Ascending from the barren bowels of Kokkai-gijidomae Station in the early afternoon of Sunday 7 October to an Indian summer bout of unexpected sunshine, the empty streets of Japan’s parliament district were disturbed by throbbing. As I skirted around the west side of the National Diet, I could hear that Ittoku 2018, the second edition […]
It was the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, as Ikuma Saitō handed over the reigns of the left-wing student activist group Zengakuren to Kyōhei Takahara in early September at the 79th Zengakuren National Congress. A 21-year-old second-year University of Tokyo student, Takahara first crossed paths with Zengakuren two years […]
On 23 September, locals and activists gathered in Kōenji, west Tokyo, to protest plans to redevelop the area that opponents denounce as commercially motivated gentrification. Mustering supporters with the English slogans of “gentrification is not progress” and “Kōenji against gentrification”, the rally in a park was followed by a march taking a leisurely two-hour route […]
