In this Council on Foreign Relations podcast, I talked with Dr. Sheila Smith about nationalism in Japan. We discussed my new research project (co-authored with Waseda University’s Prof. Chikako Kawakatsu Ueki), in which we find that contrary to a widespread conventional wisdom, Japan’s national identity is not growing more nationalistic. To the extent that change is evident, Japan’s identity has grown more cosmopolitan over time. And beware of those misleading headlines about “highest military budget ever” and “Japan remilitarizing”: Japan has grown more militarily assertive, but remains the least assertive of any of the great powers.