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[Article] The Far Right and the Dissemination of COVID-19-Related Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in Japan: the Metapolitics of Kobayashi Yoshinori

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Abstract: The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID-19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-methods discourse analysis, we examine the use of typical rhetorical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and we study overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. Our discourse analysis uses a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The former ranges from bestselling publications by the contribution of historical revisionist manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori to the propagation of COVID-19 – related conspiracy narratives and disinformation. The latter analyzes data collected from Amazon’s review section, through which we explore narrative reach and reader reception.

Poppe, Stevie, Havenstein, Linda, & Schäfer, Fabian (2023): The Far Right and the Dissemination of COVID-19-Related Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in Japan: the Metapolitics of Kobayashi Yoshinori, Asiascape: Digital Asia, 10(1-2), 153-180. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10050

Stevie Poppe

Stevie Poppe is a doctoral researcher in Japanese Studies at the Department of Area Studies at Leuven University, working on historical revisionism as a facet of online disinformation, within the context of Japanese contemporary politics. As of November 2020, his research is funded through a PhD Fellowship of the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO - Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Vlaanderen). https://steviepoppe.net

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