Tokyo’s New Youth Social Movements: A comparative exploration

Abstract

On March 2011, a major earthquake in the eastern part of Japan caused a serious accident in the Fukushima nuclear plant. Thousands of Japanese citizens gathered in front of the National Diet building in Tokyo to join an anti-nuclear movement, heralding the revival of street politics in Japan after decades of silence. In summer 2015, national security bills (which many scholars claim as unconstitutional) were under discussion; thus, a student organization called SEALDs, comprised mainly of students from Tokyo universities, successfully organized protests every weekend near the National Diet. The protests attracted tens of thousands of participants demanding that the government shelve the bills. Japan’s New Youth Social Movements occurred at a time when street politics were very active in East Asia (including Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement and Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement) and worldwide (such as Occupy Wall Street and the Jasmine Revolution), but the theme in Japan’s protests focused on country-specific issues. Unlike their counterparts in Taiwan, however, Japan’s youth movements failed to force the government to accept its demands. This study aims at exploring the factors that structure the characteristics of Japan’s youth social movements through comparative study.

Keywords: Internet, Japan, Media, Umbrella Movement, Youth Social Movements