본문 바로가기
  • Home
Basic Search

A study of the meanings and limits of SEALDs as a youth protest movement : from a global and local perspective

  • The Journal of General Education
  • 2016, (3), pp.95~128
  • DOI : 10.24173/jge.2016.06.3.95
  • Publisher : Da Vinci Mirae Institute of General Education
  • Research Area : Social Science > Education > Field of Education > General Education
  • Published : June 30, 2016

Fukushima Minori 1

1waseda university

ABSTRACT

This  paper  examines  the  meanings  and  limits  of  “SEALDs  (Students  Emergency Action for Liberal Democracy‐s)”as a youth protest movement, appeared  in  the  midst  of  public  opposition  and  large  demonstration  against  a set of security‐related bills that would allow the Japanese military to fight  in  foreign  conflicts  for  the  first  time  since  World  War  II. Youth  protest  movements,  represented  by  Occupy  Wall  Street,  los  indignados in Spain, Nuit Debout in France in Europe and the Sunflower revolution  in  Taiwan,  the  Umbrella  revolution  in  Hong  Kong  in  East  Asia have been growing since 2010. Those global movements means young people  are  faced  with  difficulty  of  living  in  common.  However,  in  the  case of SEALDs, we should consider the local (Japanese context) as well as  the  global  background.  This  results  of  this  paper  from  local  perspective  are as follows. First,  SEALDs  were  supported  by  many  people,  especially  liberal intellectuals,  because  they  were  conducted  by  college  students  who  could  intellectual and inspirational speech in their own words. They also practiced  attractive  demonstrations  that  looked  to  dispel  the  image  of  the violent youth demonstrations of the 1970s. Second,  members  of  SEALDs  have  the  desire  to  escape  from  a  sense  of stagnation in lives as well as the desire to keep their lives relatively enriched.  This  results  from  the  desire  of  recognition  in  young  people  who have lived in the low growth era since 1990. Finally,  they  are  relatively  elite  students  and  havenʹt  had  to  confront  the poverty that the youth in unemployment and non‐regular employment (been  increasing  recently)  encounted  in  their  everyday  lives.  But,  they  will soon be faced with the problem of poverty, for example, tuition loan,  part‐timer  abuse  involving  college  students.  In  the  near  future,  SEALDs movements will be more energetic as students from different socioeconomic  classes  are  able  to  find  more  common  ground  in  global  and local.

Statistics

  • 179 Viewed
  • 1 Downloaded

Tools

Issue List

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.

Basic Search Advanced Search