Asahina, Yuki2017-12-182017-12-182015-08http://hdl.handle.net/10125/51042M.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2015.Includes bibliographical references.This thesis is a study of social change in contemporary Japan, which uses the success of a right-wing social movement as a case. My analysis focuses on the “Activist-Conservative” movement that had emerged in the late 2000’s and developed rapidly. Drawing on the analysis of original and secondary interview data with 46 right-wing activists, qualitative content analysis of right-wing magazines, and the review of various existing resources, I explore reasons people are motivated to take part in such activities and the reasons the movement was able to achieve a degree of success in contemporary Japanese society. The thesis argues that Japan’s new rightwing mobilization should be understood as a reaction to Japan’s economic, political, and symbolic power decline in East Asia. It was the macro-level economic and political changes in East Asia that enabled the success of the new right-wing movement.engSocial MovementsConservatismRight-WingSocial ChangeJapan and East AsiaThesis