The large and loud crowds that regularly gather outside the Diet on Friday evenings are the result of student activists trying to do something constructive to block Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's security legislation.
The core activists in Students Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy (SEALDs) say they want to protect Japan's liberal democratic values and promote constitutionalism. As pointed out in last week's column, SEALDs is wooing a public that shuns radicalism and extremist actions — meaning no leftist jargon, Molotov cocktails or hunger strikes.
"It is the first movement that has no connection with left parties or political organizations. They are spontaneous, and their words are fresh," says Hosei University's Jiro Yamaguchi. "Their amateurism has inspired ordinary citizens, and made them feel they should do whatever they can do to prevent the Abe administration from imposing the new security legislation. It is a big surprise for me that the Japanese people still have such a strong attachment to the pacifist Constitution."