The (inter)national self - negotiating the Japanese narrating China

Abstract: Unpacking and reconstituting different aspects of the Japanese narrative on China within the context of the Yasukuni controversy between 2001 and 2006, this thesis concludes that the constitution of China is an inherent part of the negotiating processes of the “Japanese we”. With a methodological framework comprised of grounded theory and narrative analysis; in its merged form referred to as grounded narratology, a theoretical framework derived from the constitution of “threat”, “dependence” and “shame” dimensions of the narrative is put together. The theoretical framework is constituted by theories of identity, security, ontological security, routinisation and banal nationalism. This thesis contributes empirically though presenting a material that the author has not seen utilised to this date. Methodologically, it contributes with the fusion of grounded theory and narrative analysis and theoretically through merging fragments of different theories into a network that suggests further research to be done on routinised nationalist security relations, a dynamic that the author argues is crucial to understanding the current developments of the Japanese image of China as well as Northeast Asian dynamics as a whole.