ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the struggles of life in the political impasse in post-war Japanese society. Although Japan had a strong student movement in the 1960s, its radicalisation demonstrated the difficulty in identifying the enemy and the alternative vision of society in contemporary society. While the growing economy had been providing stability and a clear life goal for many Japanese people, the economic recession since the 1990s removed this shelter. As a result, people now face the precarity of life without sharing any political concepts to identify the cause of alienation, or even to express their pain. Many young people accommodate their lives in accordance with the requirement of the hegemonic power, sometimes pushing themselves to karōshi (death from overwork). Meanwhile, the rejection of reality takes the form of mass murder and suicide. Citing the precarious worker Tomohiro Akagi’s claim, that war or disaster is one’s only hope for changing the stagnant reality, this chapter examines why the imaginary for social change becomes so difficult today.
