Vol. 15 No. 29 (2024): Continuities and Transformations in Forms of Collective Action
Articles

Rejecting the Radical New Left: Transformations in Japanese Social Movements

PDF
  • David H. Slater,
  • Patricia G. Steinhoff
David H. Slater
Sophia University
Patricia G. Steinhoff
University of Hawai’i
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-15497

Published 2024-07-23

Keywords

  • Japan,
  • mobilizing non-regular woekers,
  • right-wing challengers and counter-movements,
  • cultural movements

How to Cite

Slater, D. H., & Steinhoff, P. G. (2024). Rejecting the Radical New Left: Transformations in Japanese Social Movements. SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 15(29), 49–61. https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-15497

Copyright (c) 2024 David H. Slater, Patricia G. Steinhoff

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

After a disastrous period of New Left political violence in the late 1960s and early 1970s, followed by two decades of abeyance, Japan has experienced a renewed era of social movement activity since the 1990s. These new movements explicitly seek to avoid contamination by the earlier period, even when their participants know little about it except for fear perpetuated by media portrayals of senseless violence. We analyze ethnographic accounts of contemporary groups engaged in collective action, ranging from small informal groups in Japan’s invisible civil society; groups trying to mobilize laborers who fall outside Japan’s traditional enterprise unions; and groups reviving and revitalizing older movement networks to deal with new threats; to new right-wing challengers and their counter-movements; and those making innovative use of cultural resources. They all seek alternatives to earlier social movements that engaged in political violence, by creating very different organizational structures and relations to ideology, relying on social media for communication, and developing new forms of collective action. They foreground cultural and expressive repertoires, and seek to establish the movement as a place of personal and social belonging. As was true of the New Left social movements in the mid-20th century, these new groups are closely attuned to movement developments around the world, even as they craft their responses to specific historical conditions in Japan.

PDF

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

  1. Asahina Y. (2024) «New Right-Wing Movements as Alternative Politics», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  2. Beer L. W. (1998), «Peace in Theory and Practice Under Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution», in Marquette Law Review, 81 (3): 815-830.
  3. Brown A. (2024), «Mobilizing Musical Traditions in the Antinuclear Resistance in Post-Fukushima Japan», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  4. Carlile L. (2005), Divisions of Labor: Globality, Ideology and War in the Shaping of the Japanese Labor Movement, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  5. Cassegard C. (2014), Youth movements, trauma and alternative space in contemporary Japan, Leiden: Global Oriental.
  6. Cassegård C. (2024), «Homelessness, Art, and Activism in Japan from the early ‘90s until Today», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  7. Della Porta D., Andretta M., Fernandes T., Romanos E. and Vogiatzoglou M. (2018), «Legacies and Memories in Movements: Justice and Democracy in Southern Europe», in B. Clifford Bob and J. M. Jasper, Oxford Studies in Culture and Politics, Oxford University Press, New York.
  8. Fine G. A. (2001), Difficult Reputations: Collective Memories of the Evil, Inept, and Controversial, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  9. Furuie V. (2024), «Dressed in Pink: Antinuclear Activism in Post-Fukushima Japan: The Remodeling of a New Left Organization», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  10. Halbwachs M. (1992 [1925; 1950]), On Collective Memory, Translated by L. A. Coser, Heritage of Socology series, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
  11. Hammock P. L. (2010), «Identity as burden or benefit? Youth, historical narrative, and the legacy of political conflict», in Human Development, 53 (4): 173-201.
  12. Havens T. R. H. (1987), Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965-1975, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  13. Iida Y. (2024), «Continuity after Abeyance: Dismantling of Mobilizing Structures and Generational Turnover in the Cycles of Protest», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  14. Kapur N. (2018), Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo, Harvard University Press, Boston.
  15. Kindstrand L., Nishimura K. and Slater D. H. (2016), «Mobilizing discontent: Social media and networked activism since the Great East Japan Earthquake», in (eds.) L. Hjorth and O. Khoo, Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia, Routledge, London and New York, pp. 53-65.
  16. Kojima S. (2024), «The Power of Alternative Union Networks», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  17. Melucci A. (1988), Nomads of the Present, Temple University Press, Philadelphia.
  18. Melucci A. (1995), «The Process of Collective Identity», in (eds.) H. Johnston and B. Klandermans, Social Movements and Culture, Social Movements, Protest & Contention, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 41-63.
  19. Morioka R. (2024), «From Dismayed Mom to Activist Mother: A Process of Social Movement Participation after the Nuclear Disaster in Japan», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.
  20. Nishikido M. (2024), «Alternative Movements for Energy in Japan: The Development of “Community Power Movements», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  21. O’Day R. (2015), «Differentiating SEALDs from Freeters, and Precariats: The Politics of Youth Movements in Contemporary Japan», in The Asia-Pacific Journal, 13 (37): 2.
  22. O’Day R. (2024), «Union is Hope: Freeter Mobilization», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  23. Oguma E. (2009), 1968 （上）[若者たちの叛乱とその背景 Wakamonotachi no hanran to sono haikei, Vol. 1 （上）, Shinyosha, Tokyo.
  24. Olick J. K. and Levy D. (1997), «Collective memory and cultural constraint: Holocaust myth and rationality in German politics», in American Sociological Review, 62: 921-936.
  25. Olick J. K. and Robbins J. (1998), «Social Memory Studies: From “collective memory” to the historical sociology of mnemonic practices», in Annual Review of Sociology, 24: 105-140.
  26. Polletta F. (2002), Freedom is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
  27. Raekstad P. and Gradin S. S. (2020), Prefigurative Politics: Building Tomorrow Today, Polity Press, Cambridge.
  28. Shaw V. (2024), «Antiracism before and after Fukushima», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii, Honolulu.
  29. Shiratori N. (2018), Peace in Vietnam! Beheiren: Transnational Activisim and GI Movement in Postwar Japan 1965-1974, PhD Doctoral Dissertation, Political Science, University of Hawaii.
  30. Slater D. H. (2024), «Tell Me What Democracy Looks Like: Using Cultural Resources to Create Liberal Alternatives», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  31. Slater D. H. and Steinhoff P. G. (eds.) (2024), Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  32. Slater D. H., Morioka R. and Danzuka H. (2014). «Micro-Politics of Radiation: Young Mothers Looking for a Voice in Post-3.11 Fukushima», in Critical Asian Studies, 46 (3): 485-508.
  33. Slater D. H., O’Day R., Uno S., Kindstrand L. and Takano C. (2015), «SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy): Research Note on Contemporary Youth Politics in Japan», in The Asia-Pacific Journal, 13 (37).
  34. Steinhoff P. G. (2003), Shi eno Ideology: Nihon Sekigunha.Iwanami Bunko Modern Classics Series, Iwanami Publishing Company, Tokyo.
  35. Steinhoff P. G. (1991), Nihon Sekigunha: Sono Shakaigakuteki Monogatari (Japan Red Army Faction: A Sociological Tale), Kawade Shobo Shinsha, Tokyo.
  36. Steinhoff P. G. (1992), «Death by Defeatism and Other Fables: The Social Dynamics of the Rengo Sekigun Purge», in (eds.) T. S. Lebra, Japanese Social Organization, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, pp. 195-224.
  37. Steinhoff P. G. (1999), «Student Protest in the 1960s» in Social Science Japan, 15: 3-6.
  38. Steinhoff P. G. (2012), «Japan: Student Activism in an Emerging Democracy», in (eds.) M. Weiss and E. Aspinall, Between Protest and Passivity: Understanding Student Activism in Asia, MN: University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp. 57-78.
  39. Steinhoff P. G. (2013), «Memories of New Left Protest», in Contemporary Japan, Journal of the German Institute for Japanese Studies, 25 (2): 127-165.
  40. Steinhoff P. G. (2024), «Transforming Invisible Civil Society into Alternative Politics», in (eds.) D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff, Alternative Politics in Contemporary Japan: New Directions in Social Movements, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
  41. Takemasa A. (2013), «Transforming ‘Everydayness’: Japanese New Left Movements and the Meaning of Their Direct Action», in Japanese Studies, 33 (1): 1-18.
  42. Wiemann A. (2019), «Making Memory by Dissociating the Past from the Present: Narratives of Movement Intellectuals of the Post-Fukushima Protest Cycle in Japan», in International Quarterly for Asian Studies, 50 (1-2): 157-170.
  43. Zamponi L. (2018), «Social Movements, Memory and Media: Narrative in Action in the Italian and Spanish Student Movements», in (eds.) C. Ruzza and H. J. Trenz, Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology, Palgrave MacMillan.
  44. Zwerman G., Steinhoff P. G. and Della Porta D. (2000), «Disappearing Social Movements: Clandestinity in the Cycle of New Left Protest in the United States, Japan, Germany, and Italy», in Mobilization, 5(1): 85-104.