William Andrews is a writer and translator in Tokyo. He is the author of Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture, from 1945 to Fukushima.

07.15.2022

• William Andrews

The Japanese Left Has a Complex and Turbulent History

During the 1960s, the Japanese Communist Party faced a strong challenge from Japan’s New Left groups amid a wave of student radicalization. While the Communists’ staying power proved greater, neither old nor new lefts have succeeded in transforming Japan.