Japan's 1960 protests One third of the population took to the streets

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]1960, a massive protest movement erupted in Japan against the right-wing government's plan to revise a security treaty that would allow the United States to maintain military bases across the country. Known as the Anpo struggle, led primarily by socialist, communist, and labor unions, an estimated 30 million Japanese citizens participated in protest of some kind between March 1959 to June 1960. In a country of about 90 million at the time, 1/3 of Japan's entire population came out to the streets to the security treaty.