Protest culture: the view from Japan

To: Retort
Via: AG

[Go Hirasawa is a Japanese media activist who teaches film studies at Tokyo University.  He recently coordinated the retrospective of the Japanese director Koji Wakamatsu at the Berlinale international film festival. This is an interview conducted by Juliane Schumacher, published in Tageszeitung (TAZ), the co-operatively-run-and-owned German newspaper, with over 7000 members, translated in Berlin,  and edited in Berkeley. IB]


Taz: Mr. Hirasawa, you were in Heiligendamm during the G8-summit last
year. How did you find the protests?

Go Hirawasa: There were ten people from Japan taking part at the
protest. In particular, the camps were a special experience for us. There
were so many people from all over the world; that was a wonderful
opportunity to discuss and to exchange information.

 TAZ: Were there also things which were strange to you?

Oh yes, this never-ending search for consensus. In Germany or Europe,
every aspect of the strategy and tactics of protest is discussed
with everybody, and that takes so long. I found it very interesting, but
it did not seem very practical at all.

 TAZ: How is it in Japan?

We choose respectively one or two persons for each action or protest,
who is then delegated to decide on behalf of a bigger group. "Commandant" may not be
the right word, but these people bear responsibility. The age of
the persons in charge is of no matter; what matters are the
experiences and the ability to make the appropriate decisions at the right
time. Once you get arrested in Japan, you can be detained in police custody for
23 days. For that reason, it is very important to prepare well for
actions and to plan with the group. Spontaneous actions are less suitable.

TAZ: At previous summits in Europe or the US, activists have often made the criticism
that the police react disproportionately, and that there were
assaults. Do you expect similar situations in Japan?

We expect a situation during the summit very similar to
Heiligendamm. However, the police in Japan operate differently than in
Europe; open violence is not so common, they act rather subtly, for
example, they try to intimidate political activists by visiting them at
home. On the other hand, they also try to arrest organizers of protests
in the run-up to the summit. And if there are no concrete grounds for
the search, or if they cannot clearly identify any "leaders", they just
construct some pretext. This is a very typical procedure for the Japanese
police.

 TAZ: Are Japanese people critical towards the G-8 summit?

Most of the Japanese do not have even a slight reservation about the
legitimacy of the G8 or the capitalist economic system. I have the
impression that people in Europe are more critical. We hope
that we can spread such a prevailing mood also in Japan, so that people
do not just take things how they are but begin to put them into question
and challenge them. Until now, Europe and the Americas play the main role in 
criticizing neo-liberalistic globalisation. I hope that this will change.

 TAZ: Are there differences between the leftists in Japan and Germany?

Leftist groups in Germany are networked well among themselves. I was
impressed that they succeeded in building up a broad coalition against
the G8 summit. In Japan, the leftists are totally at odds with each
other. The groups fight against each other instead of fighting together
for their aims.

 TAZ: Which are the main groups?

There are lots of anti-militaristic groups, and labor unions, of course.
There is also the New Left wing, although it is no longer new, because
it was founded in the 60s, and comprises the Trotskyists and others.
In addition, there are also younger movements since the 1980's: movements
against poverty, against homelessness, or against discrimination against
people with disability, and since then, the May Day movement.

 TAZ: Does the anti-globalisation movement exist in Japan?

Yes.  It has become one of the largest movements in Japan. The
"Battle of Seattle" in the late 1990's marked a beginning point for
this issue in Japan. During the G8 in Genoa, there was a demonstration
at the Italian embassy, out of which an anti-globalisation group named
Anti-Capitalist Action (ACA) was founded.  Another important convention
for the movement in East- and South-East-Asia was the WTO Conference in
2005 in Hong Kong.


This was a very good place to get to know each other and for exchange.
It also strengthened mutual solidarity. It's the island position which
often isolates the movements in Asia geographically. For this reason, we
very much hope that, for the protest at Lake Toya, we will obtain substantial
support from the international activists in Japan, but also through global
solidarity actions.

 TAZ:  Where does your group "No G8! Action" place itself?

We define ourselves as decentralist and anti-authoritarian. No G8! Action
was founded in May 2007, in the run-up to G8 in Rostock. The principles
of our activities are the key points of the network Peoples Global
Action. (www.agp.org)

 TAZ: The next G8 summit takes place on the island of Hokkaido. What kind of
place is this?

Hokkaido is a relatively poor region and very much characterized by
agriculture. Five years ago, one of its cities went bankrupt for the first time in
Japanese history.

 TAZ: How come?

Japan is an unbelievably centralized country. Companies, industry, the
administration, everything is concentrated in the large cities in the
center, i.e. Tokyo and Osaka. Therefore, the regions in the north and
south have little income, they live on agriculture, partly with income
from the military bases. So, the situation in Hokkaido is pretty much
the same as in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (a rural region near the German 
G8 summit). The people there are angry with the government, because the G8 
is taking place in their region and because they have problems with the security
precautions and the protests.

 TAZ: Can you connect your actions to the existing local problems?

We are trying. Hokkaido is not just a region with economic problems. There are
also Ainu. Ainu are an indigenous people; they lived in Hokkaido before
Japan colonised their island. Until today they still have to fight for their
rights. The group, which is preparing the protests there, has also organized
a meeting with the indigenous people and is trying to network with them.

 TAZ: Which other political subjects are currently discussed in Japan?

Above all the growing differences between the poor and the rich. The
neo-liberal reforms by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi have worsened the
difference and have led to big problems. Unlike Germany, there are
almost no social safety nets in Japan. Many young people live in extremely
precarious situations, are homeless and live on part-time jobs. At
least these young precarious workers have began to organize themselves
in recent years. They are playing the main role in the mobilisation against the
G8-summit.

 TAZ: You have written that neo-liberalism in Japan goes
hand in hand with neo-nationalism.

Of course, neo-liberalism in Japan comprises the same elements as
elsewhere: a discourse which demands less governmental intervention but
more market, the privatisation of public functions. But to execute such a
program, you need a stabilising factor, in compensation. In Japan,
this factor is nationalism. The anger caused by neo-liberal
reforms is to be directed externally, beyond Japan. In the beginning,
this tactic was quite successful, but no longer.
Unfortunately, Japan with its extremely developed capitalism still leads
the way in Asia.

 TAZ: The Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has pronounced that the
main topics of the G8 will be Africa and Climate Change.

Japan very much cares about its good reputation in international
society, and this attitude can be seen in the choice of these subjects.
However, the Japanese government has showed recently, and over and over,
how little they care about actually doing something about climate
change. The sole thing it has done is to support Japanese companies to
develop more efficient technologies. But until now, this turned out to
be less than successful: the CO2 emmissions in Japan in recent years have
not decreased, but actually increased by 6%. At the same time, there is a certain
awareness about climate change among the people.

 TAZ: Does the left wing deal with that topic?

It barely does. In Japan, environmental protection is a subject which is
very strongly dominated by the economy, they talk about technology,
innovation and efficiency. For the left wing, it is not really
attractive to deal with that subject. Leftist groups try to work with
another understanding of environment, which is not limited to nature and
climate. Environment can be understood in a more general sense, as the
entourage, the world where people are living.