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Paper short abstract

This paper examines Indonesian media coverage of the 1986 Japanese Red Army attacks in Jakarta through Kompas Newspaper and Tempo Magazine. While both framed the events as terrorism, Tempo also contextualized the violence within broader global political issues.

Paper long abstract

On May 14, 1986, a series of incidents occurred in Jakarta, Indonesia, including mortar attacks on the United States and Japanese Embassies and a car bomb explosion in the parking lot of the Canadian Embassy. Tsutomu Shirosaki, suspected by Japanese authorities of being a member of the left-wing militant Japanese Red Army, was named in connection with the attacks. This paper examines how these events were discussed by two prominent Indonesian media outlets at the time: Kompas Daily and Tempo Magazine. While existing studies on the Japanese Red Army have tended to focus on Japanese or Western contexts, this paper shifts its attention to how the Japanese left-wing movement was represented in Indonesian media. Based on a qualitative reading of articles published in 1986, this paper finds that while both media outlets labeled the acts as terrorism, Tempo tended to be more interpretive. Its coverage explained the background of the violence by citing global political situations such as the Palestinian issue and criticism of United States dominance.

This paper argues that despite Indonesia’s anti-communist stance and its close ties to the United States, Indonesian media did not present a unified understanding of the Japanese Red Army. Examining how Japanese left-wing political violence was interpreted provides insight into how the Japanese left-wing movement was perceived outside of Japan.