After watching (most of) the film United Red Army, I learned that there were a handful of university strikes in Japan, including a couple violent ones that resulted in violent takeovers of universities by students, similar the the Columbia University takeover in the United States. Can anyone explain the background of these events, and shed more light on what happened?
I believe what you’re referring to is the ANPO protests in 1960.
They were essentially protests against the “Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan”, which allowed the US to not only maintain military bases in Japan, but also to act sometimes on behalf of it. It was terribly unbalanced, and undermined the independence of Japan as a nation. It is also imperative to remember that this took place during the Cold War, so the US had wanted to exert their influence in fear of Japan turning communist.
Here’s an excellent compilation of photographs and a detailed summary done by MIT: https://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/tokyo_1960/anp2_essay01.html