By occupying Shinjuku Station and disrupting the normal transit of trains, a large group of protesters in Tokyo hoped to express their disapproval of the Japanese government's support for the United States-led war in Vietnam.
[5] On 8 October, a group of 6–8 thousand activists occupied Shinjuku Station, trying to stop shipments of jet fuel passing through it.
[7] The protesters wanted to show their disapproval of the Japanese government's support for the United States-led war in Vietnam.
[1] Of note were the protests outside the Defense Agency in Roppongi[8] and the desecration of the grave of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
[8] In Tokyo, a large group of protesters, numbering among them 6–7 thousand members of Chūkaku-ha, ML-ha, Fourth International, Kōkai-ha, Kakumaru-ha, and other radical New Left student groups, joined by around 12–14 thousand ordinary students and local workers, tried to turn the area of Shinjuku surrounding Shinjuku Station into a "liberated quarter" controlled by the protestors.
[11] To break up the riot, the police invoked the Anti-Riot Law (Article 106 of the Japanese Criminal Code)[7] against the rioters,[12] the first time it had been used since 1952.
[7] The police's use of the Anti-Riot Law was largely condoned by the press[6]—even Asahi Shimbun, known for its left-leaning sympathies, described the rioters as "a feckless mob".