User Talk: GnocchiFan

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Yukio Mishima

Hello. Mr. GnocchiFan. How do you do.

Regarding the category "Category:Japanese fascists" for Yukio Mishima, the Japanese "Featured article" 三島由紀夫 does not have such an incorrect categorization. John Nathan ↗, a leading expert on Mishima, also does not share this view.

You said, "this is discussed in the article as well as the sources cited; there may be disagreement, but a substantial '''enough group of people''' view his work as fascist for the category to be applicable." Specifically, who (a prominent Mishima researcher) has identified Mishima as a fascist?

Perhaps among the general public in other countries who don't know much about Mishima, there's a mistaken perception that he was a fascist. However, people or experts who have properly read Mishima's works and studied his actions do not share this strange perception of him as a fascist.

I hope you understand this point. I apologize for my poor English; it may be difficult to understand. みしまるもも (talk) 00:18, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

:{{reply|みしまるもも}} Thanks for discussing with me. I will admit that I am not an expert, but I can see from the bibliography used in the article that there is significant discussion of Mishima's alleged fascist tendencies. Citation #15 quotes Julia Shiota's article ↗ in ''Asian American Writers' Workshop ↗'' and Elizabeth Scham's article ↗ in ''Book Forum ↗'' (both of which make it clear his ideology isn't clear-cut, but still discuss fascism). There is also this article ↗ by Gavin Walker (associate professor of history at McGill University ↗) in ''Jacobin ↗'', which describes the {{tq|specific character of Mishima’s fascism [...] This would not be fascism as a concrete political option, with policy directives and measures for governing, but fascism as aesthetic style}}. Whether these opinions constitute due weight ↗, I don't know, as I'm not sure whether these count as prominent Mishima researchers: I would suggest bringing this up on the article talk page. GnocchiFan (talk) 06:41, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
::{{reply|GnocchiFan}} Thank you for your kind and thoughtful reply. Perhaps there's a difference between the concept of "fascist" in Japan and overseas.
::It appears that around the time Mishima published ''The Sound of Waves'', he was briefly called a "fascist" by radical leftists within the Japanese Communist Party (Mishima seemed to find this amusing and even proud of it, as seen in his essays). However, generally, in the world of neutral Japanese Mishima scholars (including foreign experts such as John Nathan ↗ and Donald Keene ↗), no one defines Mishima as a "fascist." While it's almost universally accepted that he was a conservative, right-wing writer, this doesn't equate to "fascism." This is because it's well known among experts, from his critiques and works, that Mishima strongly disliked both right-wing and left-wing totalitarianism, and it's also clear that his final actions were not aimed at overthrowing the government.
::However, since the categories in the English article may include different perspectives than those in the Japanese article, I will leave the categorization to foreign people going forward. But, I would like to point out that categorizing Mishima as a "fascist" is indeed quite strange from the perspective of Japanese experts who have deeply studied Mishima. Thank you. I apologize for my poor English. みしまるもも (talk) 07:43, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
:::No worries, thank you for replying. If you remove the category again, I won't object, but I do think it needs to be raised on the talk page for fuller discussion among editors.
:::Thank you so much for your edits on the English Wikipedia and for helping to improve our coverage of topics that may not be as widely understood by native English-language speakers. GnocchiFan (talk) 17:11, 19 June 2026 (UTC)