Editing Zengakuren

{{Short description|League of university students in Japan}}
{{Expand Japanese|全日本学生自治会総連合|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox organization
| name                = Zengakuren
| full_name           = All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations
| native_name         = 全日本学生自治会総連合
| native_name_lang    = ja
| predecessor         = 
| merged              = <!-- any other organization(s) which it was merged into -->
| established         = {{start date and age|1948|07|06}}
| key_people          = [[Teruo Takei]] (first chairman)
| affiliations        = [[Japan Communist Party]] (1949–1960)<br>[[New Left in Japan|Japanese New Left]] (1960–present)
| founding_location   = 
| dissolved           = <!-- or |defunct = --><!-- use {{end date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| merger              = <!-- other organizations (if any) merged with, to constitute the new organization -->
| successor           = 
| type                = Nationwide student federation
| headquarters        = 
| location_city       = 
| location_country    = [[Japan]]
}}
'''Zengakuren''' is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in [[Japan]]. The word {{nihongo|Zengakuren|全学連}} is an abridgement of {{nihongo||全日本学生自治会総連合|Zen Nihon Gakusei Jichikai Sō Rengō}} which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations."{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=15}} Notable for organizing protests and marches, Zengakuren has been involved in Japan's anti-[[Red Purge]] movement, the anti-military base movement, the [[Anpo protests]] against the [[Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan|U.S.-Japan Security Treaty]], the [[1968–1969 Japanese university protests]], and the [[Sanrizuka Struggle|struggle against the construction of Narita Airport]].

==History==

[[File:Demonstrators with banners protesting the 2015 Japanese Military Legislation.JPG|thumb|Demonstrators and police buses outside the [[Japan]]ese [[National Diet]] on Friday September 18, 2015 during the debate in the [[House of Councillors (Japan)|House of Councillors]] shortly before the [[2015 Japanese military legislation]] was passed in the early hours of September 19th. A Zengakuren banner is visible in the middle of the image.]]

Zengakuren emerged in the early postwar period as students at Japanese universities established self-governing associations (''jichikai'') in order to protest against perceived fascist remnants in the university system and to organize against proposed tuition hikes. All university students were automatically enrolled in these associations, and dues were automatically deducted from their tuition.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=145}} In the wake of a failed general strike in 1947, the [[Japan Communist Party]] (JCP) stepped into organize the separate university associations into a single nationwide organization. As a result of this extensive organizing effort, the formation of Zengakuren was officially announced on September 18, 1948.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=145}} [[Teruo Takei]], a [[Tokyo University]] student and member of the Japanese Communist Party, was the organization's first chairman.<ref name=Fuse>{{cite journal |last1=Fuse |first1=Totomasa |title=Le radicalisme étudiant au Japon |language=fr |trans-title=Student Radicalism in Japan |journal=L'Homme et la société |date=1970 |issue=18 |doi=10.3406/homso.1970.1290}}</ref> Towards the end of 1948, Zengakuren comprised almost 60% of Japan's total student population.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Ruth |first=Allen |year=2006 |title=Japan as a Paradigm for U.S. Homeland Security |url=https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/2394 |publisher=Naval Postgraduate School |pages=26, 27 |type=PhD}}</ref>

Over the course of the 1950s, Zengakuren took part in a number of "struggles" (''tōsō'') and protest movements, including the "[[Bloody May Day (1952)|Bloody May Day]]" protests against the terms of the [[San Francisco Peace Treaty]] on May 1, 1952, the struggle against the Anti-Subversive Activities Law from 1952 to 1953, the movement against nuclear testing after the [[Daigo Fukuryū Maru|Lucky Dragon Incident]] of 1954, the "[[Sunagawa Struggle]]" against the expansion of the United States' [[Tachikawa Air Base]] in 1955–1957, the 1958 movement against the Police Duties Bill, and the massive [[Anpo Protests|Anpo protests]] against the [[Anpo|US-Japan Security Treaty]] in 1959–1960.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=145}}

In the late 1950s, an "[[anti-Stalinist]]" (i.e. anti-JCP) faction within Zengakuren nicknamed "[[Communist League (Japan)|The Bund]]" (''Bunto'' in Japanese) managed to secure control of Zengakuren, in part by rigging elections. Their control of the organization was strenuously opposed by the "anti-mainstream" pro-JCP faction. This began the process of numerous internal schisms within Zengakuren that would continue throughout the 1960s. Nevertheless, for the time being Zengakuren held together in order mobilize its full power to try to stop the 1960 revision of the US-Japan Security Treaty. At the apex of its organizing power during the anti-Treaty protests in 1960, Zengakuren was able to count on around 250 ''jichikai'' at 110 schools, representing a total strength of around 290,000 students.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=145}}

The first open splits within Zengakuren occurred in the immediate aftermath, as despondency at the failure of the anti-Treaty protests to stop the Treaty from being ratified led to numerous rounds of recriminations.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|pp=148–150}} Thereafter, the pro-JCP group split off from Zengakuren entirely to form a rival organization called "Zenjiren," and the remainder of Zengakuren split up into a large number of warring "sects" (''sekuto''), who would battle against each other at least as much as they battled against the police.{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=149–150}} Arming themselves with construction helmets painted in the colors of their various factions and large wooden staves they called "violence sticks" (''gebabō,'' from the German ''Gewalt''),{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=149–150}} the participated in a number of struggles throughout the 1960s and beyond, including the struggle against normalization of diplomatic relations with Korea in 1965, protests against the docking in Japan of US Navy nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers, anti-[[Vietnam War]] protests, the [[1968–69 Japanese university protests|university struggles of 1968–69]], and the [[Sanrizuka Struggle]] against the construction of [[Narita Airport]] from 1968 into the mid-1980s.

[[File:Kanda Quartier latin19680621.jpg|thumb|Zengakuren protestors in Tokyo, 1968]]

Although dozens of rival sects emerged over the course of the 1960s, three major groupings occurred:{{sfn|Kapur|2018|p=132, 149–150}}
# ''[[Democratic Youth League of Japan|Minseidō]]'': student groups affiliated with the [[Japan Communist Party]]
# ''Sanpa Zengakuren'': A "three-faction" (''sanpa'') alliance of groups critical of the JCP: the [[Communist League (Japan)|Second Bund]], [[Kaihō-ha]], and [[Chūkaku-ha]]
# ''[[Kakumaru-ha]]'': The "Revolutionary Marxist Faction" of the [[Japan Revolutionary Communist League]], it fought murderous battles with the Sanpa groups, even as it also opposed the JCP

By the end of the 1960s, there were several different factions claiming the mantle of the name "Zengakuren." Several different groups still claim this title today, and remain active, although their numbers have dwindled greatly since their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s.

== Current status ==
As of 1999, there were said to be five Zengakuren factions:<ref name="ダイヤモンド・オンライン 2017">{{cite web |script-title=ja:「革命」は現代でも起こせる、中核派・全学連委員長が激白(4)  |title='Kakumei' wa gendai demo okoseru, chūkaku-ha zengaku ren iin-chō ga gekihaku (4) |trans-title="Revolution" can happen even today, says chairman of the Chukakuha and Zengakuren (4) |website=ダイヤモンド・オンライン |date=2017-11-15 |url=https://diamond.jp/articles/-/149341 |language=ja |access-date=2022-03-07}}</ref>
* [[Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction)]]
* [[Japanese Communist Party]] ([[Democratic Youth League of Japan]])
* [[Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee]]
* {{ill|Revolutionary Workers Association (Socialist Party Liberation Faction)|ja|革命的労働者協会（社会党社青同解放派）}} 
* {{ill|Revolutionary Workers Association (Liberation Faction)|ja|革命的労働者協会（解放派）}} 

In the late 2010s, Zengakuren ([[Japanese Communist Party]] faction) was inactive.<ref>{{Cite book |author-link=:ja:小林哲夫 (教育ジャーナリスト) |first=Tetsuo |last=Kobayashi |url=https://www.kobunsha.com/shelf/book/isbn/9784334045210 |script-title=ja:平成・令和 学生たちの社会運動 |title=Heisei-Reiwa Gakusei Tachino Shakai Undo |trans-title=Heisei and Reiwa eras: Student social movements |publisher=[[Kobunsha]] |year=2021 |page=340}}</ref>

== Sources ==
{{Reflist}}

=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite book |last=Kapur |first=Nick |year=2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Re5hDwAAQBAJ |title=Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=978-0-6749-8442-4}}
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Andrews |first=William |title=Dissenting Japan: A History of Japanese Radicalism and Counterculture, from 1945 to Fukushima |location=London |publisher=Hurst |date=2016 |isbn=978-1849045797}}
* {{cite book |last=Dowsey |first=Stuart J. |title=Zengakuren: Japan's Revolutionary Students |location=Berkeley |publisher=Ishi Press |date=1970}}
*{{cite book |last=Hasegawa |first=Kenji |year=2019 |title=Student Radicalism and the Formation of Postwar Japan |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=New York |isbn=978-9811317767 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_5uDwAAQBAJ}}

== External links ==
* [http://blog.livedoor.jp/zengakuren/ Official website] (in Japanese) [[Japanese Communist Party]] - [[Democratic Youth League of Japan]] faction
* [http://www.zengakuren.jp/ Official website] (in Japanese) [[Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Chukakuha)]] faction
* [http://www.zengakuren.org/ Official website] (in Japanese) [[Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist faction)]] faction
* [http://zengakuren.info/ Official website] (in Japanese) [[:ja:革命的労働者協会（社会党社青同解放派）|革労協現代社派]] faction

{{New Left in Japan}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Communist organizations in Japan]]
[[Category:Student protests in Japan]]
[[Category:Student wings of political parties in Japan]]
[[Category:Student wings of communist parties]]
[[Category:1948 establishments in Japan]]
[[Category:Student organizations established in 1948]]
[[Category:1970s in Japan]]
[[Category:1960s in Japan]]
[[Category:1950s in Japan]]
[[Category:New Left in Japan]]