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This paper examines the evolution of protest events within Okinawa’s peace movement in comparative perspective with mainland Japan. Okinawa occupies a distinctive position in postwar Japan due to its prolonged experience of U.S. military rule. From the end of World War II until 1972, the islands were placed under U.S. administration and governed in an indirect, military-colonial manner, with limited political autonomy for local residents. Even after the reversion of administrative rights to Japan, the disproportionate concentration of U.S. military bases in Okinawa remained largely unchanged, sustaining a continuous peace movement centered on opposition to militarization and base-related grievances.

Since 1972, however, the institutional conditions shaping protest have been significantly constrained. The Japan–U.S. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and the Special Criminal Act Attendant upon the Enforcement of the Agreement under Article VI of SOFA have restricted direct actions at live-fire training ranges and other militarized sites, making certain forms of on-site resistance increasingly difficult. Despite these constraints, Okinawa has repeatedly witnessed moments of large-scale mobilization. Most notably, mass protests involving tens of thousands of participants emerged in 1995 in response to sexual violence committed by U.S. military personnel against local residents, marking a critical turning point in the post-reversion peace movement.

More recently, sites of new U.S. military base construction, such as Henoko and Takae, have become focal points of sustained contention. Sit-ins and other forms of direct action at these sites have followed trajectories distinct from those observed on the Japanese mainland, where peace-related protests have more often taken the form of episodic mass mobilization rather than prolonged on-site resistance.

Drawing on protest event data from 2010 to 2024, this study analyzes both resonance and divergence in the repertoires of peace movements in Okinawa and mainland Japan. By situating Okinawan protest within broader debates on Japanese social movements, including discussions of a post-2011 partial thaw of Japan’s so-called “movement ice age,” this paper highlights how historical legacies and security regimes shape the forms and temporal dynamics of protest in contemporary democracies.