Introduction

The massive protests against the renewal of the US-Japan Security Treaty in 1960 – which resulted in the cancellation of President Eisenhower’s scheduled state visit to Japan and the resignation of its prime minister – proved traumatic to Japan’s conservative government, hence the extreme nervousness and secrecy that permeated its precautionary measures in concluding the treaty formalities with the United States, not to speak of those that stopped at contemplation, such as army intervention. France in 1968 is arguably the only other advanced capitalist country to have experienced an upheaval of the kind. Here, the contrasts are focused on, leaving a broader comparison till subsequent chapters. Our interpretation of the 1960 events centre on the long-term, post-war evolution of undercurrents, while adopting a comprehensive approach to the interaction of multiple movement components from the centre to the grassroots.