Mobocracy Again

Once again, Japan's mobs took to the street, and once again, Japan's democratic government abjectly surrendered.

This time the issue was Premier Hayato Ikeda's political-violence prevention bill, designed to prevent the kind of mob violence that last year forced Ikeda's predecessor, Premier Nobusuke Kishi, to cancel a projected visit from former President Dwight Eisenhower and, subsequently, brought Kishi's own resignation. Ironically, the bill was first urged on the government by the Socialists themselves, who took alarm when Socialist Party Chairman Inejiro Asanuma was assassinated by a fanatic right-wing student.

The bill sought merely to punish demonstrators who provoked violence or invaded official quarters, such as the Diet grounds and the Prime Minister's residence. But prodded by the powerful Sohyo trade union combine, the Socialist opposition soon was demanding that only rightist demonstrators be curbed. For weeks Ikeda tried to work out a compromise. Finally, Ikeda lost patience and forced the bill to a vote in the lower house. In Japan, this is described as resorting to "the tyranny of the majority." Socialist delegates resorted to their fists, forcibly took over the rostrum. The Speaker riposted by conducting the Diet's business from the middle of the floor, where the government's Liberal Democrats formed a protective cordon around him.

When Ikeda declared his intention of pushing the bill through the upper house, the Socialists gave the signal for the mobs to move into the streets in strength. But this time the major newspapers, which had egged on last year's riots, were critical of the demonstrators; only the hard-core Sohyo unionists and Zengakuren students turned out. One crowd of 27,000 swarmed into Hibiya Park in downtown Tokyo to shout "Down with the Ikeda government!" Then the chanting demonstrators shuffled off toward the Diet, a few blocks away, inching their way along at ushi aruki (cow's pace) so that traffic was blocked for five hours. A column of screaming Zengakuren students stoned police guards lined up at the Diet, injuring scores. In Kyoto and Osaka, other student demonstrators staged week-long battles with the police.

Despite outspoken support for Ikeda's antiviolence bill from both the press and a clear majority of the Japanese people, the mobs were enough to frighten the Premier's own party followers in the upper house. They refused to vote for it, and Ikeda had to surrender. He shelved the measure until the Diet's next session later this year.

Tasting blood, the Socialists announced that next week they will send still bigger crowds into the streets in demonstrations designed to protest against the U.S.-Japanese security pact signed last year and, if possible, to prevent Premier Ikeda's departure for an official visit to the U.S.

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