Japanese nationalism (国家主義 Kokka shugi?) encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese peopleover the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny. It is useful to distinguish Japanese cultural nationalism (see, nihonjinron) from political or state-directed nationalism (i.e., Japanese imperialism), since many forms of cultural nationalism, such as those associated with folkloric studies (i.e., Yanagita Kunio), were hostile to state-fostered nationalism.