Yoshinori Kobayashi

Yoshinori Kobayashi
小林 よしのり
Born 小林 善範 (Kobayashi Yoshinori)
(1953-08-31) August 31, 1953
Fukuoka, Japan
Occupation Mangaka
Nationality Japanese

Yoshinori Kobayashi (小林 よしのり or 小林 善範 Kobayashi Yoshinori, born August 31, 1953) is a bestselling Japanese author and manga artist. The author of over two hundred books and manga, Kobayashi is most famous for his controversial political commentary manga Gōmanism Sengen (ゴーマニズム宣言, roughly translated as "My Arrogant Declaration" or "Haughtiness Manifesto"). He is a founder and editor-in-chief of the political magazine Wascism (わしズム, My Own Principle) (the name consists of the Japanese singular pronoun washi and the root "-ism") and often appears on Japanese political debate programs such as Asamade Namaterebi (朝まで生テレビ, Live Until The Morning).

Kobayashi's nickname, "Yoshirin" (よしりん), and his staff team's name, Yoshirin Productions (Yoshirin Kikaku, よしりん企画), are derived from the first two syllables of Kobayashi's given name and the On reading of its kanji 林).

There is "Sagadaigaku-gakusei-jitikai-ren" as a group that he influences.

Life

A student of French literature from Fukuoka University, Kobayashi published his first manga, Tōdai Itchokusen (東大一直線, Beeline to Tokyo U), in 1976 in Weekly Shōnen Jump while still in school. Another of his early series, Obocchama-kun (おぼっちゃまくん, Little Princeling), a satire about a haughty rich boy in the heyday of Japan's bubble economy, won the 1989 Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga[1] and was also adapted into an anime and video games for the Famicom and PC Engine.

Politics

Yoshinori Kobayashi has become one of the most prominent conservative authors and commentators of Japan's younger generations, both at home and abroad, especially in the wake of his long-running Gōmanism Sengen manga series, first published in 1992. In Gomanism, Kobayashi portrays himself as an intentionally arrogant, controversial, and extreme character, somewhat akin to Stephen Colbert. The intent of the manga is to provoke discussion in Japan's apolitical society. In actual dialogues, though, Kobayashi is much more nuanced. For example, while he takes up the Japanese history textbook controversies with the position that Japan should be allowed to write its own textbook, when talking with Susumu Nishibe, he acknowledged that the actual textbook produced by right-wing groups whitewashes history in pursuit of ideology.[2]

Among Kobayashi's more recent opinions are that Japan should assist Taiwan independence from China, foreign opinion should not be considered by Japanese politicians in domestic issues such as visits to Yasukuni Shrine and textbook revisions, terrorist attacks such as those on September 11th will continue in America as long as foreign policy is controlled by neoconservatives, and Japan should not support the ongoing Iraq War.

In response to harsh criticism of the Aum Supreme Truth cult, an attempt was made on his life by cult members (Kobayashi addressed the incident in later issues of Gomanism).

In November 2013, Yoshinori Kobayashi harshly criticized the Japanese government's new secrecy bill in a front page column of the Asahi newspaper. He compared it to the Peace Preservation Act of 1925, underscoring that it was ultimately used against ordinary people in Japan’s prewar years and during World War II.[3]

Works

Although On Taiwan has been translated into Traditional Chinese and was released to great controversy in Taiwan (ISBN 957-801-279-9), there are no further official translations currently planned for any of Kobayashi's works. Among his published works are:

References

  1. ↑ 小学館漫画賞: 歴代受賞者 (in Japanese). Shogakukan. Retrieved 2007-08-19.
  2. ↑ Kobayashi Yoshinori and Susumu Nishibe. Honjitsu no Zatsudan 4. Asuka Shinsha, 2004. p. 105.
  3. ↑ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-02/abe-support-falls-below-50-for-first-time-amid-secrecy-drive.html

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, February 16, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.