Change in Japanese national identity?

My initial problem with receiving this blog assignment was that I did not know much about Japanese national identity before the disaster. I have thus chosen to write about an article portraying an aspect of this change, rather than myself choose an article that I think is a symbol of change in national identity.

The article I have chosen is this one, and it is discussing whether one might expect to see a change in this national identity, with special focus on Japan as a peace-state, in the aftermath of the 3.11 disaster.

I find it very interesting how the article theorizes that several effects of the 3.11 disaster might lead to Japan taking a more militaristic turn in the near future. I find it especially interesting, due to the fact that my own thoughts and experiences with Japan so far has been that of an astonishment of how "undemocratic" a democratic country can be. What I mean by this is the fact that save the formal democratic systems of elections, parliamentarism etc., one really does not see any large degree of popular participation in this system. The lack of transparency, and the uncanny tendency of people to have an almost blind trust in how the political elite go about solving the countries day to day problems can really be considered undemocratic. Added to this, the homogeneity of the Japanese society also imposes a strict set of norms to the Japanese people, further imposing on democratic plurality.

In this particular case, the article therefore makes an extra strong argument in it's theorizing about militarization, as disasters of these calibers often provide a further excuse for governments to infringe upon democratic rights and freedom. One saw it in Japan in the 20s, and also in America after 9.11, so with previous statements from Japanese politicians regarding becoming more powerful in East Asia and also in the world, the future development of Japanese national identity will be interesting to follow.