Tokyo in Tashkent: The Afro-Asian Writers Association and Japanese Cold War Dissent.

The article examines the participation of seven Japanese writers in the 1958 Afro-Asian Writers Conference held in Tashkent, which led to the creation of the Afro-Asian Writers Association (AAWA). It highlights how these Japanese writers, coming from a former imperial power aligned with the United States, used the conference as a platform to support decolonization and critique Japan’s colonial past and its role in the American empire, challenging dominant Cold War and post-war narratives. The conference, organized under Soviet auspices, fostered literary and political solidarity among writers from colonized and newly independent countries in Asia and Africa, while Japanese delegates navigated complex tensions around Japan’s imperial legacy and Cold War geopolitics. The article situates Japanese involvement in the broader histories of Afro-Asianism, anti-colonial internationalism, and Cold War dissent, emphasizing the lasting impact of the AAWA in promoting cross-cultural dialogue and alternative visions of solidarity beyond Western metropolitan centers.