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| Freelance writer Nagae Akira says books fanning hatred toward South and North Koreans and Muslims are popular in Japanese bookstores. He worked at Japanese bookstores and publishing houses for nearly two decades. / Courtesy of Nagae Akira |
Japanese author unravels extreme books fanning hatred
By Oh In-gyu
Nagae Akira is a Japanese freelance writer who writes about bookstores. He used to work at various bookstores and publishing companies throughout the 1980s and the 1990s.
Nagae's new book, "I Used to Like Bookstores: The Backstage of Making and Selling the Bursting Hate Books" (2019), explains why he no longer likes to work for bookstores and publishers ― the overflowing of "hate books" in Japanese bookstores from Okinawa to Hokkaido.
These books are called "hate books" because they mostly deal with hatred towards South Korea, North Korea, China, and Muslims. Like hate speech and hate crime, hate books intend to incite hatred of Koreans, Chinese, Muslims, and their descendants who have been living in Japan for generations. Instead of "criticizing Korean or Chinese governments, politicians, or policies," these books, says Nagae, "attack Korean and Chinese ethnic groups" in general as "mediocre, immoral, or biologically condemned."
Therefore, these hate books "fan and fuel racist movements in Japan, epitomized by the rise of Zaitokukai (Association of Citizens against the Special Privileges of the Zainichi)."
These books "propagate illusionary and distorted views of Koreans" so that they can lead the Japanese people toward a neo-fascist movement of hurting and assaulting Koreans for wrongful reasons.
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| "I Used to Like Bookstores: The Backstage of Making and Selling the Bursting Hate Books" by Nagae Akira |
The book contains interviews with insiders ― writers, publishers, wholesale distributors, and bookstore retailers. Based on these interviews, Nagae clarifies that most of the hate book readers are "in their 60s or 70s who are mostly male and highly educated." The writers of the hate books are, however, "in their 30s and 40s who have living experience in South Korea or have Korean spouses." Nagae's interviewees confirm that "most of them do not possess any in-depth knowledge about Korea before the 1980s."
The author identifies two types of hate books: books that focus on a hatred of Korea and books that focus on praising Japan. Nagae also identifies three types of publishers: those who publish any books that sell, including both hate books and Hallyu books; those that publish only hate books because they believe in the racist ideology and work with such racist organizations as Zaitokukai; and finally those that take a careful approach to hate books although they nonetheless believe in right-wing ideologies.
Therefore, as the hate books are in decline these days despite the revived boom in 2015, the author predicts that the majority of publishers will soon shy away from such publications. However, the author forewarns that the right-wing publishers who are connected to Zaitokukai and other careful right-wing groups will continue to publish hate books until they run out of capital.
The distributors and bookstore owners do not maintain many choices, as they are relatively weaker than publishers unless "they can open up and maintain small specialized bookstores" that refuse to display and sell hate books.
The book's climax is when Nagae proclaims that the hate book publishers, especially the minority right-wing zealots, are Japanese Adolf Eichmanns, the infamous Nazi holocaust organizer who killed more than six million Jews.
Nagae believes that these extreme book publishers are actively brainwashing and organizing hate groups against Koreans and Zainichi in general. These hate groups are often referred to as "net based rightists [netto uyo]." This means that Japanese neo-fascists began actively organizing themselves on the internet while publishing and selling hate books in bookstores since the turn of the century, when Japan also embraced a mass internet age.
These are the neo-fascists who organized strikes in front of Fuji TV, which aired many Korean TV dramas, and Shin Okubo Koreatown. Nagae argues that these hate groups are trying to instill permanent fear among Korean residents in Japan.
Nagae used to work for the same publisher that is publishing and marketing hate books. He also worked for the bookstores that are now shelving the hate books and can only look on in disappointment at a publishing media in Japan that is being overtaken by the right-wing movement.
Oh In-gyu is president of World Association for Hallyu Studies and professor of Kansai Gaidal University in Japan.
