Waking Night on the Street Corner - A Small Discourse at Shinjuku Petit Monde, February 1977 (1976-1977)

Waking Night on the Street Corner - A Small Discourse at Shinjuku Petit Monde, February 1977 (1976-1977)

On February 10, 1977, a political discussion among young people at the Shinjuku cafe Petit Monde became a place to rethink the "weight of a vote" in the midst of the political mistrust that followed the Lockheed affair. The arrest of Kakuei Tanaka (1976) exposed the corruption in the political world, and society had resigned itself to the belief that politics was far away and that no matter who you trusted, it was all the same. But in this small place, there was a quiet awakening to take politics back into one's own hands. The participants said, "Society changes when those in order move," and pledged to let go of their pride in abstaining and get involved in reality. The times were changing, with the emergence of the New Liberty Club in the 1976 general election and other political diversifications. The Petit Monde was a small dawn of civic consciousness that brought politics back from the distant theater to the "desk of daily life.