On June 17, 1960, seven major newspapers in Tokyo simultaneously carried a "joint declaration" concerning a bloody public clash over the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty that left a female University of Tokyo student dead, calling for a quick resolution to the situation.
Thousands of radical student demonstrators and citizens gathered around the Diet in protest, which become one of the largest political demonstrations in Japanese history. Several hundred protesters and police officers were injured.
In later years, the declaration was attacked by critics who argued that the papers failed to clearly point out what they saw as the responsibility of then Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi's government in provoking such a massive protest by ramming a revision of the treaty through the Diet on May 19.