Invention of Protest Repertoires in the Anti-Nuclear Power Movements after the Tohoku Earthquake in Japan

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 9: Tactics & Repertoires: Invention, Legitimization, Radicalization

Abstract

Since Charles Tilly introduced the concept of repertoire, much has been studied about repertoires of collective action. Some have uncovered how protest repertoires coincide with protest cycles; others have revealed diffusion mechanisms of certain protest repertoires within and across countries; and still others have employed what is referred to as “protest event analysis” and uncovered the various dimensions of social movement processes by counting events of collective action reported, typically in newspapers. Thus far, the dynamics of the development as well as the decline of protest repertoires have been much revealed. However, less attention has been paid to how new protest repertoires are invented.

This paper focuses on the invention and evolution of a new protest repertoire by using the case of anti-nuclear power movements, which surged after the catastrophic nuclear power accident in Fukushima, Japan in 2011. Specifically, the paper discusses the organization called the “Tent Plaza in front of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry [METI].” The organization introduced a new repertoire, which was pitching a tent at the corner of the building of the ministry, and then occupying the space for about 5 years until August 2016. Based on a document analysis of the organization’s bi-weekly publications and in-depth interviews that I conducted with a key organizer and nine participants in the activism in the tents, this paper uncovers, first, how the key organizer came up with the idea of pitching a tent; second, how the tents were able to survive for a relatively long period of time; and third, how the repertoire of the tents spread to other contested locations in Japan during the anti-nuclear power movements after 2011.

Author

• Hiroe Saruya, Sophia University