ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how Japan has reacted to the rise of terrorism and violent social protest that has affected its internal security (Apter and Sawa 1984; Steinhoff 1988, 1989a, 1989b, n.d.; Farrell 1990). Japanese terrorism has centered around the Japan Red Army ( JRA). After a brief period of operation in Japan in the late 1960s and early 1970s the police forced the JRA to relocate to the Mideast which became the base for its operation during the next two decades (Steinhoff 1988, 1989a). Internal security was also challenged by social movements in the 1970s and 1980s that opposed, for example, the construction and subsequent enlargement of Tokyo’s Narita Airport and that embraced a host of other left-wing causes (Apter and Sawa 1984). Although the JRA and violence-prone social movements have been largely unconnected, they are typically discussed by police officials and the media under the same label of the “radical Left.” Police estimates of the strength of violence-prone groups on the Left vary widely between about 18,000 and 36,000 members in the 1980s; but everyone agrees that the JRA enjoys virtually no active support inside Japan (National Police Agency 1982: 89; Advanced Course 1989: 421; Clifford 1976: 25).
