Justice is Outside the Courtroom: The Kobunsha Struggle and Kunitoshi Oka's Beliefs (early 1970s)

Justice is Outside the Courtroom: The Kobunsha Struggle and Kunitoshi Oka's Beliefs (early 1970s)

At first glance, Kunitoshi Oka's words, "Innocence is something to be fought for," may seem to be a practical point about courtroom tactics, but in fact it was an ideological indictment of the fundamental contradiction between power and justice that existed in Japanese society in the early 1970s. These words were uttered in the midst of the so-called Kobunsha Struggle, a violent labor dispute over the publishing house Kobunsha. In the "2.4 picket case" in which union member Shingo Yoshikawa was charged with "illegal arrest," the first union attempted to persuade the second union member to do the same. The union and its lawyers regarded this act as a legitimate labor movement and went all out in court.

Oka emphasized that there was nothing illegal about this act, but rather that it was a legitimate action based on the workers' right to organize. He then appealed for the acquittal of the case, arguing that "the illegality of the act did not reach a level that would warrant the imposition of a penalty by state power," based on the "theory of the inhibition of punishable illegality. However, he was convicted and sentenced to three months in prison with a one-year suspended sentence. Although the verdict included some understanding of the background of the picketing behavior and the company's problems, the conclusion was that Kikkawa should be punished. In response, Oka expressed his strong distrust of the relationship between law and power itself, saying, "Not guilty means that we had to start from the distrust of the court.

The ideological significance of these words is closely related to the social situation of the time: from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Japanese society was in the midst of anti-establishment movements and upheaval. The confrontation between police power and citizens was becoming increasingly radicalized, with frequent blockades of universities by students involved in the Zenkyoto movement and the Sanrizuka struggle. Oka himself was active as a defense lawyer in the struggle against the University of Tokyo and emerged as one of the lawyers who confronted power. In these times, the judicial system was not a neutral entity, but often functioned as a device to maintain the system. In this reality, the courtroom was not a place where truth and justice were automatically recognized.

Oka's attitude of "fighting for acquittal" is based on this very premise. The idea is that we should not expect justice from the system, and that justice is not something given to us by others, but something we must assert, construct, and obtain on our own. This is not a mere tactic, but a structural criticism of the law, and an ethical attitude that believes in the law but tries to go beyond it.

It is a double posture: the limits of trust in the judicial system, and the continuing struggle within it. Oka's words deeply question the nature of citizens confronting power. And they have a strength that is still applicable today. At a time when the independence of the judiciary continues to waver in political cases and labor issues, the idea of "fighting for the innocent" provides us with an opportunity to reexamine the meaning of law and justice.

The court is not a place to judge the truth. It can only "show" truth and justice. That is why Kunitoshi Oka may have said that the most important thing is the path to that point. No matter how well organized the judicial system is, it is people's beliefs and actions that drive it.