In the capitalist but underdeveloped Okinawa, the socialist theories of class struggle and labor movement spread from people that had gone to the mainland of Japan to work.
In the early 1900's the ideas of socialism spread to the educators and intelligentsia and on other levels of society. Disputes between tenant farmers and landowners erupted frequently.
In 1926 leaders of the mainland Socialist movement formed the Okinawa Seinen Domei (Okinawa Youth Alliance) and coordinated a strike of the labor unions in various professions. In the first general election in Japan in 1928 (only males 25 and older were franchised), the socialist leaders ran in the election and the activities of the party picked up.
The student movements and teacher unions were also very active. Okinawan citizens attending university in Tokyo and senior high teachers' school intensified their activities and more than a few were dismissed or punished. Around 1930 the teacher's unions were formed on Yaeyama and the main island of Okinawa.
The response of the authorities to the intensified activities of the socialists was to exert control by using special police units that began an unfair crackdown on various socialist movement activities. In the middle 1930's many student and movement leaders were jailed and were forcibly deported from Okinawa. By 1940 the social movements in Okinawa were facing one of their most difficult periods.