DISSATISFACTION ON THE CAMPUS IN JAPAN ~~ -*
‘Last November 20, some 300 students at Meiji University in Tokyo barricaded themselves in a few wooden buildings in which they were living. Outside 800 riot police sought to dislodge them. As the police advanced, shielded “by armored cars, they were met with a hail of rocks and beer bottles. Before the clash was over, at least 52 persons had been injured, most of them policemen.
At issue was a demolition order. The old wooden buildings | ‘were to be torn down and the students had been ordered to move into new reinforced concrete dormitories. They had refused because it meant double the rent -~ from 340 yen to 680 yen [US$#1.88] a month.
On the same week end, a rally was held by Neat students to protest a rumored tishice. a tuition fees from an average 20; 000 yen LUS#$138.89] a year to 60, 000 yen US$166.67
These figures may look low in comparison to costs in some countries such as the United States. Their import can be better grasped by the following figures. For a year ata private university in Japan, including food, lodging and clothing, the cost to students is now estimated at about 170,000 yen [US$472. 23]. This is no less than 69% of the average Japanese annual income.
; Public. schools have lower tuition fees than’ ‘the private institutions, but the difference is ‘not great.
While costs have been rising, the pressures compelling Japanese youth to seek a college education have likewise been increasing. Academic standing is of great importance in the business world and in industry.
The economic motive is thus a very strong component in ‘the unrest among students “that has characterized Japan's huge educational mills in the past few years. Their reactions to increases in costs, even relatively minor ones, have at times been quite violent leading to pitched battles with the police when university administrations have called in the forces of "law and order."
Political factors have likewise been operative.-.-Among these the issue of student autonomy has come increasingly to the fore. Another issue has been the escalation of U.S. imperialist aggression in Vietnam with its acute reminder to Japanese sensibilities of the specter of a possible nuclear war.
The scandals involving malfeasance in office have also served to stir dissatis-— faction among students, underlining the unattractiveness of the entire perspective under capitalism, with Japan reduced to a satellite in the orbit of the supergiant American power... -
The coming year on Japan's campuses will thus most likely see more of the same. And perhaps on a broader and more militant scale.
CANADIAN