–466]|quote=Besides hushing its critics, the government sought to inculcate good citizenship among schoolchildren by introducing a new textbook, Kokutai no hongi ('Cardinal Principles of the National Polity'), published by the Ministry of Education on March 30, 1937, as an official statement of the government's concept of the kokutai. The purpose of the text, according to its own conclusion, was to overcome social unrest and 'develop a new Japan by virtue of the Way of the Empire which stands firm throughout the ages at home and abroad, and thereby more than ever to guard and maintain the prosperity of the Imperial Throne which is coeval with heaven and earth.' Following a historical overview that paid special honor to the divine origins of the imperial line, a series of overtly nationalistic essays explored the virtues of Japan's 'special and unique' customs, culture, religion, morality, and way of life. Throughout the volume, the prose sang the praises of the national achievements of the past, credited those accomplishments to the wisdom of the imperial house, and called upon the Japanese of the 1930s to prepare themselves to make any sacrifice necessary to preserve the integrity of the emperor and nation.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/465}}</ref> From this pamphlet, pupils were taught to put the nation before the self, and that they were part of the state and not separate from it.<ref name="G. Beasley, p 187">W. G. Beasley, ''The Rise of Modern Japan'', p. 187 {{ISBN|0-312-04077-6}}</ref> It also instructed them in the principle of [[hakkō ichiu]] ("eight cords, one roof"), which would be used to justify imperialism.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/470 470]|quote=Konoe and Matsuoka added to the allure of a geographically extended coprosperity sphere by wrapping it in imperial shrouds. Any move south, they averred, would be accomplished 'peacefully' and in accordance, as Konoe so carefully phrased it in his radio address, 'with the lofty spirit of hakko ichiu'. It was another skillful rhetorical flourish by the veteran wordsmith. As every Japanese schoolchild who had read Kokutai no hongi knew by heart, hakko ichiu meant 'eight cords, one roof' and first appeared in the eighth-century chronicle [[Nihon Shoki]] to describe how the legendary first emperor Jimmu extended his dominion over the other clans of the early Japanese islands, which subsequently enjoyed unparalleled prosperity and security thanks to his imperial benevolence. Superimposed upon Asia in 1940, the resuscitated ideal pictured a quasi family of nations led by Japan and its patriarch-emperor; the 'Imperial Way', Matsuoka intoned, would permit 'every nation and every race' to find 'its proper place in the world'.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/470}}</ref>

Brownlee concludes that after the ''Kokutai no Hongi'' proclamation,

{{quote|It is clear that at this stage in history, they were no longer dealing with a concept to generate spiritual unity like Aizawa Seishisai in 1825, or with a political theory of Japan designed to accommodate modern institutions of government, like the Meiji Constitution. The committee of professors from prestigious universities sought to define the essential truths of Japan, which might be termed religious, or even metaphysical, because they required faith at the expense of logic and reason. (2006:13){{missing long citation|reason=The only work by Brownlee cited in full is from 2000, not 2006. NB DO NOT just add it in a footnote! Inline parenthetical citations are DEPRECATED, see [[WP:PAREN]]|date=December 2024}}}}

The Ministry of Education promulgated it throughout the school system.<ref name="gordon199"/>

By 1937, "election purification", originally aimed at corruption, required that no candidate set the people in opposition to either the military or the bureaucracy.<ref name="gordon196">Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa to the Present'', p. 196, {{ISBN|0-19-511060-9}}, {{OCLC|49704795}}</ref> This was required because voters were required to support imperial rule.<ref name="gordon196"/>

Some objections to the founding of the ''Taisei Yokusankai'' ([[Imperial Rule Assistance Association]]) came on the grounds that ''kokutai'' already required all imperial subjects to support imperial rule. Conservative thinkers voiced concerns that the establishment of an empowered class of aides to the emperor was akin to the creation of a new shogunate.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/454 454]|quote=Conservatives such as Hiranuma Kiichiro, who served as prime minister for eight months in 1939, objected that the proposed totalitarian IRAA was nothing but a 'new shogunate' that would usurp the power of the emperor's government, and Japanists declared that the national polity, the hallowed kokutai, already united the emperor with subjects who naturally fulfilled their sacred obligation to 'assist imperial rule'. On a more mundane plane, senior officials within the Home Ministry feared the loss of bureaucratic turf and complained that the proposed network of occupationally based units would interfere with local administration at a particularly crucial time in the nation's history.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/454}}</ref>

For the leaders of Japan's "fascist-nationalist clique", writes Miller, "''kokutai'' had become a convenient term for indicating all the ways in which they believed that the Japanese nation, as a political as well as a racial entity, was simultaneously different from and superior to all other nations on earth."<ref name="Miller 1982"/>{{rp|93}}

This term, and what it meant, were widely inculcated in propaganda.<ref>Anthony Rhodes, ''Propaganda: The art of persuasion: World War II'', p. 246, 1976, Chelsea House Publishers, New York</ref> The final letters of [[kamikaze]] pilots expressed, above all, that their motivations were gratitude to Japan and to its Emperor as the embodiment of ''kokutai''.<ref>[[Ivan Morris]], ''The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan'', p. 309 Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975 {{ISBN?}}</ref> A sailor might give his life to save the picture of the Emperor on a submarine.<ref>[[Masanori Ito (journalist)|Masanori Ito]], ''The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy'' p. 28, New York: W.W. Norton, 1956</ref>

During World War II, some anti-[[Modernism|modernist]] intellectuals argued that prior to the [[Meiji Restoration]], Japan was always a classless society under a benevolent emperor, but the restoration had plunged the nation into Western materialism (an argument that ignored commercialism and ribald culture in the Tokugawa era), which had caused people to forget their nature. To recover their traditional identity, Japanese citizens had to actively participate in the war effort.<ref>Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa to the Present'', pp. 219–220, {{ISBN|0-19-511060-9}}, {{OCLC|49704795}}</ref>

"Japanist" unions endeavoured to win support by disavowing class violence and pledging support for nation and emperor.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/467 467]|quote=The growing sense of national emergency prompted many groups that earlier had assumed an oppositional stance toward the state to reassess their goals and tactics. One expression of that tendency came in the early 1930s, when thousands of workers joined so-called Japanist unions whose leadership hoped to improve working conditions by disavowing violent confrontations and demonstrating their loyalty to nation and emperor. Kamino Shin'ichi, originally a foreman at the lshikawajima shipyards, organized one of the more influential Japanist unions. In concert with other members of the conservative right, he and his followers ridiculed the political parties as being corrupt, condemned liberalism and democracy as the failed ideologies of a decadent West, and sought to build a new industrial order, premised on the 'unity of emperor and subject', in which laborers and capitalists would be 'of one mind and spirit, fused in an inseparable solidarity'.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/467}}</ref> Nevertheless, because of the mistrust of unions in such unity, the Japanese went to replace them with "councils" in every factory, containing both management and worker representatives to contain conflict.<ref>Andrew Gordon, ''A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa to the Present'', pp. 195–196, {{ISBN|0-19-511060-9}}, {{OCLC|49704795}}</ref> Like the Nazi councils they were copying, this was part of a program to create a classless national unity.<ref name="gordon196"/>

Because many religions had figures that distracted from the central emperor, they were attacked, such as the [[Oomoto]] sect condemned for worshipping figures other than [[Amaterasu]], and in 1939, the Religious Organization authorized the shutting down of any religion that did not conform to the Imperial Way, which the authorities promptly used.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Japan: A Modern History|last=McClain|first=James L.|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2002|isbn=0393041565|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/469 469]|quote=No group experienced more severe suppression than the new religions as Home Ministry bureaucrats embarked upon a crusade 'to eradicate evil cults' for the crime of propagating lèse majesté. As manifested in such works as kokutai no hongi, the government in the 1930s fostered the growth of an official orthodoxy centered upon a sacrosanct emperor who stood both as the head of state and as the benevolent father of the family of Japanese citizens. Although not overtly antiemperor, many of the new religions espoused doctrines that threatened the centrality of the imperial figure; prosecutors, for instance, condemned the Omoto sect for revering deities other than the Sun Goddess. The most dramatic moment in the government's campaign against 'quack religions' came on December 8, 1935, when hundreds of police stormed Omoto headquarters, smashed the main shrine building, dynamited an auxiliary hall, decapitated religious statues, and arrested nearly a thousand sect members. Four years later the Diet passed the Religious Organizations Law empowering the government to disband any religious organization whose teachings did not conform with 'The Imperial Way', and officials promptly suppressed other unorthodox religions. An aversion for social disorder and a desire to 'unify the will of the people' around national goals prompted bureaucratic officials in the 1930s to suppress or to co-opt the support of organizations that opposed government policies. Some of the associations, notably the Omoto sect, preferred to break rather than to bend, but most tempered their demands, shifted to less contentious goals, or even dissolved themselves.|url=https://archive.org/details/japanmodernhisto00mccl/page/469}}</ref>

Hirohito evoked the ''Kokutai'' in his [[Hirohito surrender broadcast|surrender broadcast]], which announced the Japanese acceptance of the [[Potsdam Declaration]] (unconditional surrender).

==Post-1945==
By the [[surrender of Japan]] in 1945, the significance of ''kokutai'' diminished. In autumn 1945, [[Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers|GHQ]] forbade circulation of the ''Kokutai no Hongi'' and on 15 October repealed the 1925 [[Peace Preservation Law]]. By the enactment of the [[Constitution of Japan|Constitution of the State of Japan]] (3 May 1947), the [[Emperor of Japan|Emperor]]'s sovereignty and the ''lèse-majesté'' were repealed.

Nevertheless, some authors, including Miller, believe that traces of Japanese ''kokutai'' "are quite as vivid today as they ever were".<ref name="Miller 1982"/>{{rp|95}}

In the 21st century, Japanese nationalists, such as those affiliated with the [[Nippon Kaigi]] lobby, have begun using the phrase "kunigara" (国柄, "national character").

== Notes ==
{{notelist}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Japan}}
*''[[An Investigation of Global Policy with the Yamato Race as Nucleus]]''
*[[Gekokujō]]
*[[Huaxia]]
*[[Imperial Rescript on Education]]
*[[Japanese Historical Text Initiative]]
*[[Hirohito surrender broadcast]] (Gyokuon-hōsō)
*[[Kokuchūkai]] (Column of the Nation Society)
*[[National Spiritual Mobilization Movement]]
*[[Shinbutsu-shūgō]]
*[[Socialist thought in Imperial Japan]]
*[[Statism in Shōwa Japan]]
*[[Uyoku dantai]] (Nationalist groups of Japan)
*[[Yangmingism]]
*[[Yasukuni Shrine]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}
* Daikichi, Irokawa. ''The Culture of the Meiji Period''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970.
* [[Joseph Kitagawa|Kitagawa, Joseph M.]] "The Japanese ''Kokutai'' (National Community) History and Myth", ''History of Religions'', Vol. 13.3 (Feb., 1974), pp.&nbsp;209–226.
* Antoni, Klaus ''Kokutai – Political Shintô from Early-Modern to Contemporary Japan''. Eberhard Karls University Tuebingen, Tobias-lib 2016. {{ISBN|978-3-946552-00-0}}. Open Access publication: [http://hdl.handle.net/10900/68861]
* {{cite book|last=Sheftall|first=M.G.|chapter=An Ideological Genealogy Of Japanese Militarism|pages=50–65|title=Origins of the Second World War An International Perpsective|editor=Frank McDonough|location=London|date=2011|publisher=Continuum}}
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[[Category:Japanese nationalism]]
[[Category:Japanese historical terms]]
[[Category:Politics of the Empire of Japan]]
[[Category:Kokkashugi]]
[[Category:Japanese words and phrases]]
[[Category:Japanese mythology]]