[1][2][3][4][5] Japan's "cyber nationalist phenomenon" can be traced back from the 1990s during the Lost Decades,[6] when significant socioeconomic changes from the bubble asset led to general distrust and decline of national morale within Japanese society.
[9] In an attempt to lash out from the constant frustration, social anxiety, and distrust on national coverages from the mainstream media, netizens displaced their xenophobic and ultranationalistic attitudes through online bulletin boards and forums.
It often includes individuals who are aggressive in their online comments towards opinions that oppose their own beliefs, particularly those who make discriminatory remarks against certain countries or races, or criticize newspaper editorials, articles, and TV broadcasts in a radical or defamatory manner on message boards and blogs.
[20] In an Asahi Shimbun article titled "The Structure of Shrinking," it is noted that the term "Netto-Uyo" had been used on the internet for several years, referring to people who repeatedly post or comment on ideas that oppose their own.
Netto-uyoku express hostility towards the local immigrants and ethnic minorities associated with those countries, and also promote patriotism within Japanese schools by advocating the requirement for students to sing the national anthem before class.
[32] Ichirō Yamamoto attributes the rise of Net Right-Wing individuals to those who feel inferior about their career, academic background, or family and instead take pride in their nationality or being Japanese.
[13] Akira Fujio explains that the Zaitokukai is known for organizing demonstrations and meetings where online Net Right-Wing individuals, prompted by posts on internet forums, gather to participate.
[36] Japanese critic and writer Tsunehira Furuya describes the netto uyoku as a "new breed of neo-nationalists who interact almost entirely within their own cyber community, shut off from the rest of society".
[37] Daisuke Tsuji, in a 2007 survey of internet users aged 20–44, identified those who met the following three conditions as part of the "net right-wing" group: (1) Responding with "not very" or "not at all" when asked about their affinity for either South Korea or China, (2) Responding with "agree" or "somewhat agree" to all five items: "official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by the Prime Minister or Ministers," "amendment of Article 9, Section 1 of the Constitution," "amendment of Article 9, Section 2 of the Constitution," "raising the national flag and singing the national anthem at elementary and junior high school ceremonies", and "patriotism education in elementary and junior high schools", (3) Responding affirmatively to at least one of the following three items: "I have written my opinions or thoughts on my own homepage about political or social issues," "I have commented on someone else's blog about political or social issues," or "I have participated in debates on electronic bulletin boards or mailing lists."
[40] He also defined the so-called "net right-wing" as those who actively use blogs and electronic bulletin boards to share information and who fit all three of the following criteria: "feel no affinity for either 'South Korea' or 'China'," "agree with official visits to Yasukuni Shrine, constitutional amendments, etc.," and "engage in writing or debates about political and social issues online".
[40][41] In his survey, 36.8% felt no affinity for either South Korea or China, 6.4% supported official visits to Yasukuni Shrine and constitutional amendments, and 15.2% had engaged in online writing or debates about political or social issues.
Fukuda also points out that the reason why online polarization often leans toward the right, rather than the left, is that "in Japan, nationalism and patriotism became taboo under postwar democracy, and a long period followed where free speech was suppressed.
[55] According to Daisuke Tsuji, the "Net Right" phenomenon, involving extremely nationalistic or racist and xenophobic statements, might be related to Cass Sunstein's concept of cyber-cascade proposed in his book Is the Internet a Threat to Democracy?.
[65] Makai Nishibe points out that "Netouyo" exhibits a kind of anti-intellectualism, characterized by vulgar language, slander, and baseless opinions, similar to the rhetoric of left-wing speakers.
[74] According to Takao Saito, Shokun!—a journal created by Bungei Shunju aimed at being a healthy conservative forum—became a magazine that fiercely insulted anyone who didn't blindly submit to the Koizumi administration, calling them enemies and "leftists" during the 2000s.
[76] According to Kazutomo Goto, some liberals attribute the rise of the Net Right phenomenon to people pushed into lower social strata due to neoliberal economic policies.
argued that the "Net Right" consists of individuals from the "loser" groups such as freeters, contract workers, NEETs, and hikikomori—people who are "managing to live normally but have no future prospects" ("on the verge of losing").
[81] Koichi Yasuda stated that the Net Right was positioned as a "deformed form of otaku", and their repeated use of discriminatory language online has led to them being ridiculed as "aggressive hikikomori".
The survey found that 60% of them were university graduates (including dropouts), their average age was slightly over 38 years old, and the gender ratio was about 3:1, with two-thirds living in the greater Tokyo and Kanagawa areas.
[85][86] Furthermore, Furuya argued that current Net Rightists resemble the "middle-class type 1" supporters of pre-war Japanese fascism as defined by Masao Maruyama, which included small business owners, factory managers, independent farmers, school teachers, and lower-level public servants.
[87] In September 2006, Jiro Yamaguchi stated about Junichiro Koizumi: "He justified his visit to Yasukuni Shrine by bringing up a 'problem of the heart,' which can be described as an aggressive form of *hikikomori* (social withdrawal).
[88] According to *Weekly Post* (October 12, 2012), during the 2012 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership election, internet right-wingers conducted a campaign to defeat Shigeru Ishiba, who was a candidate against Shinzo Abe.
[95] Yamaguchi later reiterated this in Hankyoreh (November 16, 2015), calling the Abe administration's stance on issues like the comfort women controversy as being "polluted by net right-wing views and historical revisionism".
[103] According to Keiko Furuya, the rumor that "the daughter of Okinawa Governor Onaga married the son of a Communist Party official after studying in China, and is a Chinese agent," rapidly spread after being tweeted by Toshio Tamogami, but the source of this misinformation was Ryunosuke Kei, a former Maritime Self-Defense Force officer and conservative commentator.
[105] Additionally, regarding the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Furuya pointed out that some internet right-wingers, incited by figures like former Ukrainian ambassador and Moldova ambassador Mutsuo Mabuchi, and conspiracy theorist Mutsuo Mabuchi, became obsessed with a conspiracy theory, believing that the "Deep State (DS)" that controls the world is manipulating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to fight Russia, and that Vladimir Putin is a "warrior of light" standing against the DS.
Kinoshita pointed out that while 100,000 accounts represented less than 1% of Japan's Twitter users, right-wing figures with hundreds of thousands of followers, like Naoki Hyakuta, Kaori Arimoto, and Takashi Kadota, stirred up this conspiracy, creating an echo chamber effect.
The individuals and accounts promoting this conspiracy were labeled by Chigaya Kinoshita as "Endgame Netouyo" (extreme net right-wingers), referring to them as "sad conservatives who have crossed a point of no return".
"[113] Mitsuru Kurayama noted that, "After the long reign of Shinzō Abe's administration ended, the followers who lost their support turned to U.S. President Donald Trump," adding, "This was exploited by net right-wing comedians.
[123] Junichiro Nakagawa stated that the internet world has a strong tendency to view issues in terms of a binary good and evil framework, without objectively verifying the truth of the information.
He also pointed out that both the net right-wing, which claims that Zainichi Koreans enjoy special privileges to the detriment of Japanese people, and the counter forces that believe it is acceptable to expose personal information if one opposes hate speech, are part of the same "religion" of extreme views.