SNA (Tokyo) — On June 24, about 140 police officers, including the riot police unit, conducted a raid on a student dormitory at Kyoto University, ostensibly to investigate an individual who had filled out an application for a driver’s license extension with a false address.

The young man suspected of submitting the faulty paperwork was a member of the All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations (Zengakuren), a well-known leftist student group. Although the suspect had already been arrested, the Kumano Dormitory was targeted for the large-scale police raid under the suspicion that it was being used as a base for his activities.

Dozens of university students confronted the riot police at the front gates of the dorm and managed to delay their entry into the facility.

The above information was carried in a few mainstream news outlets, but the Shingetsu News Agency took the next step that none of the Japanese media managed to do, which was to contact Zengakuren and other local student groups to hear their explanations as to why they believed such an obviously disproportionate police action had taken place.

Zengakuren, in short, explained that they saw the police raid as retaliation for their leftist political activities and broadside warning to all Japanese university students to keep away from activism.

A Zengakuren activist calling himself “Ryumiya” told us, “there is an annual meeting called the Zengakuren Taikai which is organized by Zengakuren. [In 2016] the Public Security Intelligence Agency carried out a raid on one of our meetings, and one of the participants was grabbed by the neck and subjected to physical blows. In response, Zengakuren filed a lawsuit demanding government compensation. In May of this year, we won the case. We think that this raid was a retaliation for that verdict.”

In addition, Ryumiya contended that the police may also have wanted to head off Zengakuren’s participation in a July 4 meeting led by the radical National Railway Chiba Motive Power Union (Doro Chiba), which is still fighting the breakup of the Japan National Railways in the late 1980s and what it regards as the unfair dismissals of over a thousand railway workers.

Ryumiya adds his view that “the raid was part of a negative campaign against the Kumano Dormitory… It was intended to drive a wedge between students living inside the dorm to show that it could be dangerous for the general students. We believe that this intent to sow divisions was a primary aim of the raid.”

A spokesperson for another student group, the Kyoto University Punishment Countermeasures Committee (Zenshotai), which was established in February 2021 to protest against “arbitrary punishments” handed down to some students, expressed similar views to the Zengakuren activist.

He stated, “I think the raid was intended to be a suppression of students’ movements, as well as a security measure ahead of the Olympics. The police can arrest anyone for making false entries in a driver’s license application. However, they purposefully arrested the suspect just before July 7 and then raided Kumano Dormitory. That was 100% a negative campaigning. There was no way that any actual evidence could be found through such means.”

He added, “In response, the Kyoto University authorities issued a nonsensical statement that they would investigate if there are any outsiders living in Kumano Dormitory. The university authorities are collaborating on this negative campaign together with the police.”

He concluded, “arresting and punishing students struggling on the frontlines serves to frighten other students who fear they might be arrested and punished if they get involved in the same movements. The authorities are aiming to divide and isolate people struggling on the frontlines, such as Zengakuren.”

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