By Wu Xian
Recently, a Japanese student learned about the historical facts of the Nanjing Massacre at an international school and later expressed feelings of remorse at home. Instead of encouraging reflection, the student’s father reacted with fury. He posted on social media calling for a “boycott of international education” and attempted to mislead his daughter using distorted historical records promoted by Japan’s right wing.
Even more alarming was the response online. Large numbers of Japanese netizens echoed his views. Some falsely claimed that teaching the historical facts amounted to “brainwashing children,” while others demanded tighter government oversight of international schools to prevent students from learning about this period of history.
Such an absurd episode raises an unsettling question: faced with well-documented historical facts, why have such distorted perceptions become so widespread on Japanese online platforms?
Behind this phenomenon lies years of systematic manipulation by Japan’s right-wing forces.
One method has been the creation of a dark industrial chain of online opinion manipulation.
According to an investigation by Japan’s The Asahi Shimbun, the Japanese crowdsourcing platform CrowdWorks has long paid netizens to deliberately collect or use AI to generate smear content. Such false narratives label Chinese people as uncivilized, brand them as anti-Japanese, and even claim the Nanjing Massacre is a lie.
They exploit right-wing narratives that distort history and stoke confrontation as a means to chase online traffic and monetary gains, forming a fully fledged malicious industrial chain.
Leveraging online platforms, Japanese right-wing forces manufacture rumors and spread extremist remarks in a systematic, industrialized way. This has left many Japanese netizens, already misled by distorted historical views, further unable to reflect on and condemn the wars of aggression.
Another driving force has been the role of Japan’s right-leaning government in amplifying such narratives.
The widespread circulation of distorted historical views and anti-China rhetoric in Japanese society did not emerge on its own. According to available statistics, since 2015, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has allocated more than 56 billion yen ($356 million) under programs labeled “strategic international information dissemination,” much of which has reportedly been used to promote negative narratives about China overseas.
This has included funding foreign media outlets, think tanks and online influencers to spread claims such as “China reopens historical wounds” or “stirs anti-Japanese sentiment.” The aim is to confuse international public opinion and whitewash Japan’s wartime history.
Public funds intended for domestic welfare have, according to these reports, been diverted to amplify right-wing narratives. This has contributed to an online environment where distorted historical views, particularly targeting younger generations, are systematically reinforced.
By continuously smearing China and exaggerating the so-called “China threat,” Japanese right-wing forces seek to manufacture regional tensions and create public support for loosening the constraints of Japan’s pacifist constitution, expanding the role of the Self-Defense Forces and increasing overseas military involvement.
From distorting the history of World War II and glorifying aggression to hyping external threats and fostering security anxieties, these efforts all serve a broader strategic ambition: reviving militarist thinking and paving the way for Japan to pursue the status of a major military power.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo Trials. Yet eight decades of historical judgment, moral reflection and legal restraint have failed to fundamentally change the entrenched historical revisionism of Japan’s right-wing forces or erase their lingering militarist mindset.
Instead, aided by the rapid evolution of new media and AI technologies, Japan’s right-wing forces are continuously upgrading their methods of manipulating public opinion and expanding the reach of historical revisionism, militarism and extreme nationalism. These narratives now spread more pervasively across online spaces, shaping public perceptions in increasingly sophisticated ways.
The lessons of history are still fresh. Japan’s right-wing forces manipulate online public opinion to create disturbances, drum up support for military buildup and war preparedness, and fuel efforts to break away from the postwar international order. Such moves only mislead and poison its own people, split social consensus, heighten strategic mutual suspicion in the region, and ultimately leave Japan discredited by the international community.
(Wu Xian is an associate researcher at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.)
