The Wasedi Occupation

The Tokyo University Zen Kyoto Movement was, like many others, a product of an overbearing and cost-cutting attitude in the university leadership. The issue began with the university's medical students, who were subjected to a rigorous six-year internship program that essentially forced them to engage in free labor for the university and its affiliated hospitals. In January of 1968, the school agreed to reform the program, but the reforms did not go far enough for the medical students who went on strike indefinitely as a result. A scuffle broke out when some involved students met with a tutor hired by the school to talk things over.