Kōtoku Shūsui in 1909

Context: Kōtoku Shūsui was a Japanese journalist and activist who started out as a socialist but shifted toward radical anarcho-syndicalism after reading Kropotkin while in prison.

He became the most prominent voice against the Meiji government, arguing that real change would only come through “direct action” by workers rather than through the ballot box. This made him the state’s biggest target, eventually leading to the High Treason Incident of 1910.

Even though there wasn’t any actual evidence that he was involved in a plot to assassinate the Emperor, the government used the trial to crush the anarchist movement entirely, and he was executed along with several others in 1911.