Zengakuren is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in Japan. The word Zengakuren (全学連) is an abridgement of Zen Nihon Gakusei Jichikai Sō Rengō (全日本学生自治会総連合) which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations." Notable for organizing protests and marches, Zengakuren has been involved in Japan's anti-Red Purge movement, the anti-military base movement, the Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the 1968–1969 Japanese university protests, and the struggle against the construction of Narita Airport.
Sanzō Nosaka was a Japanese writer, editor, labor organizer, communist agent, politician, and university professor and the founder of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP). He was the son of a wealthy Japanese merchant, and attended the prestigious Keio University. While in university, Nosaka became interested in social movements, and joined a moderate labor organization after graduation, working as a research staff member, and as a writer and editor of the organization's magazine. He traveled to Britain in 1919 to study political economy, where he deepened his studies of Marxism and became a confirmed communist. Nosaka was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but his activity within British communist circles led to him being deported from Britain in 1921.
The Japanese Communist Party is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired by Tomoko Tamura, who replaced longtime leader Kazuo Shii in January 2024.
Takaaki Yoshimoto, also known as Ryūmei Yoshimoto, was a Japanese poet, philosopher, and literary critic. As a philosopher, he is remembered as a founding figure in the emergence of the New Left in Japan, and as a critic, he was at the forefront of a movement to force writers to confront their responsibility as wartime collaborators.
Shunsuke Tsurumi was a Japanese philosopher, historian, and sociologist.
Beheiren was an antiwar Japanese "New Left" activist group that existed from 1965 to 1974 which protested Japanese assistance to the United States during the Vietnam War.
Hiroshi Noma was a Japanese poet, novelist and essayist. According to literary scholar Doug Slaymaker, Noma is widely credited with having discovered or invented the style of writing called by the term "postwar literature" in Japan.
Kiyoteru Hanada was a prominent Japanese literary critic and essayist. Hanada is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential advocates and theorists of the postwar avant-garde art movement. Jukki Hanada is his grandson.
Ineko Sata, also Ineko Kubokawa, born Ine Sata, was a Japanese writer closely connected to the Proletarian Literature Movement. An advocate of women's rights, she has also repeatedly been linked to the feminist movement.
Shingeki was a leading form of theatre in Japan that was based on modern realism. Born in the early years of the 20th century, it sought to be similar to modern Western theatre, putting on the works of the ancient Greek classics, William Shakespeare, Molière, Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, Tennessee Williams, and so forth. As it appropriated Western realism, it also introduced women back onto the Japanese stage.
The Mountain Village Operation Units were underground paramilitary units organized by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) in the early 1950s. The purpose of the units was carrying out guerrilla operations against the Japanese government and the Allied Occupation of Japan inspired by Mao Zedong's strategy of forming a base of operations in rural villages to launch a nationwide communist revolution. These operations achieved no successes and proved a disaster for the JCP's political prospects going forward.
The New Left in Japan refers to a diverse array of 1960s Japanese leftist movements that, like their counterparts in the Western New Left, adopted a more radical political stance compared to the established "Old Left," which in the case of Japan was emblematized by the Japanese Communist Party and Japan Socialist Party. After emerging in the lead-up to the 1960 Anpo protests against the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, the movement grew and diversified before climaxing with the Zenkyōtō movement which barricaded dozens of Japanese universities in 1968–1969. Much like its counterparts in the West, in the 1970s, the Japanese New Left became known for violent internal splits and terrorism, which caused the movement's influence to wane.
Hiroshi Katsuragawa was a Japanese artist closely associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan. His artworks were featured prominently in the 2010 documentary film ANPO: Art X War by American documentary filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.
In 1968 and 1969, student protests at several Japanese universities ultimately forced the closure of campuses across Japan. Known as daigaku funsō or daigaku tōsō, the protests were part of the worldwide protest cycle in 1968 and the late-1960s Japanese protest cycle, including the Anpo protests of 1970 and the struggle against the construction of Narita Airport. Students demonstrated initially against practical issues in universities and eventually formed the Zenkyōtō in mid-1968 to organize themselves. The Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management allowed for the dispersal of protesters in 1969.
Ichirō Hariu, was a Japanese art critic and literary critic, remembered as one of the "Big Three" art critics of postwar Japan.
Teruo Takei was a Japanese literary critic. While a student at the University of Tokyo, he played a central role in the founding of the nationwide student federation Zengakuren, and served as its first chairman. As a literary critic, he was at the forefront of a movement to demand that writers confront their own culpability in wartime collaboration.
The New Japanese Literature Association was a professional association for Japanese writers, poets, and literary critics that existed from 1945 to 2005. For many years, the association was under the influence of the Japan Communist Party, before breaking away in the 1960s. In the early postwar era, it counted large numbers of the most prominent Japanese writers and critics as members.
Shōjirō Kasuga was a Japanese communist activist. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Japan Communist Party (JCP) from 1945 to 1961. In the postwar period, he emerged as the leader of the party's "anti-mainstream" faction that battled with Kenji Miyamoto over party policy.
Yutaka Bitō was a Japanese artist closely associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan. In the 1950s, he was a leading exponent of the "reportage" style of Japanese socialist realist art, and later became known for his Surrealist paintings.
Kikuji Yamashita was a Japanese Surrealist painter associated with the postwar avant-garde art movement in Japan. His artworks were featured prominently in the 2010 documentary film ANPO: Art X War by American documentary filmmaker Linda Hoaglund.
