Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 444, the chrysanthemum taboo.

I know we've spent a lot of time on the events of 1960 over the last few weeks, but there's

one more aspect to this turning point in Japanese history that I really want to make sure we

talk about.

If you've lived in Japan, for any length of time,

you've probably heard the phrase, kick taboo, or chrysanthemum taboo, bandied about. This is the

idea that public criticism, or even just critical discussion of Japan's imperial institution,

is discouraged in modern Japan, that the imperial family, in essence, is off limits for public

discourse. When it's discussed, the chrysanthemum taboo is often described as a holdover from

pre-war thinking about the imperial throne, which is certainly true in a sense, but that framing

misses something important about the nature of the taboo and where it comes

from. Like many of the other defining institutions of modern Japan, the chrysanthemum taboo

actually has its origins in the tumultuous year of 1960 and its aftermath, and in particular,

in a violent attempt to curb free speech in Japan, and that attempt, in turn,

is grounded in the history of Japan's political extreme right after the Second World War.

You see, the remarkable thing about fascist states during the Second World War is that,

contrary to how they are often perceived, they did enjoy pretty broad-based political support.

Traditional post-war accounts of the conflict placed the blamed for the evil actions,

and I think evil is the right word here, of both Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, on the small

cabal of leaders, the inner circle of the Nazi party or the military leaders of the

Japanese Empire. But more recent research has revealed a very different picture. Many people were

either bystanders or willing participants in the rise of wartime fascism, far more than could

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