Yoshinori Kobayashi
Encyclopedia
Yoshinori Kobayashi is a bestselling Japanese author and manga artist
. The author of over two hundred books and manga
, Kobayashi is most famous for his controversial political commentary manga Gōmanism Sengen
(ゴーマニズム宣言, roughly translated as "My Arrogant Declaration" or "Haughtiness Manifesto"). He is a founder and editor-in-chief of the political magazine (the name consists of the Japanese singular pronoun washi and the root "-ism") and often appears on Japanese political debate programs such as Asamade Namaterebi (朝まで生テレビ, Live Until The Morning).
Kobayashi's nickname, "Yoshirin" (よしりん), and his staff team's name, Yoshirin Productions (Yoshirin Kikaku, よしりん企画), are derived from the first two syllables of Kobayashi's given name and the On reading of its kanji
林).
There is "Sagadaigaku-gakusei-jitikai-ren" as a group that he influences.
from Fukuoka University
, Kobayashi published his first manga, Tōdai Itchokusen (東大一直線, Beeline to Tokyo U), in 1976 in Weekly Shōnen Jump
while still in school. Another of his early series, , a satire
about a haughty rich boy in the heyday of Japan's bubble economy
, won the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award
for children's manga and was also adapted into an anime and video games for the Famicom
and PC Engine
.
manga series, first published in 1992. Known for his intentionally provocative style, Kobayashi has made claims that Japanese aggression in World War II was only intended to free Asian nations from Western imperialism, Franklin Roosevelt allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor
in spite of US counterintelligence
to bring America into the war, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
demonstrate a long-standing racism against Japan by the United States, kamikaze
pilots should be honored for an altruistic spirit that modern society lacks today, the Nanking Massacre
was propaganda invented by US government and the Communist Party of China
, and Korean comfort women
were volunteers from poor villages and not coerced into sexual servitude by the Japanese military.
Among Kobayashi's more recent opinions are that Japan should assist Taiwan independence
from China, foreign opinion should not be considered by Japanese politicians in domestic issues such as visits to Yasukuni Shrine
and textbook revisions
, terrorist attacks such as those on September 11th will continue in America as long as foreign policy is controlled by neoconservatives, and Japan should not support the ongoing Iraq War.
In response to harsh criticism of the Aum Supreme Truth
cult, an attempt was made on his life by cult members (Kobayashi addressed the incident in later issues of Gomanism).
(ISBN 957-801-279-9), there are no further translations planned for any of Kobayashi's works. Among his published works are:
Mangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
. The author of over two hundred books and manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, Kobayashi is most famous for his controversial political commentary manga Gōmanism Sengen
Gomanism
is a social/political commentary manga series by Japanese author Yoshinori Kobayashi.It first appeared in a weekly Japanese magazine SPA! in 1992. After the conflict over editorial style of the magazine during the Aum Shinrikyo affair, the manga moved to the biweekly political magazine SAPIO...
(ゴーマニズム宣言, roughly translated as "My Arrogant Declaration" or "Haughtiness Manifesto"). He is a founder and editor-in-chief of the political magazine (the name consists of the Japanese singular pronoun washi and the root "-ism") and often appears on Japanese political debate programs such as Asamade Namaterebi (朝まで生テレビ, Live Until The Morning).
Kobayashi's nickname, "Yoshirin" (よしりん), and his staff team's name, Yoshirin Productions (Yoshirin Kikaku, よしりん企画), are derived from the first two syllables of Kobayashi's given name and the On reading of its kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
林).
There is "Sagadaigaku-gakusei-jitikai-ren" as a group that he influences.
Life
A student of French literatureFrench literature
French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than French. Literature written in French language, by citizens...
from Fukuoka University
Fukuoka University
is a private university in Fukuoka, Japan. It is the largest general university in western Japan, with more than 20,000 students. It is sometimes mistaken for a national university...
, Kobayashi published his first manga, Tōdai Itchokusen (東大一直線, Beeline to Tokyo U), in 1976 in Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shonen Jump
is a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...
while still in school. Another of his early series, , a satire
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
about a haughty rich boy in the heyday of Japan's bubble economy
Japanese asset price bubble
The was an economic bubble in Japan from 1986 to 1991, in which real estate and stock prices were greatly inflated. The bubble's collapse lasted for more than a decade with stock prices initially bottoming in 2003, although they would descend even further amidst the global crisis in 2008. The...
, won the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award
Shogakukan Manga Award
The is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
for children's manga and was also adapted into an anime and video games for the Famicom
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
and PC Engine
TurboGrafx-16
TurboGrafx-16, fully titled as TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem and known in Japan as the , is a video game console developed by Hudson Soft and NEC, released in Japan on October 30, 1987, and in North America on August 29, 1989....
.
Politics
Yoshinori Kobayashi has become one of the most prominent conservative authors and commentators of Japan's younger generations, both at home and abroad, especially in the wake of his long-running Gōmanism SengenGomanism
is a social/political commentary manga series by Japanese author Yoshinori Kobayashi.It first appeared in a weekly Japanese magazine SPA! in 1992. After the conflict over editorial style of the magazine during the Aum Shinrikyo affair, the manga moved to the biweekly political magazine SAPIO...
manga series, first published in 1992. Known for his intentionally provocative style, Kobayashi has made claims that Japanese aggression in World War II was only intended to free Asian nations from Western imperialism, Franklin Roosevelt allowed the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
in spite of US counterintelligence
Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge debate
The Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory is the idea that the American officials had advance knowledge of Japan's December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor...
to bring America into the war, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stages of World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on August 6, 1945, and the second on August 9, 1945. These two events are the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date.For six months...
demonstrate a long-standing racism against Japan by the United States, kamikaze
Kamikaze
The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....
pilots should be honored for an altruistic spirit that modern society lacks today, the Nanking Massacre
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
was propaganda invented by US government and the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, and Korean comfort women
Comfort women
The term "comfort women" was a euphemism used to describe women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II.Estimates vary as to how many women were involved, with numbers ranging from as low as 20,000 from some Japanese scholars to as high as 410,000 from some Chinese...
were volunteers from poor villages and not coerced into sexual servitude by the Japanese military.
Among Kobayashi's more recent opinions are that Japan should assist Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence
Taiwan independence is a political movement whose goals are primarily to formally establish the Republic of Taiwan by renaming or replacing the Republic of China , form a Taiwanese national identity, reject unification and One country, two systems with the People's Republic of China and a Chinese...
from China, foreign opinion should not be considered by Japanese politicians in domestic issues such as visits to Yasukuni Shrine
Controversies surrounding Yasukuni Shrine
Yasukuni Jinja is a Shinto shrine that is at the center of an international Asian controversy. It is a shrine to war dead who served the Emperor of Japan during wars from 1867–1951. This eligibility includes civilians in service and government officials. Yasukuni is a shrine to house the actual...
and textbook revisions
Japanese history textbook controversies
Japanese history textbook controversies refers to controversial content in government-approved history textbooks used in the secondary education of Japan...
, terrorist attacks such as those on September 11th will continue in America as long as foreign policy is controlled by neoconservatives, and Japan should not support the ongoing Iraq War.
In response to harsh criticism of the Aum Supreme Truth
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
cult, an attempt was made on his life by cult members (Kobayashi addressed the incident in later issues of Gomanism).
Works
Although On Taiwan has been translated into Traditional Chinese and was released to great controversy in TaiwanTaiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(ISBN 957-801-279-9), there are no further translations planned for any of Kobayashi's works. Among his published works are:
- Tōdai Itchokusen (東大一直線, Beeline to Tokyo U) (1976)
- Obocchama-kun (おぼっちゃまくん, Little Princeling) (1986)
- GōmanismGomanismis a social/political commentary manga series by Japanese author Yoshinori Kobayashi.It first appeared in a weekly Japanese magazine SPA! in 1992. After the conflict over editorial style of the magazine during the Aum Shinrikyo affair, the manga moved to the biweekly political magazine SAPIO...
Sengen (ゴーマニズム宣言), vol 1-9- Gōmanism Sengen Extra 1 (ゴーマニズム宣言EXTRA 1) ISBN 4-344-00659-3
- Gō-Gai! (ゴー外!, Gōmanism Supplement/Side Story) ISBN 4-7762-0188-7
- Gōmanism Sengen Sabetsu Ron Special (ゴーマニズム宣言差別論スペシャル, On Discrimination) (1995) ISBN 4-7592-6031-5
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen (新・ゴーマニズム宣言) vol 1-14
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Datsu Seigi Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 脱正義論, On Escaping Correctness) (1996) ISBN 4-87728-128-2
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Sensō Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 戦争論, On War) (1998), volumes 1-3 (Vol 1: ISBN 4-87728-243-2, Vol 2: ISBN 4-344-00131-1, Vol 3: ISBN 4-344-00356-X)
- Sabetsu Ron Special - Gōmanism Sengen (差別論スペシャル―ゴーマニズム宣言) (1998) ISBN 4-87728-622-5
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - "Ko to Ōyake" Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL ｢個と公｣論, On the "Individual" and the "Public") (2000) ISBN 4-87728-955-0
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Taiwan Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 台湾論, On Taiwan) (2000) ISBN 4-09-389051-X
- Gōmanism Sengen Special - Yoshirin Senki (ゴーマニズム宣言スペシャル よしりん戦記, Record of the Yoshirin War) (2003) ISBN 4-09-389054-4
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Okinawa Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 沖縄論, On Okinawa) (2005) ISBN 4-09-389055-2
- Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Yasukuni Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 靖國論, On YasukuniYasukuni Shrineis a Shinto shrine located in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is dedicated to the soldiers and others who died fighting on behalf of the Emperor of Japan. Currently, its Symbolic Registry of Divinities lists the names of over 2,466,000 enshrined men and women whose lives were dedicated to the service of...
) (2005) ISBN 4-344-01023-X - Shin Gōmanism Sengen Special - Chōsen-teki Heiwa Ron (新・ゴーマニズム宣言SPECIAL 挑戦的平和論, A Defiant Discussion On Peace), vol 1-2
- Honjitsu no Zatsudan (本日の雑談, Today's Chat)
External links
- Howard F. French: Japan's Resurgent Far Right Tinkers With History, New York Times, 25 March 2001.
- Drawing up battle lines, The StandardThe StandardThe Standard is an English free newspaper of Hong Kong with a daily circulation of 231,018. It was called the Hong Kong Standard and changed to HKiMail during the Internet boom, but it changed back to The Standard in 2001....
, 11 August 2005. - Revisionist manga by Kobayashi Yoshinori, Japan File.
- Rebecca Clifford: Cleansing History, Cleansing Japan: Kobayashi Yoshinori’s Analects of War and Japan’s Revisionist Revival, Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies.
- Bill Gordon: Sensouron (On War), Kamikaze Pages.
- Mark Winchester: Everything you know about Ainu is wrong: Kobayashi Yoshinori’s excursion into Ainu historiography, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 9, Issue 22, No 1, 30 May 2011.