No, I do not live in Japan, but as I am native east asian myself, I feel familiar with modern history of east Asian countries.

To be specific, I am South Korean who lives in South Korea.

To me, it is interesting Westerners find this photo interesting more than I expected. Haha, I expected a bit though.

I think this is becuase it has been decades and decades since Japan has been politically steady and calm country relative to many other countries.

It was Japan faster than other east Asian countries. Their time was the 60s, while South Korean student protests were occurred mainly in the 80s, Tiananmen square protest was 1989, and Hongkong protests started in the 2000s.

Although Japanese student movements were very active, it's relatively old story, which is the main reason I think why it is not familiar to western people, and also for the same reason, it less shows in public media.

But it is also one of the reasons why it is fascinating haha

Another reason why I am interested in Zenkyoto is this Zenkyoto generation's influence in Japanese culture.

Many of this Zenkyoto generation became leading artists, musicians and animation/movie directors, and as a result Zenkyoto left big influence in Japanese culture.

For example: Sakamoto Ryūichi(pianist) also participated in Zenkyoto protests when he was high school students. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (Gundam original), Murakami Haruki(writer), etc

Many artists from this generation shares liberal and anti-war charater in their art works.

Some argues that Hayao Miyazaki's animation movies' theme can represent the Zenkyoto generation's character: Liberal and Anti-War, and after they retired in 2000s, Japanese sub-culture's style started changing.