【speaker】Marco Del Bene (Associate Prfessor, Sapienza University of Rome, Italian Institute of Oriental Studies)

 

【abstract】The Sixties were, in Japan as in Italy, a period of great changes, symbolized by 1968. However, the events of those years should be considered as a part of a longer cycle, started in the Fifties and ended in the Seventies, or the so called "Long Sixties". One phenomena of this period was the development of protest movements, both against the "established power" and against the "traditional left". In Japan and Italy these movements originated in 1956, following the criticism of Krushev's Stalinism and the repression of the Hungarian revolution. In both countries the student movement was a fundamental component of this phase. Student mobilization peaked in the late 1960s and early 1970s and then fell sharply, particularly in Japan. Although these movements had an important role in defining the Japanese society of the following years, they have been relatively little studied abroad, until recently. Today the situation has changed, although there are still very few studies which deal with the Japanese case from a global perspective. The comparative studies between Japan and Italy are totally absent, despite the profound similarities (but also the great differences) between the events of those years in the two countries.