Netto-uyoku

Netto-uyoku or Net uyoku (Japanese Internet rightists), also called Netouyo, is the term used to refer to far-right Japanese neo-nationalists who interact and post almost entirely online. Their mediums are forums and Social media sites. Japanese critic and writer Furuya Tsunehira described them as a "new breed of neo-nationalists who interact almost entirely within their own cyber community, shut off from the rest of society" . Furuya goes on to explain that on average, these people are around 40 years old, and about three quarters of them are male. According to Furuya they are concentrated in major urban areas, particularly the Tokyo-Kanagawa region.[1]

Their average annual income is slightly higher than the median for their age, and most are graduates of four-year universities." This profile is different to European and American ultra-rightist groups who are mostly made up of disaffected low-income and unemployed youth. Furuya further observes that although active on the web, they lack institutional political representation offline, leading to a sense of frustration and a tendency to be more active online and to back the more right-wing elements of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, especially Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's administration as a substitute for having a party of their own.

References

  1. "The Roots and Realities of Japan's Cyber-Nationalism". nippon.com. 2016-01-21. Retrieved 2021-03-04.