Caricature as a form of hate speech?
Tino Bruno · 2020
Since the atomic bombings of 1945, the atomic issue remains a sensitive subject in Japan. Unsurprisingly, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has made a certain part of the Japanese population more sensitive to atomic issue, while it has encouraged a new wave of caricatures and other mockeries in the West, as in France, Charlie Hebdo’s country. And it is precisely some French “jokes” that have provoked a stir in Japan. Particularly, the On n’est pas couché TV show broadcasting on October 2012 on France 2 (France) of a photomontage showing the Japan national football team’s goal keeper, Eiji Kawashima, with four arms provoked diplomatic incidents. In this chapter, we attempt to understand how the French caricature can be considered as a form of “hate speech” in Japan, by studying its particularities and by analyzing the Japanese press reaction. This case study will lead us to reflect more generally on the porous frontier between “humour” and “hate speech,” but also on the role of media as a carrier for a message considered “funny” by some people but “resentful” by others, and the importance they have to play in mutual understanding in the age of globalization.