Japanese Anti-Racism Demo/Counter-Demos

[Left Voice]

I'm not sure this really needs its own topic but there seems to be no other good thread to post these without resurrecting an ancient thread.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv23bZZNCrekZXsWBxAnshQ
http://ar-journal.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/RIO_AKIYAMA

These are all by a guy called Ryo Akiyama who is the cameraman at various anti-racist, ant-facist and anti-nuclear demonstration.

I understand that most people here don't understand Japanese, but this was a march on the 1st March in Ginza, Tokyo.
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And this is one in Kyoto from December. QbWa8Q5xrco
And some pictures from the latter. http://cracva.tumblr.com/post/104829718077/kuboken999-dec-7-2014-kyoto-c-power-to-the

http://36.media.tumblr.com/aee0b2a67bd7aee1e672dba1f65bc1ac/tumblr_ng8kcoGgNE1rmgxpyo3_1280.jpg
http://40.media.tumblr.com/bf83880c6f7892cdcc93d554222055db/tumblr_ng8kcoGgNE1rmgxpyo9_1280.jpg

The above are counter-demonstrations, i.e. in response to far-right groups such as the Zaitokukai. They are obviously the ones waving the military-era Japanese flags.

Japanese anti-facism is very different from in Europe. Obviously lacking the direct history of both facism and anti-facism that Europe has, the term is used more liberally to apply to any opposition to the far-right, racism etc. Koreans and Chinese are typically the subjects of most racism in Japan, especially the Zainichi Koreans who decend from the Koreans who were forcibly moved to Japan during the imperial era. Anti-fascists in Japan oppose Shinzo Abe strongly and march against him (sometimes in cooperation with the Japan Communist Party, who are social democrats but as far left as the Japanese establishment goes). It is misleading to describe Abe as 'fascist' as many of them do, but many in his administration have rumoured links with far-right groups and some embarassing photos of his cabinat members with leaders of such groups hasn't helped. Anti-nuclear is also very strong in the anti-fascist movement in Japan, especially since the March 2011 Toukoku earthquake and subsequent meltdown of the Tokushima nuclear reactor.

Another resource. http://cracva.tumblr.com/

[Mr. Piccolo]

This is good news. You seem to only hear reports about racism in Japan but very little attention is paid to anti-racism.

The Japanese Left seems to be getting stronger, especially among younger people.

[Artiom]

Yeah nice to see...

Doe's this groups have any connection with unions or the workers movement in Japan?

[Left Voice]

I'd say the connection is there in the sense that both the trade unions and the newer Antifa groups both oppose the Zaitokukai, a relatively new group called Ganbare Nihon (頑張れ日本) and other far-right groups. Far-right groups particularly oppose the teachers union because the union oppose the Japanese history textbook revisions that gloss over the war. But trade unions are very much the 'old left'. The unions themselves tend to negotiate with businesses rather than take part in these kinds of activities, and union membership mostly consists of the older generation. The relevations in 2001 that North Korea kidnapped Japanese citizens in the late 70s and early 80s damaged the Japanese left hugely due to the Japanese left defending the rights of Koreans in Japan (who were often associated with the DPRK-affiliated Chongryon) as well as a resulting growth in nationalism not disimilar to the aftermath of the murder of Lee Rigby in the UK.

You'll notice in the pictures and videos that this group consists almost entirely of young people. They appear to be more closely related to the music scene in Japan; most of the Twitter accounts of key members reveals that many of them are musicians - many of whom associated with Club Crac in Tokyo. In that sense, there are some parallels with UK punk.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that groups in Japan suffer from is that the general public's response to racism and far-right groups in general is to turn the other way and ignore is. I've seen far-right marches in Kyoto and people seem to feel the best response is to ignore it and have nothing to do with it rather than to actively oppose it. I didn't take part in the above but I did witness the tail end of the counter-demonstration in Kyoto and that seemed to be the response then too. People oppose racism, but their response doesn't make this clear.

[Left Voice]

Sorry for the double post.

It seems the Japan Communist Party are more involved than I realised. There was an anti-racism demo in Kawasaki yesterday and the Japan Communist Party were involved.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CABw-3OUwAAelnZ.jpg:large

These two are high-up members of the party, and the flag in the background is the party flag saying 日本共産党 (Japan Communist Party).

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

Hard to get excited about anything the JCP does though...

[Comrade Jacob]

Isn't this the protests Jon Doe from YouTube takes part in?