Are human rights a shield to protect victims of human rights violations or are they a sword wielded by human rights lawyers to attack everyone disagreeing with their opinions? Do people in Japan care about human rights or are they just window-dressing for the international community? Language connected to human rights is essentially contested. This talk presents human rights narratives collected from various human rights actors in Japanese society. These narratives form the basis of human rights discourse in Japanese civil society, media, the legal landscape, academia, and politics. The study uses mixed methods to map the political discourse quantitatively and qualitatively to then trace back how discursive shifts occurred. An interdisciplinary approach helps understanding human rights in contemporary Japanese society within in a world which increasingly puts pressure on liberal norms. Details and registration here