Japan’s Border Measures during Covid-19: How the Crisis Shaped ‘Others’ to Protect the ‘Stability of Self’

Yıl 2024, , 65 - 75, 14.03.2024

Vuslat Nur Şahin , Zhao Xıru

https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1434336

Öz

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted countries to implement a wide range of specific cross-border security measures. The fear and anxiety induced by this crisis have rapidly expanded and contracted countries’ understanding of ‘self’ and ‘other’. This study examines Japan’s shift from liberal pre- Covid-19 border policies to the most stringent border closure measures among the G7 countries during the pandemic. In this study, we argue that the pandemic-induced fear increased anxiety in Japan’s public health safety identity, rapidly reshaping the conceptualization of the ‘self’ and ‘other’ in crisis scenarios. This shift aligns with Japan’s historical narrative of combating unprecedented threats to public health.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Ontological Security, Public Health Safety, Human Security, Anxiety, Isolation

Kaynakça

• Agius, Christine, Annika Bergman Rosamond, and Catarina Kinnvall. 2021. Populism, Ontological Insecurity and Gendered Nationalism: Masculinity, Climate Denial and Covid-19. Politics, Religion & Ideolog 21, 4: 432-450.
• Aoyama, Atsuko. n.d. Public Health and Health Systems in Japan-a Historical View. In Japanese Modernization Lecture Series, JICA-Open University of Japan.
• Asahi Shimbun. 2020. 73 Nations Now on No-Entry List to Prevent More Cases of Infection. 1 April. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13262615 (accessed September 12, 2022).
• Belder, Ferit. 2022. Making Sense of Risky Haredi Behaviors in Israel During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Uluslararası İlişkiler 19, 73: 29-44.
• Berenskötter, Felix, and Nicola Nymalm. 2021. States of Ambivalence: Recovering the Concept of ‘the Stranger’ in International Relations. Review of International Studies 47, 1: 19-38.
• Browning, Christopher S. 2019. Brexit Populism and Fantasies of Fulfilment. Cambridge Review of International Affairs 32, 3: 222-244.
• Croft, Stuart. 2012. Constructing Ontological Insecurity: The Insecuritization of Britain’s Muslims. Contemporary Security Policy 33, 2: 219-235.
• Cupac ́, Jelena. 2020. The Anxiety Dilemma: Locating the Western Balkans in the Age of Anxiety. Journal of Regional Security 15, 1: 7–38.
• Dillon, Micheal, and Luis Lobo-Guerrero. 2008. Biopolitics of Security in the 21st Century: An Introduction. Review of International Studies 34, 2: 265-292.
• Ejdus, Filip. 2020. Crisis and Ontological Insecurity: Serbia’s Anxiety over Kosovo’s Secession. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Foster, Jonathan. 2021. Pandemic Othering’ during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan: How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Affected the Japanese Public’s Perceptions of Foreigners, and what Role Has the Discourse from the Government of Japan and the Japanese Mass Media Played?”. MA thesis, Centre International de Formation Européenne.
• Fukuda, Mahito H. 1994. Public Health in Modern Japan: From Regimen to Hygiene. In The History of Public Health and the Modern State, ed. Dorothy Porter. Leiden, Brill:385-402.
• Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge, Polity Press.
• Gordon, Andrew. 2020. Explaining Japan’s Soft Approach to COVID-19. Harvard Epicenter, July 3. https://epicenter.wcfia.harvard.edu/blog/explaining-japans-soft-approach-to-Covid-19 (accessed September 23, 2022).
• Gustafsson, Karl. 2022. Identity Change, Anxiety and Creativity. Uluslararası İlişkiler 19, 73: 77-93.
• Howe, Brendan. 2010. Between Normality and Uniqueness: Unwrapping the Enigma of Japanese Security Policy Decision-Making. Modern Asian Studies 44, 6: 1313-1336.
• Howe, Brendan. 2019. Human Security, Peacebuilding, and the Responsibility to Protect in East Asia. Asian Journal of Peacebuilding 7, 2: 183-218.
• Huysmans, Jef. 1998. Security! What Do You Mean?: From Concept to Thick Signifier. European Journal of International Relations 4, 2: 226-255.
• Japan Times. 2021. Poll Finds 89% in Japan Back Kishida’s Ban on New Foreign Arrivals. December 6. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/12/06/national/kishida-arrivals-ban-support/ (accessed September 12, 2022).
• Japan Times. 2022a. Despite Official Nudges, Japanese Still Not Unmasking Outside. July 27. https:// www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/06/27/national/no-masks/ (accessed September 12, 2022).
• Japan Times. 2022b. Isolation Ends: Japan Reopens Its Borders to the World. August 22. https://www. japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2022/08/26/editorials/japan-borders-reopen/ (accessed June 19, 2023).
• JICA. 2005. Japan’s Experiences in Public Health and Medical Systems: Towards Improving Public Health and Medical Systems in Developing Countries. JICA, Tokyo.
• Joshi, Jayant S., and Rajesh Tewari. 2003. Public Health And Sanitation In The Nineteenth Century Japan. Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 64: 1259-1271.
• Kantis, Caroline, et al. 2022. Updated: Timeline of the Coronavirus. December 9. https://www. thinkglobalhealth.org/article/updated-timeline-coronavirus (accessed December 9, 2022).
• Kinnvall, Catarina, and Jennifer Mitzen. 2020. Anxiety, Fear and Ontological Security in World Politics: Thinking with and Beyond Giddens. International Theory, 12: 240-256.
• Kinnvall, Catarina. 2004. Globalization and Religious Nationalism: Self, Identity, and the Search for Ontological Security. Political Psychology 25, 5: 741-767.
• Kočan, Faris, and Rok Zupančič. 2022. ‘Ethnicizing’ the EU’s Involvement in Post-conflict Societies. Uluslararası İlişkiler 19, 73: 113-127.
• Krickel-Choi, Nina C. 2022. The Embodied State: Why and How Physical Security Matters for Ontological Security. Journal of International Relations and Development 25, 1: 159-181.
• Krickel-Choi, Nina C. 2022. The Concept of Anxiety in Ontological Security Studies. International Studies Review 24, 3: 1-21.
• Krolikowski, Alanna. 2008. State Personhood in Ontological Security Theories of International Relations and Chinese Nationalism: A Sceptical View. The Chinese Journal of International Politics 2, 1: 109-133.
• Kirke, Xander. 2020. Anxiety and COVID-19: The Role of Ontological Security and Myth. E-IR, May 29. https://www.e-ir.info/2020/05/29/anxiety-and-Covid-19-the-role-of-ontological-security-and- myth/ (accessed June 4, 2023).
• Laing, Ronald David. 1990. The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London, Penguin Books.
• Layne, Christopher. 1993. The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise. International Security 17, 4: 5-51.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. 2023a. Exemption of Visa Short-Term Stay. https://www.mofa. go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/short/novisa.html#notice07 (accessed May 22, 2023).
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. 2023b. Visa. https://www.mofa.go.jp/j_info/visit/visa/index.html (accessed June 19, 2023).
• Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. 2021. Monetary Assistance to Everyday Life. https:// www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000743778.pdf (accessed September 26, 2022).
• Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. 2022a. Measures for Border Enforcement Till Now [Kore made no migiwa taisaku ni kakaru aratana sochi ni tsuite], https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/ seisakunitsuite/bunya/0000121431_00352.html (accessed September 26, 2022).
• Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. 2022b. Specific Examples of Cases Where Permission for Re-entry May be Granted due to Being Special Exceptional Circumstances Corresponding to Individual Situation in Relation to the Measures for Denial of Landing Relating to Prevention of the Spread of the Novel Coronavirus. June 12. https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000643766. pdf (accessed September 26, 2022).
• Mitzen, Jennifer. 2006. Ontological Security in World Politics: State Identity and the Security Dilemma. European Journal of International Relations 12, 3: 341-370.
• Munez, Everett. 2024. Sakoku. Britannica, January 11. https://www.britannica.com/topic/sakoku (accessed 18 January 2024)
• OECD. 2019. OECD Reviews of Public Health: Japan: A Healthier Tomorrow. Paris, OECD.
• Pehlivantürk, Bahadır. 2021. Japan on the Borderlines. Uluslararası İlişkiler 18, 71: 67-85.
• Purnell, Kandida. 2021. Bodies Coming Apart and Bodies Becoming Parts: Widening, Deepening, and Embodying Ontological (In)Security in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Global Studies Quarterly 1, 4: 1-9.
• Ringmar, Erik. 2018. What are Public Moods?. European Journal of Social Theory 21, 4: 453–469.
• Rosher, Ben. 2022. ‘And Now We’re Facing That Reality Too’: Brexit, Ontological Security, and Intergenerational Anxiety in the Irish Border Region. European Security 31, 1: 21-38.
• Rumelili, Bahar. 2004. Constructing Identity and Relating to Difference: Understanding the EU’s Mode of Differentiation. Review of International Studies 30, 1: 24-47.
• Rumelili, Bahar. 2015. Conflict Resolution and Ontological Security: Peace Anxieties. New York, Routledge.
• Rumelili, Bahar. 2020. Integrating Anxiety into International Relations Theory: Hobbes, Existentialism, and Ontological Security. International Theory 12, 2: 257–272.
• Rumelili, Bahar. 2022. Introduction to the Special Issue Anxiety and Change in International Relations. Uluslararası İlişkiler 19, 73: 1-11.
• Shigeki, Sumi. 2008. Human Security and Health. https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/human_secu/ article0604.html (accessed August 23, 2022).
• Siripala, Thisanka. 2022. What’s Behind Japan’s Continued Covid-19 Border Restrictions?. The Diplomat, May 2. https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/whats-behind-japans-continued-Covid-19- border-restrictions/ (accessed September 23, 2022).
• Steele, Brent J. 2008. Ontological Security in International Relations: Self-identity and the IR State. London, Routledge.
• Swift, Rocky, and Elanie Lies. 2022. Japan’s Border Crackdown Leaves Students in Limbo and Economy in a Pinch, Reuters, January 26. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japans- border-crackdown-leaves-students-limbo-economy-pinch-2022-01-25/ (accessed August 28, 2022).
• Takemi, Keizo et al. 2007. Global Health, Human Security, and Japan’s Contributions, https://www. jcie.org/researchpdfs/globalhealth/final_paper.pdf (accessed September 23, 2022).
• Takumi, Kato. 2021. Opposition in Japan to the Olympics during the Covid-19 Pandemic. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 8, 327: 1-9.
• Time. 2021. Japan’s Covid-19 Strategy Relied on Trust. Holding the Olympics Shattered It at the Worst Possible Time. August 6. https://time.com/6088006/japan-olympics-Covid-19/ (accessed September 12, 2022).
• United Nations. 1994. Human Development Reports: New Dimensions on Human Security.
• Untalan, Carmina Yu. 2020. Decentering the Self, Seeing Like the Other: Toward a Postcolonial Approach to Ontological Security. International Political Sociology 14: 40-56.
• VOA News. 2022. Japan to Ease Covid Border Controls to Boost Tourism. September 22. https://www. voanews.com/a/japan-to-ease-Covid-border-controls-to-boost-tourism/6759821.html (accessed October 2, 2022).
• Vogt, Gabriele, and Sian Qin. 2022. Sanitizing the National Body: Covid-19 and the Revival of Japan’s ‘Closed Country’ Strategy. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 31, 3: 247-269.
• Japan’s Border Measures during Covid-19: How the Crisis Shaped ‘Others’ to Protect the ‘Stability of Self’ Waltz, Kenneth N. 1993. The Emerging Structure of International Politics. International Security 18, 2: 44-79.
• Waltz, Kenneth N. 2000. Structural Realism after the Cold War. International Security 25, 1: 5-41. Wright, Katharine A.M, Toni Haastrup, and Roberta Guerrina. 2020. Equalities in Freefall? Ontological Insecurity and the Long-Term Impact of Covid-19 in the Academy. Gender Work Organization 28, 1: 163-167.
• Zeng, Guangting, Linlin Wang, and Zanling Zhang. 2020. Prejudice and Xenophobia in Covid-19 Research Manuscripts, Nature Human Behaviour 4, 879.