Anti-War and Anti-Fascism Demonstrations in Japan

[hariwenjiyu 23]

Is anyone else following the political situation in Japan with the demonstrations? Not a lot seems to get out in the media outside of Japan these days (especially after 3.11). There is a slight connection to the Japanese music scene since demonstrators often employ a hip-hop chant and have been inviting musicians to join in. Asian Kung-Fu Generation and Kurui have also voiced their opinions (they are not attached to any groups demonstrating that I know of though).

One of the most prominent groups demonstrating is a group called SEALDs.

 

"SEALDs (Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy) is a platform of emergency actions by students to protect a free and democratic Japan. We are a group of youths from late teens to early 20s. We aim to rethink and enact democracy.

We uphold the tradition of freedom and democracy in Japan that has been built for the past 70 years after the World War Ⅱ. Our principal aim is to protect the Constitution of Japan which is fundamental to this tradition. The philosophy of Japan’s Peace Constitution is a project that is yet to be accomplished. In order to protect our Constitution which is currently in danger, we state a clear vision with focus on Constitutionalism, Social Security, and National Security.

The situation of Japanese politics continues to worsen. In 2014, the Secret Protection Law and the right to collective defense have been forcibly passed, severely undermining the fundamental ideas enshrined in the Constitution of Japan. In the meantime, a new social security system needed to deal with the rising rate of poverty and aging population does not seem to be emerging. Another challenge is posed by the increasing tension among East Asian countries..." http://sealdseng.strikingly.com/

 

Almost everyday there are demonstrations going on in (sometimes simultaneously) in hundreds of different areas of Japan. The largest one was a few days ago with over 120,000 people, which is a staggering number for Japan.

The, here is a nice opinion piece from Bloomberg about Japan possibly turning into an autocracy (with suspect trolling in comments section): http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-20/japan-s-constitutional-change-is-move-toward-autocracy

Great blog/article in Japanese: http://blogos.com/article/134246/?p=2
Update: Article published by The Guardian yesterday, looks like the demos are finally getting reported in-depth after months of constant demonstrating: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/16/japanese-anti-war-protesters-challenge-shinzo-abe

I hate to admit it, but if you ever watch Japanese news, there is no actual reporting, so everyone uses twitter or something called togetther. If you look up articles in Japanese, there is a lot of trolling going on similar to what you find in Russia or some sort of fascist state (article from The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/russia-troll-factory-kremlin-cyber-army-comparisons),which seems to be for the purpose of influencing public opinion (i.e. appealing to people who do not have a lot of political literacy). I am used to biased Fox News reporting, but the entire Japanese internet (and even some articles about Japan in English) are full of people who seem hired to troll called the netouyo. The change has been dramatic the last couple of years and the xenophobic attitude is frightening. The UN has been calling out the country a lot lately on hate speech and hate speech demonstrations. I really hope things get better really soon.

EDIT: Edited post; fixed imgur link. 120,000 not 12,000.

[secret_no_03 959]

Shout out to SEALD, love those guys, some very nice people in that group!