As an unexpectedly robust Black Lives Matter movement took hold in Japan throughout the month of June, many international residents found themselves participating in a march or demonstration in Japan for the first time.
“Black Lives Matter resonates in Japan simply because a (mass) movement like that is something we don’t see here and it makes people uncomfortable,” says Wakako Fukuda, a former organizer with SEALDs and a current member of the anarcha-feminist group Kouitten. “I think that’s super important. And one of the biggest problems with racism in Japan is that people have a severe lack of knowledge.”
Prior to the large-scale Black Lives Matter marches in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and across the country, a smaller movement of about 200 in late May protested in Tokyo an instance of police brutality against a Kurdish man. Despite their small media profile, anti-racist Japanese activists have been fighting for diverse causes for decades, including discrimination against Ainu, Zainichi Koreans and immigrants, among others. A number of new organizations have been born over the past decade, as tensions have flared up between far-right and far-left groups over anti-immigration rallies. A growing awareness and support for Black people in Japan follows a lineage of other anti-racist activism in Japan.