Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the background to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and its connection to the ongoing crisis of Japanese capitalism. It also discusses the emergence of the freeters as a social layer in contemporary Tokyo and the increasing precarity of their lives and labours, and utilizes autonomist Marxist perspectives to explain these changes in the context of deindustrialization. The book explores the relevance of the precarity movement to the anti-nuclear struggle. It shows how activists utilized the notion of a hiroba to redefine public space as a place for democratic practice and debate. The book charts the growth of the demonstrations held outside the prime minister's official residence in the government districts of Nagatacho and Kasumigaseki. It examines the developments that have taken place in Tokyo's social movement culture since 2012.