Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 468, to Eat Their Own.

One of the rather odd features of post-war Japanese history is the rather meteoric trajectory

of the new left.

As we've seen post-war leftist groups that defined themselves, at least in part, by their

opposition to more traditional left-wing organizations, like the

Communist Party or labor unions, blossomed in the 1960s. But if you're at all familiar with

the political landscape of modern Japan, you'll also notice that this surging new left, which once

upon a time could call upon enough support to make Tokyo look like a war zone

during its battles with the police, is today pretty much gone.

That raises one hell of a question. Where did they all go?

And this week we're going to wrap our look at post-war left-wing radicalism with a discussion

of that exact question,

particularly with a focus on probably the most iconic of the new left groups, the Zengakuren.

As a quick refresh, the Zengoku Ren was originally founded in 1948 as a vehicle for influence

by that most old left of organizations, the Japanese

Communist Party.

The thinking was that the Zen Gakuren, which is short for Zen Nihon Gakse Jichikai Sorengo,

or all-Japan union of student self-governing associations, could build up a following among

the various

Gichi Kai of Japan's universities, a combination of student government and student union.

These Gichikai, in turn, enjoyed comparative autonomy in the immediate post-war era,

thanks to educational reforms imposed by the post-war occupation and could form a powerful support

...