Dark Green Religion, trans-Pacific counterculture, and the ethno-environmental politics of Japanese Hippies on Suwanose Island and Amami Ōshima, 1965–1989

Till Knaudt

Social Science Japan Journal, 2025, vol. 28, issue 2, jyaf032

Abstract: In the 1970s, the political theory of the Japanese New Left merged with the countercultural and religious practices of the Japanese hippie movement, leading to a successful environmental protest on the Tokara and Amami island chains. A small hippie commune called ‘The Tribes’ (Buzoku) on Suwanose Island was part of a global countercultural network linking the Californian Beat scene, West Coast Zen, the Japanese New Left, and environmental protests. On Amami Ōshima, the same hippies, led by Pon (Yamada Kaiya), played a key role in local environmental protests. They practised Dark Green Religion and successfully opposed East Asian Fuels (Tōa Nenryō KK) from building a refinery on an uninhabited island, gaining the support of the local fishing community. However, their increasing alignment with anti-Japanese activism led to alienation from the locals and violent attacks by right-wing groups in 1988, resulting in the commune’s dissolution. This study highlights the New Left’s contribution to ethno-environmentalism, emphasizing the intersection of Dark Green Religion, counterculture, and anti-imperialist activism. It shows that left-wing hippies were not necessarily bound by notions of ‘victimhood’, but through transnational counterculture and religion developed an essentialist understanding of nature as the cornerstone of their environmentalist activism.

Keywords: Japanese New Left; environmentalism; religion; islands; California (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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