BUSHIDO TODAY

After World War II, Japan disavowed war for pacifism; disbanding its army and creating the Self-defence Force

Japan’s post-war constitution prohibited the country from fighting offensive wars, relegating the Self-defence Force (SDF) to a form of reserve defence force.

In 2014, amid growing tensions with China and North Korea, Shinzo Abe’s Japanese parliament began broadening the SDF’S powers. However, the vast majority of the Japanese populace oppose this revision and remain committed to pacifism. The samurai values of honour, discipline and martial skill remain hallmarks of the country’s most popular martial arts, such as karate, kendo, judo, jujutsu and aikido. However, these are largely taught as forms of self-defence and personal development rather than preparation for war.

Some analysts see other aspects of samurai culture – formality, respect for hierarchy and discipline – in Japan’s modern work culture, especially among the country’s ‘salarymen’. Fuelling the stereotype, in 1999 a disgruntled manager at Bridgestone committed seppuku with a fish knife after a heated argument with the company’s president.

Yet, for the most part, the samurai code of bushidō has been relegated to the confines of history. Although Japanese pop culture tends to embrace an idealised interpretation of the samurai, some – such as Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 film Harakiri

– have reframed the virtue of blind loyalty unto death as an unjust social contract used by the powerful to enforce immoral decisions on the powerless.