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November 4, 2025
Japan History Group, ISS, the University of Tokyo, June 9, 2025.
From: Naofumi NAKAMURA <naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
Date: 2025/05/27
The next meeting of the Japan History Group (JHG) at the Institute of Social Science (ISS), University of Tokyo, will be held on Monday, June 9, 202
Date and time: June 9, 2025, 18:00-20:00
Venue: the Center Meeting Room of ISS (room no.549, Center Kaigi-shitsu), 5th floor of the Akamon Research Building
Presenter: Nick Kapur, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University, Camden
Title: The Politics of Non-Politics in Postwar Japan
Discussant: Ryota Murai, Professor, Komazawa University
Abstract:
In the late 1960s, a new style of "non-political" social movement emerged in Japan. Despite aiming at social reforms, these movements--including environmental, consumer protection, and local improvement movements--embraced a rhetoric of "non-politics," disclaiming "ideology" in exchange for an exclusive focus on "issues." These paradoxically "non-political" organizations achieved great success in the political arena, and by declaring that "anyone can join," these movements achieved a significant number of policy goals. As the white-collarization of Japan's male workforce continued apace, and high-speed economic growth allowed social norms emphasizing full-time housewifery to strengthen, many of these new movements were organized in significant part by housewives in new exurban housing developments (danchi), as part of so-called "residents' movements" (jumin undō). In this talk, I trace the history of Japan's "non-political" political activism from the early postwar to the present, including recent movements against nuclear power plants and the 2015 Security Bill. I argue that because the wages of "anti-politics" were so high, this approach became hegemonic in Japanese political organizing, such that many movements may continue to feel compelled to embrace it even when they seek more overtly "political" objectives.
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Dr. Naofumi NAKAMURA
Professor of Business History
Institute of Social Science,
The University of Tokyo
naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Dr. Naofumi NAKAMURA
Professor of Business History
Institute of Social Science,
The University of Tokyo
naofumin@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Approved by ssjmod at 05:44 PM