Zenkyōtō

Zenkyōtō groups were driven by alienation and a reaction to "American imperialism", Japanese "Monopoly Capitalism", and "Russian Stalinism".

[3]: 107 Since individual Zenkyōtō groups were formed independently at each university, their timing, purpose, organization and policies were unique.

In their protests, University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō members battled police with hurled stones and wooden staves nicknamed "violence sticks" (gebaruto bō [ja]).

With the moving of the Ministry of Education after entrance examinations were cancelled, riot police were introduced to suppress a mass Zenkyōtō protest.

Chaired by Akihiko Oguchi, a member of the Shaseido Kaiho-ha, the Waseda Zenkyōtō turned eventually from the problem of the student hall to that of a planned rise in tuition fees.

After 12 hours of negotiations, the authorities accepted the demands of the students, leading to the resignation of all University directors involved.

However, following the negotiations, Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato declared that "establishing relations with popular gangs deviate from common sense", and the authorities withdrew their promises to the students.

After the situation calmed down, Nihon University resumed classes in a temporary school complex in Shiraitodai, Fuchū, with 10 buildings surrounded by vacant fields and barbed wire.

[7] In January 1968, a dispute over the status of graduate students in the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine over the new Medical Doctors' Law which restricted employment opportunities and a judgement on a militant student made by the board led to mass protests in the University of Tokyo.

However, Yoshitaka Yamamoto, leader of the University of Tokyo Zenkyōtō, who chaired the rally at Hibiya Park, was arrested.

Oda Makoto of the Beheiren (Citizen's Alliance for Peace in Vietnam) group claimed that he would start his own movement if Zenkyōtō could not destroy the University of Tokyo.

[1]: 520 The Zenkyōtō students were extremely nihilistic and rejected hierarchy, seeing the university system as being based primarily on oppression.

[12] The Zenkyōtō found their ideological basis in Takaaki Yoshimoto – he was so popular among the New Left that he was referred to as a "prophet".

[13] During the 1968–69 protests, the Zenkyōtō students harassed Yoshimoto's ideological enemy, Masao Maruyama, to the point where he eventually retired in 1971.