Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

2025

Publication Title

Pacific Affairs

Volume

98

Issue

4

Pages

858-860

Abstract

[Introduction] Scholars have characterized Japan’s civil society as having been in an “ice age” for several decades, especially when focusing on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) (Robert Pekkanen, Japan’s Dual Civil Society: Members Without Advocates, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006). This is in stark contrast not only with the vibrant civil societies in most Western democracies but with prominent social movements in Japanese history, such as the anti-Anpo protest movement that began in the late 1950s. This movement opposed the renewal of the US-Japan security treaty (Anpo), which permitted the US its massive military base presence in Japan. There were strikes, mass protests, and protester-police confrontations, which escalated after the Japanese government renewed the treaty in 1959 under dubious circumstances. Another more violent protest episode occurred around Anpo renewal discussions in the following decade. Protest violence and the Japanese media’s reporting of the violence left a negative imprint of the movement on public memory, one that has hindered subsequent protest movements in Japan.

Rights

© 2025 Pacific Affairs, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, The University of British Columbia. All Rights reserved.

Included with the kind written permission of the copyright holder and the author.

ORCID

0000-0002-0664-6158 (Willis)

Original Publication Citation

Willis, C. N. (2025). [Review of the book Alternative politics in contemporary Japan: New directions in social movements, by D. H. Slater and P. G. Steinhoff (Eds.)]. Pacific Affairs, 98(4), 858-860. https://pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews/alternative-politics-in-contemporary-japan-new-directions-in-social-movements-edited-by-david-h-slater-and-patricia-g-steinhoff/

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