Invisible Civil Society: The Effects of 1960s New Left Protests on Contemporary Japan

Major research on Japanese civil society characterizes it as
chronically weak and penetrated by the state, based on national level
measures and comparisons with the contemporary United States. However a
vast array of civil society organizations cannot be captured with this
approach and remains invisible. Many of these organizations trace their
roots to the social movements of the 1960s. I contend that civic
participation in these conflicts shaped an alternative civil society in
Japan, with characteristic organizational features and institutional
practices that persist today. They are quite visible if you know where
to look and can recognize their signatures.

Dr. Patricia G. Steinhoff is professor of Sociology at the University
of Hawaii at Manoa. Currently she is a visiting professor at the
Institute for Social Science, University of Tokyo
Her research focuses on social movements and Japan. Recent publications
include: Bestor, Theodore, Patricia G. Steinhoff, and Victoria
Lyon-Bestor, eds., Doing
Fieldwork in Japan.  Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 2003; Steinhoff, Patricia G., “Kidnapped
Japanese in North Korea: The New Left Connection” Journal of Japanese Studies
Winter, 2004; and Steinhoff, Patricia G., “Radical Outcasts
versus Three Kinds of Police: Constructing Limits in Japanese
Anti-Emperor Protest” Qualitative
Sociology , fall, 2006.