The All-Campus Joint Struggle Committees, commonly known as the Zenkyōtō, were Japanese student organizations consisting of anti-government, anti-Japanese Communist Party leftist and non-sectarian radicals. The Zenkyōtō were formed to organize students during the 1968–69 Japanese university protests. Unlike other student movement organizations, graduate students and young teachers were allowed to participate. Active in the late 1960s, Zenkyōtō was the driving force behind clashes between Japanese students and the police. Zenkyōtō groups were driven by alienation and a reaction to "American imperialism", Japanese "Monopoly Capitalism", and "Russian Stalinism". However, many members of the movement were non-political, and were focused more on more practical and local problems. Much of the movement centered around nihilism, humanism and existentialism, which served as inspirations for revolution.
A Japanese student protest in June 1968
A Zenkyōtō helmet
A sign at Tsukuba University, August 1968
1968–1969 Japanese university protests
In 1968 and 1969, student protests at several Japanese universities ultimately forced the closure of campuses across Japan. Known as daigaku funsō or daigaku tōsō, the protests were part of the worldwide protest cycle in 1968 and the late-1960s Japanese protest cycle, including the Anpo protests of 1970 and the struggle against the construction of Narita Airport. Students demonstrated initially against practical issues in universities and eventually formed the Zenkyōtō in mid-1968 to organize themselves. The Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management allowed for the dispersal of protesters in 1969.
JCP leaders Kyuichi Tokuda, Sanzō Nosaka and Yoshio Shiga (from left to right) immediately following the end of the Second World War
9th Central Committee Convention of Zengakuren (1956)
Yasuda Auditorium, one of the most iconic buildings of the University of Tokyo's Hongō campus
A helmet emblazoned with the word "Zenkyōtō"