Toyama Mitsuru: and the Japanese Right Wing (English Edition)

Toyama Mitsuru: and the Japanese Right Wing (English Edition)

The January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. capitol suggested the ease at which an insurrection can be incited. It also showed that a large percentage of the American public actually supported the effort to overturn the results of probably the fairest election in U.S. history. How could this happen in the United States of America? I was living in Japan in the 1960s and 1970s when insurrections were not rare at all. Thousands of students stormed the Diet (legislature) building and broke down the gates, but failed to actually get into the building. So what did they do? They urinated on the walls and defecated on the front steps. Sound familiar? Taking a closer look, one can draw many parallels between Japan and the United States when it comes to a strong leader inciting people to break the law and try to overthrow the government. One such leader in Japan was Toyama Mitsuru, the Japanese gangster who rose through the ranks to a high position in the Japanese government. I thought that he was a despicable character, but also interesting. That’s why I chose to write my graduation thesis on Toyama for submission to Sophia University in Tokyo in May 1976. The information in this thesis may be dated, but it still offers a comparison of Japanese and American politics. That’s why the January 6th incident inspired me to publish it now.

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