Uyoku Rōnin Dō
by
Daiki Shibuichi
Introduction
Military-style vans circulate through the streets of major Japanese cities. Drivers in uniforms blare slogans via loudspeakers bolted to the vans’ roofs. These are the Japanese right-wingers, or uyoku radical right-wing activists, who routinely demonstrate in front of foreign embassies and government buildings, and who can also be seen protesting in smaller towns. While the leftist Japan Teachers’ Union, or Nikkyōso, holds assemblies in local town halls, uyoku activists organize demonstrations in front of city halls and shout slogans. Furthermore, some of them may demand to meet with members of the mass media who make what the uyoku deem to be ‘inappropriate’ remarks, and they then insist on retractions and apologies for these remarks. In December 2000, journalist and academic David McNeill experienced this pressure from a group of uyoku activists after he mentioned the Nanking massacre on a Japanese radio program (McNeill 2001). He was shocked to learn that the radio station gave in to the group’s demand and asked him to apologize on the next show. The station’s director explained that radical violence directed at the station was unlikely, but it could not be ruled out. The director’s concern was legitimate. There have in fact been sporadic violent incidents attributed to the uyoku. In August 2006, senior Liberal Democratic Party politician Katō Kōichi was targeted by an uyoku radical. After confirming that the home of Katō’s parents was empty, the radical burnt it down and used a sword to stab himself in the stomach at the scene (Noda 2007). The failed Molotov cocktail attack on the residence of Kobayashi Yōtarō, president of Fuji Xerox, in January 2005, by an unidentified perpetrator was followed by anonymous threats. This incident was also suspected to be the work of the uyoku.
One might assume that these radical uyoku activists are dangerous zealots driven purely by ideology. However, cost-benefit analyses could also enter into their motives. Cases of criminal fund-raising through pressure and tacit intimidation against corporations by the radical uyoku or quasi-radical uyoku have been reported by police and the mass media. In the abovementioned case of Kobayashi Yōtarō, it is possible that some groups or individuals were secretly demanding that Fuji Xerox offer material benefits in exchange for stopping further harassment. Similarly, in the case of David McNeill, the radio station might have been the true target. In fact, experts have confirmed the Japanese uyoku right-wing radicals’ overlapping membership with crime syndicates, the yakuza or bōryokudan, as well as with the sōkaiya or professional corporate extortionists.
Researchers Szymkowiak and Steinhoff (1995) try to analyze these phenomena in their study. They first refer to incidents in which readers can see complex and ill-defined relations among the radical right, criminal groups, corporations and politicians. Then Szymkowiak and Steinhoff ask, ‘Is the term “radical right” merely a convenient cover for what are actually organized crime operations? Or is there a true radical right, deeply committed to the emperor and the protection of Japan’s national identity in the face of foreign pressure and corrupting leftist influences?’ To answer these questions, Szymkowiak and Steinhoff explain the political and social structure of post-war Japan, where radical activists mingled with underworld elements.[1] Szymkowiak and Steinhoff also depicted the emergence in the 1970s of the ‘new right’ or shin-uyoku, which found this overlap with underworld elements disgusting, causing them to split from the existing radical right-wing camp. As of the mid-1990s when Szymkowiak and Steinhoff’s study was published, the majority of Japanese right-wing radicals remained entangled with yakuza and sōkaiya, and the Liberal Democratic Party and private corporations still had not completely weaned themselves from suspect relationships.
Szymkowiak and Steinhoff’s analytical framework subscribes to a political process model of social movements, linking the behavior of the radical right to historical and structural changes in Japanese society, and particularly to changes in political opportunities. This provides their study both with analytical clarity and the power to convince. Having said this, adopting this model perhaps led Szymkowiak and Steinhoff to focus less on examining the Japanese right-wing radicals per se. Szymkowiak and Steinhoff explained that the radical right-wing has an agenda that includes the following six aspects:
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