Kizuna as a Discursive Foundation of Japan’s Disaster Diplomacy and Foreign Aid

Caecilia Ega Sanjaya, Muhammad Rum, S.I.P., I.M.A.S., Ph.D.

2025 | Skripsi | Ilmu Hubungan Internasional

This study explores how kizuna (bonds) was constructed after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, both domestically and internationally as part of Japan’s humanitarian diplomacy. The research focuses on political speeches, official statements, and official documents, analyzed using the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). It uses DHA strategies such as nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivation, and intensification to see how kizuna was framed as a both domestic moral value and an international diplomatic identity. The findings show that kizuna is constructed to articulate national resilience, show gratitude toward the international community, and legitimize Japan’s expanding humanitarian role through the narratives of reciprocity, solidarity, and shared responsibility. This framing strengthened Japan’s soft-power positioning, especially in disaster diplomacy and foreign aid.

However, the study also reveals normative tensions in the institutionalization of kizuna. In the domestic level, the narratives tend to depoliticize local crisis such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis. It also conceals structural inequalities that happen in reality. Kizuna produced expectations of emotional conformity and marginalized vulnerable groups. In the international level, kizuna sometimes functioned merely as a symbolic affective diplomacy rather than a substantive framework for humanitarian action. These dynamics demonstrate that while kizuna enhances Japan’s humanitarian identity, at the same time kizuna shows the limitations of the application of cultural value in foreign policy practices.

This study explores how kizuna (bonds) was constructed after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, both domestically and internationally as part of Japan’s humanitarian diplomacy. The research focuses on political speeches, official statements, and official documents, analyzed using the Discourse Historical Approach (DHA). It uses DHA strategies such as nomination, predication, argumentation, perspectivation, and intensification to see how kizuna was framed as a both domestic moral value and an international diplomatic identity. The findings show that kizuna is constructed to articulate national resilience, show gratitude toward the international community, and legitimize Japan’s expanding humanitarian role through the narratives of reciprocity, solidarity, and shared responsibility. This framing strengthened Japan’s soft-power positioning, especially in disaster diplomacy and foreign aid.

However, the study also reveals normative tensions in the institutionalization of kizuna. In the domestic level, the narratives tend to depoliticize local crisis such as the Fukushima nuclear crisis. It also conceals structural inequalities that happen in reality. Kizuna produced expectations of emotional conformity and marginalized vulnerable groups. In the international level, kizuna sometimes functioned merely as a symbolic affective diplomacy rather than a substantive framework for humanitarian action. These dynamics demonstrate that while kizuna enhances Japan’s humanitarian identity, at the same time kizuna shows the limitations of the application of cultural value in foreign policy practices.

Kata Kunci : affective diplomacy, depoliticization, disaster diplomacy, kizuna, humanitarian identity