Overview

Since the Fukushima nuclear accident in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 11 March 2011, Japan has seen a significant revival in its social activism. Large-scale social movements sprang up in response to such issues as denuclearization, proposed new US military bases in Okinawa and the 2015 National Security Legislation, propelled by dissatisfaction with the national government’s stance on these fronts. In the context of the broader ‘amorphization’ of Japanese society, this book characterizes these movements as ‘amorphous’ based on the phenomenon in which movements are formed by diverse and disparate people and display disparate, disorganized and undefined elements in stark contrast to Japanese social movements of the past which were of a highly structured organizational type. The authors have direct, first-hand experience of these social movements and paint vivid pictures of their diverse activities. Chapters focus on issues such as opposition to hate speech and US military bases in Okinawa, and examine in detail movements such as SEALDs, Hangenren and Amateur Revolt, perhaps the most amorphous social movement in Japan of this period.

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9781920901851

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Amorphous Dissent takes up recent social movements that have formed a significant presence in Japanese society since 3.11, such as the protests against nuclear power plants, the movement opposing the Security Law, Amateur Revolt, rallies to counter hate speech, and the anti-base movement in Okinawa. The authors positioned them as new movements against the background of social disorganization and deinstitutionalization. This is a good book that offers a vision of the potential for social movements to respond to globalization. - Annual Report of the Japan Society of Political Science

“Amorphous Dissent takes up recent social movements that have formed a significant presence in Japanese society since 3.11, such as the protests against nuclear power plants, the movement opposing the Security Law, Amateur Revolt, rallies to counter hate speech, and the anti-base movement in Okinawa. The authors positioned them as new movements against the background of social disorganization and deinstitutionalization. This is a good book that offers a vision of the potential for social movements to respond to globalization.” - Annual Report of the Japan Society of Political Science

Author Information

Professor of Political Science in the Graduate School of Humanities, Tokyo Metropolitan University. He specializes in Japanese politics and welfare state. His publications include Gendai seiji to josei seisaku (Contemporary Japanese politics and gender policies), Keiso Shobo, 2005 and Japanese Politics Today: From Karaoke to Kabuki Democracy, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 (co-author).

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