In Japan, no legal measures have been taken to restrict activities of citizens
in coping with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. People are simply exercising
self-restraint as requested by the government. Self-restraint has been a
contradictory yet widely practiced behavior among Japanese at turning points
throughout the country’s history from wartime to the present day. This paper
discusses the roles of such a behavior after picking key turning points based on
the analysis of a number of relevant newspaper articles of the Asahi Shimbun
and Yomiuri Shimbun. Examples include the establishment of the wartime
regime, the inception of the LDP’s dominance under the 1955 system, the oil
crises, U.S.-Japan trade friction, the demise of Emperor Hirohito, neoliberal
reforms, and disasters triggered by the 1995 Great Hanshin and 2011 Tohoku
earthquakes. An observation of self-restraint among the Japanese under these
circumstances is followed by an examination of the workings of power and
norms in Japanese society.
