Public Statuary in Modern Japan

Over the past decade, debates concerning public statues have become increasingly confrontational and divisive. This article situates Japan within these debates to illuminate their broader historical and theoretical dimensions. It contends that the intensification of such controversies reflects the enduring legacy of the Great Man theory of history, an influential historiographical paradigm in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The study demonstrates how Japan has become part of the global circulation of ideas regarding monumental heroism and examines how elites in Japan have instrumentalized public statuary for the purposes of nation-building and the dissemination of national consciousness among the broader population.