Student Radicalism in Japan: A "Cultural Revolution"?

Abstract

In the latter part of the 1960's student power has asserted itself throughout the world. Nowhere is this more true than in Japan where student radicalism constitutes one of the three top priorities in national politics. This paper discusses the situation in Japan, first by describing the origins, structure, and types of activity of Zengakuren and then by setting forth five specific hypotheses to account for the nature of student radicalism in Japan (as well as elsewhere). They are: (1) erosion of legitimation in Japan's polity which accentuates radical (as opposed to reformist-liberal) movements; (2) disenchantment with the status and function of the university; (3) status-deprivation, indicating a shift from class struggle to status-struggle in mature industrialized nations such as Japan; (4) demographic and ecological factors which accentuate the self-definition of the youth today; (5) the student movement as a cultural revolution or as a modernizing process.