Tag Archives: Zenkyoto

Zenkyōtō gets the AKB48 makeover

Posted on Apr 30, 2016 by William Andrews

The idol group AKB48 has made a music video for its new song, the folk-tinged “Tsubasa wa iranai” (literally, “wings aren’t needed”), as a pastiche of the 1960s-1970s campus strikes and student movement in Japan. There’s guitars, helmets, and placards … Continue reading →

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Hitomi Watanabe’s “Tokyo University 1968-1969 — Behind the Blockade” takes us beyond the barricades

Posted on Jan 24, 2015 by William Andrews

Currently showing at Zen Foto Gallery in Roppongi is Hitomi Watanabe’s “Tokyo University 1968-1969 — Behind the Blockade” exhibition, a collection of nearly 30 prints of the photographer’s documentation of the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō campus strike in 1968-69. Shots … Continue reading →

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Nichidai Tōsō: The Nihon University Student Movement on Film

Posted on Feb 22, 2014 by William Andrews

George Katsiaficas talks of the “world-historical” to describe the global student movement in the late 1960’s, a movement that went far beyond just the campuses of America and western Europe. Japan’s contribution is grossly overlooked, meriting no real mention in … Continue reading →

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Send in the Clowns: Absurdity and Japanese Radicalism

Posted on Jan 30, 2013 by William Andrews

Quick, send in the clowns. Don’t bother, they’re here. Stephen Sondheim 1 Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th, 2011 and the resulting Fukushima maelstrom, the western media has frequently reported a spectacle that appears to surprise them: … Continue reading →

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