In the 1960s the national student movement was active over a wide range of issues, but the common theme of these actions was the fight against capitalism. The students viewed miners as an especially oppressed group, not only because of the intrinsically oppressive nature of their work, but also because of the violence that traditionally had been associated with the mines in Chikuho. After the miners' actions were given widespread press coverage following the labour protests in the late 1950s and 1960s, some of the students were motivated to come to Chikuho to support the workers by volunteering to work with the unions, often in the union offices.

The students thought that with some organisational help, the miners who were being abused under the present system would be able to stand up to the power-holders. They took upon themselves the role of the educated, concerned, altruistic Marxists, determined to win for the miners the rights the miners themselves could not win under the oppressive conditions of the legal system. Given the ignorance of labour dispute strategy within miners' ranks, often because of the isolation of the profession, it has been said that the students were the catalyst in bringing about concerted action against the mine-owners. Mizuno, a man who came from the Tokyo students' group to work in the office at D-san, saw the students' role as primarily a teaching and supportive one in the fight against the violent and unfair practices of a large number of mines in the region.

An examination of the circumstances surrounding the strike at D-san in 1962 offers insights into the nature of labour relations and into the apparent equanimity with which miners viewed the extreme working conditions.