Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s highly controversial reforms would allow a greater security role for Japan’s Self Defense Forces. Criticism of Abe’s efforts has been widespread and reinvigorated by the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II on 15 August 2015. The protesting students want to maintain the status quo and are demonstrating on a platform of peace. In doing so, they are defying the stereotype that Japan’s youth are disinterested in politics.