What Tezuka Would Tell Trump: Critiquing Japanese Cultural Nationalism in Gringo

The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga

This chapter examines the politics of national identity in Gringo, an unfinished comic by Japan’s ‘God of Manga’ Osamu Tezuka. Set during the height of Japan’s bubble economy of the 1980s, Gringo anticipates the current populist political discourses represented by US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe. It warns readers with a blueprint for the rise of cultural nationalism, one that begins with ‘fake news’ and ends with the expulsion those who do not fit a dominant view of national culture. Tezuka achieves this social commentary by parodying stereotypical images of ‘Japaneseness’ (nihonjinron) and the imperialist logic of wartime Japan.

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Routledge