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Japanese Communist Party

The Japanese Communist Party (日本共産党, Nihon Kyōsan-tō, abbr. JCP) is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 270,000 members as of 2020, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired by Tomoko Tamura, who replaced longtime leader Kazuo Shii in January 2024.

Japanese Communist Party
日本共産党
Nihon Kyōsan-tō
AbbreviationJCP
ChairpersonTomoko Tamura
Secretary-GeneralAkira Koike[1]
Representatives leaderChizuko Takahashi
Councillors leaderTomoko Kami
Founded15 July 1922; 101 years ago (15 July 1922)[2]
Headquarters4-26-7 Sendagaya, Shibuya, 151-8586 Japan[3]
NewspaperShimbun Akahata
Youth wingDemocratic Youth League of Japan
Membership (2020) 270,000
Ideology
Political positionLeft-wing to far-left
International affiliationIMCWP
ColorsRed[4]
Representatives
10 / 465
Councillors
11 / 248
Prefectural assembly members
139 / 2,614
Municipal assembly members
2,473 / 30,101
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
  • www.jcp.or.jp (Japanese)
  • www.jcp.or.jp/english (English)
JCP headquarters in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward

The JCP was repressed by the Japanese government in the three decades immediately following its founding. The Allied occupation of Japan legalized the JCP after World War II, but the party's unexpected success in the 1949 general election led to the "Red Purge", in which the Japanese government removed tens of thousands of actual and suspected communists from their jobs. The Soviet Union encouraged the JCP to respond with a violent revolution; the consequent internal debate fractured the party into several factions. The dominant faction, backed by the Soviets, waged an unsuccessful guerrilla campaign in Japan's rural areas, which undercut the party's public support.

In 1958, Kenji Miyamoto became the JCP's leader and moderated the party's policies, abandoning the previous line of violent revolution. His efforts to regain electoral support were particularly successful in urban areas such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, and the JCP worked with the Japan Socialist Party in the 1970s to elect a number of progressive mayors and governors. By 1979, the JCP held about 10 percent of the seats in the National Diet.

Miyamoto also began distancing the JCP from the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s. The party did not take sides during the Sino-Soviet split and declared its support for multi-party democracy, as opposed to the one-party politics of China and the Soviet Union. The JCP did not suffer an internal crisis after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, though its overall electoral strength remains in decline, despite a brief resurgence after the collapse of the Japan Socialist Party in 1996.

The party at present advocates the establishment of a democratic society based on scientific socialism and pacificism. It believes that this objective can be achieved by working within an electoral framework while carrying out an extra-parliamentary struggle against "imperialism and its subordinate ally, monopoly capital". As such, the JCP does not advocate violent revolution but rather a "democratic revolution" to achieve "democratic change in politics and the economy". It accepts the current constitutional position of the emperor but opposes the involvement of the Imperial House in politics. A staunchly anti-militarist party, the JCP firmly supports Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and seeks to dissolve the Japan Self-Defense Forces. It opposes Japan's military alliance with the United States as an unequal relationship and infringement of Japan's national sovereignty.

History edit

Prewar roots edit

The Japanese Communist Party was founded in Tokyo on 15 July 1922.[2] Its early leadership was drawn from the anarcho-syndicalist and Christian socialist movements that developed around the turn of the century. From the former came Yamakawa Hitoshi, Sakai Toshihiko, and Arahata Kanson, who had all been supporters of Kōtoku Shūsui, an anarchist executed in 1911. Katayama Sen, another early party leader, had been a Christian socialist for much of his political life. The three former anarchists were reluctant to found the JCP, with Yamakawa shortly after arguing that Japan was not ready for a communist party and calling for work to be done solely within labor unions. Katayama's theoretical understanding of Marxism also remained low.[5][6] In the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, there was a campaign of rumors instigated by Japanese state authorities that incited widespread massacres of suspected enemies of the state by military, police, and vigilante forces. Military and police officials assassinated key leftist leaders under the cover of martial law, including Ōsugi Sakae.[7]

Outlawed and persecuted edit

 
Prominent wartime JCP members from left to right: Kyuichi Tokuda, Sanzō Nosaka and Yoshio Shiga, c. 1945–1946

The JCP was founded as an underground political association. Outlawed in 1925 with the passage of the Peace Preservation Law, the JCP was subjected to repression and persecution by the Special Higher Police (Tokkō), nicknamed the "Thought Police".[8] JCP members and sympathizers were imprisoned and pressured to "convert" (tenkō suru) to anti-communist nationalism.[8] Many of those who refused to convert remained imprisoned for the duration of the Pacific War. The Japanese Communist Party member Hotsumi Ozaki, who was part of the Richard Sorge spy ring for the Kremlin, was the only Japanese person hanged for treason under the Peace Preservation Law.[9] Police also widely used methods of torture against arrested communists. One of the JCP members killed by police torture in this period was the writer Kobayashi Takiji.[7]

The JCP campaigned against the invasion of China and the imperial regime's expansionist policy in Asia.[10]

Postwar reemergence edit

The Japan Communist Party was legalized in 1945 by the Allied military occupation of Japan and since then has been a legal political party able to contest elections. In the aftermath of the war, under the guidance of charismatic party chairman Sanzō Nosaka, the party pursued a policy of portraying itself as "lovable".[11] Nosaka's strategy involved avoiding open calls for violent revolution and taking advantage of the seemingly pro-labor stance of the Allied occupation to organize the urban working classes and win power at the ballot box and through propaganda.[12] In particular, the party was successful in winning acceptance of the notion that communists had been the only ones to resist Japanese wartime militarism.[8] This propaganda effort won the party thousands of new members and an even larger number of sympathizers, especially among artists and intellectuals.[11] The party rapidly built up its strength and in 1949, made unprecedented gains by winning 10 percent of the vote and sending 35 representatives to the Diet.

Red Purge and turn to violence edit

Beginning in the fall of 1949, in reaction to the JCP's electoral success and as part of the "Reverse Course" in Allied occupation policy amid rising Cold War tensions, the Allied occupation authorities and the Japanese government carried out a sweeping Red Purge, firing tens of thousands of communists and suspected communists from government posts, teaching positions at schools, and private corporations.[13] The purge was further intensified in response to the outbreak of the Korean War.[13]

 
JCP headquarters in 1950

Against this backdrop in January 1950, the Soviet-led Cominform, at the behest of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, issued a blistering criticism of the JCP's peaceful line as "opportunism" and "glorifying American imperialism". It also demanded that the JCP carry out an immediate violent revolution along Maoist lines.[12] This devastating "Cominform Criticism" led rival JCP factions to compete for the Cominform's approval, and ultimately led to the militant "1951 Platform" (51年綱領) which declared that "it would be a serious mistake to think that Japan's liberation can be achieved through peaceful, democratic means" and called for an immediate violent revolution.[12] The result was a campaign of violence in which JCP activists threw Molotov cocktails at police boxes and cadres were sent up into the mountains with instructions to organize ostensibly oppressed farmers into "mountain guerrilla squads".[12]

The backlash to the JCP's new militant line was swift and severe. Militants were rounded up, tried, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and in the 1952 general election, Japanese voters vented their ire at the JCP by stripping the party of every single one of its 35 Diet seats, a blow from which it would take two decades to recover.[14] Stunned, the JCP gradually began to pull back from its militant line, a process facilitated by the death of Stalin in 1953.[15] At the 6th Party Congress in 1955, the JCP renounced the militant line completely, returning to its old "peaceful line" of gradually pursuing socialist revolution through peaceful, democratic means.[15]

Anpo protests edit

 
Kenji Miyamoto held the party's leadership position from 1958 to 1982.

In 1960, the JCP played a central role in organizing the massive Anpo protests against the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty, which were the largest protests in Japan's history.[16] The JCP took a different line than the Japan Socialist Party, Sohyo labor federation, and other groups who argued that the main target of the protest movement was Japanese monopoly capitalism. Instead, the JCP argued that the main enemy was American imperialism, and along with affiliated groups, focused its protests around the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo.[17] Accordingly, JCP-linked groups were the driving force behind the "Hagerty Incident" in which the car carrying U.S. President Eisenhower's press secretary James Hagerty was mobbed outside of Tokyo's Haneda Airport on 10 June 1960, provoking a major international incident and helping to precipitate the downfall of the Nobusuke Kishi cabinet.[17]

The Anpo protests were a turning point in the JCP's ongoing attempts to revive its political fortunes after the disastrous turn toward violent revolution in the early 1950s.[12] Although the Maoists had been purged from the party following the earlier disaster, the JCP was still riven by the age-old rivalry between the Rōnō Ha (Worker-Farmer Faction) and the Kōza Ha (Lecture Faction), which dated back to the prewar era.[12] Among other disagreements, the two factions disagreed over which stage of Marxist development Japan was currently in; the Rōnō Ha believed that Japan had already achieved full capitalism, which meant that an immediate socialist revolution was possible, whereas the Kōza Ha argued that Japan's transition to capitalism was not yet complete and that therefore what was needed was a "two-stage" revolution—first a "democratic revolution" that would overthrow American imperialism and establish true democracy, and then a "socialist revolution" that would establish communism.[15] Although the "mainstream" of the JCP, led by Kenji Miyamoto, favored the Kōza Ha interpretation, as late as the 7th Party Congress in 1958 the "anti-mainstream" Rōnō Ha faction, led by Shōjirō Kasuga, still controlled around 40 percent of the delegates.[12]

The Anpo protests greatly strengthened the hand of the Kōza Ha faction.[18] During the protest, the JCP, still scarred by the backlash to its violent line in the 1950s, consistently advocated peaceful, orderly, and restrained protests.[18] This stance was highly unpopular with the radical student activists of the Zengakuren student federation, who broke decisively with the JCP as a result and began to build a New Left student movement.[19] However, the movement proved unpopular with the broader public, and the JCP was able to use its image as a "peaceful" and "positive" force during the protests as a recruitment tool. Membership in the party soared during the course of the protests, doubling from 40,000 to 80,000, and most of the new recruits wound up supporting the Kōza Ha line.[18]

Over the remainder of the 1960s, the Kōza Ha was able to purge many members from the Rōnō Ha faction, and others, dissatisfied with JCP policies, quit the party of their own accord.[20] Miyamoto was able to cement his control over the party and reigned as party chairman all the way until 1982. Meanwhile, the party's membership continued to grow rapidly, and the party began to make steady gains at the ballot box, winning more and more seats in the National Diet.[18] By the mid-1960s, the United States Department of State estimated party membership to be approximately 120,000 (0.2% of the working-age population),[21] and the party had acquired around 300,000 members by 1970.[22]

Sino-Soviet split edit

The party did not take sides during the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. Its politics were independent of the Soviet Union. Reflecting this, the party chairman Miyamoto announced the JCP's opposition to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the party had distanced itself from Mao and Maoism, which allowed it to avoid being associated with China's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution once they started coming more fully to light in the 1970s. In July 1969, the JCP declared that if it ever came to power, it would permit the free functioning of opposition parties, in an effort to distinguish itself from the one-party states in the Soviet Union and China.[22] In 1976, mentions of "Marxism–Leninism" in the party program were changed to "scientific socialism".[23]

These efforts proved popular among Japanese voters. In the 1972 general election, the JCP won an astonishing 38 seats in the Diet, surpassing its 1949 high of 35 and signaling the party's full recovery from the disastrous militant line of the early 1950s.[24] Party membership continued to grow in the 1970s, albeit at a slower rate than in the 1960s, reaching approximately 500,000 members by 1980.[22]

1980s to 21st century edit

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the JCP released a press statement titled "We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of great power chauvinism and hegemonism". The party also criticized the Eastern Bloc countries which abandoned socialism, describing their decisions as a "reversal of history".[25] Consequently, the party did not suffer an internal crisis as a result of the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, nor did it consider disbanding or changing its name. However, owing to a significant loss in electoral support, the party revised its policies in the 1990s and became a more traditional democratic socialist party.[26]

Lam Peng Er argued in the Pacific Affairs in 1996 that "the JCP's viability is crucial to the health of Japanese democracy" because "[i]t is the only established party in parliament that has not been coopted by the conservative parties. It performs the watchdog role against the ruling parties without fear or favor. More importantly, the JCP often offers the only opposition candidate in prefectural governorship, city mayoral and other local elections. Despite the ostensible differences between the non-Communist parties at the national level, they often support a joint candidate for governor or mayor so that all parties are assured of being part of the ruling coalition. If the JCP did not offer a candidate, there would be a walkover and Japanese voters would be offered a fait accompli without an electoral avenue of protest. Promoting women candidates in elections to win women's votes is another characteristic of the party. More women are elected under the Communist label than other political parties in Japan."[27]

In 2008, foreign media recorded an increase in support for the party due to the effect of the global financial crisis on Japanese workers.[28][29] However, the party failed to increase its number of seats in the 2009 general election. Subsequently, the projected decline of the party was halted, with the JCP becoming the third-largest party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly[30][31] and making gains in the House of Councillors, going from six to 11 seats. The party surged in the 2014 elections, receiving 7,040,130 votes (13.3%) in the constituency section and 6,062,962 (11.37%) in the party lists.

During the nomination period of the July 2016 House of Councillors election, the party signed an agreement with the Democratic, Social Democratic and People's Life parties to field a jointly endorsed candidate in each of the 32 districts in which only one seat was contested, uniting in an attempt to take control of the House from the LDP–Komeito coalition.[32] JCP leaders expressed willingness to enter into a coalition with the Democratic Party, a notion which was rejected by then-Democratic Party President Katsuya Okada as being "impossible" in the near future due to what he viewed as some of the "extreme leftist policies" promoted by the JCP.[33] The party had three Councillors up for re-election and fielded a total of 56 candidates in the election, down from 63 candidates in the 2013 election, but still the second-highest number after the LDP.[34] However, only 14 of those candidates contested single- and multi-member districts, while 42 contested the 48-seat national proportional representation block.[34]

Councillor Tomoko Tamura was appointed as the party's first chairwoman on 18 January 2024, replacing Kazuo Shii who had occupied the role for over 23 years.[35][36]

Ideology and policies edit

The JCP is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world;[37] it is, however, politically moderate and advocates a peaceful transition to communism.[38] Marxism–Leninism, which former party chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa had worked for years to make acceptable to the electorate, was abandoned in favor of scientific socialism in 1976.[39][40] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the JCP become a more traditional democratic socialist party after modifying its policies in the 1990s.[26] This analysis is supported by the Japanese political scientist Kōji Nakakita, who is often cited as a specialist on the JCP.[41] However, unlike the Italian Communist Party, which became a social democratic party, the JCP maintains a Marxist ideology.[42] The party sits on the left[43] to far-left[48] of the left–right political spectrum.

Economic policy edit

The JCP strives to change the nation's economic policy of what it views as serving the interests of large corporations and banks to one of "defending the interests of the people". It advocates establishing "democratic rules" that will check the activities of large corporations and "protect the lives and basic rights of the people".

Regarding the international economy, the JCP has advocated establishing a new international democratic economic order on the basis of respect for each country's economic sovereignty. The party strongly opposed Japan's consideration of the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership. The JCP views the United States, transnational corporations, and international financial capital as the main pushers of globalization, which it asserts is negatively affecting the global economy by further widening the North–South economic divide and creating irrevocable environmental problems. The JCP advocates the "democratic regulation of activities by transnational corporations and international financial capital on an international scale".

In September 2015, after the passage of the 2015 Japanese military legislation, the JCP called for cooperation from other opposition parties to form an interim government to abolish the bills. It was the first time the party had called for such cooperation with other parties.[49][50][51][52]

Social policy edit

The JCP is generally regarded as the most progressive party in Japanese politics.[53] The JCP has traditionally been opposed to the existence of the Imperial House since its inception. However, the party changed its stance in 2004 by acknowledging the Emperor as Japan's head of state.[25] The JCP has stated that it supports the establishment of a democratic republic, but also that "[the monarchy's] continuation or discontinuation should be decided by the will of the majority of the people in future, when the time is ripe to do so".[54] In 2000, the party opposed legislation which reintroduced two symbolic practices to secondary school graduation ceremonies in Japan, namely the raising of the national flag and the singing of the national anthem, both of which the party views as relics of Japan's militarist past.[55]

LGBT rights and feminism edit

The JCP has been one of the political parties to vocally back LGBTQ rights in the country; Communist lawmakers have been working to win passage of marriage equality and anti-discrimination laws in parliament. [56] The JCP jointly supports the passing of an LGBT equality law with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP), the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Reiwa Shinsengumi.[57]

The JCP has maintained a friendly relationship with the Japanese feminist camp since its inception, and is still the most active in women's rights issues among Japan's major political parties. The JCP was the first party to call for universal suffrage for women.[58][59][60] The party supports eliminating the wage gap between men and women[61] and has called for the participation of more women in Japanese politics and political life.[62]

Foreign policy edit

One of the JCP's main objectives is terminating the Japan–United States military alliance and the dismantling of all American military bases in Japan.[62] It wants to make Japan a non-aligned and neutral country, in accordance with its principles of self-determination and national sovereignty. There are about 130 American military bases and related facilities in Japan, with Okinawa Prefecture alone hosting more than half of United States Forces Japan personnel. The JCP adheres to the idea that Japan, as an Asian country, must not allow its relationship with the United States and the G8 to define its foreign relations and should put its East Asian neighbors at the center of its diplomatic efforts. It supports establishing an "independent foreign policy in the interests of the Japanese people" and rejects "uncritically following any foreign power".

The JCP advocates that Japan issue further apologies for its actions during World War II and has condemned prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine.[63] In the 1930s, while the JCP was still illegal, it was the only political party to vocally oppose Japan's war with China.[64] The JCP supports Japanese territorial claims over the Kuril and Senkaku Islands and Liancourt Rocks.[65][66] Furthermore, the JCP has condemned North Korea's nuclear-weapons testing, calling for effective sanctions, but opposing the prospect of a military response.[67]

In 2020, the JCP revised its platform for the first time since 2004. The new platform criticized the Chinese Communist Party, denouncing China's "great-power chauvinism and hegemonism" as "an adverse current to world peace and progress". The JCP also removed a line from its platform which described China as a country "that is beginning a new quest for socialism". JCP members have stated that this was due to human rights conditions in China. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China denounced the accusations of the JCP as "groundless and biased".[68][69]

The JCP's leading politicians are known to be the most active opponents of anti-Korean racism and xenophobia in Japan. Contemporary JCP politicians criticize mainstream Japanese politicians for instigating contempt towards Korea, and oppose historical revisionism in regard to Korean history and Japanese war crimes. The JCP was one of the few Japanese parties which supported the Korean independence movement. In the latter half of the 1940s, a training school for Korean revolutionaries was operated jointly by the JCP and several Korean organizations, including the Communist Party of Korea.[70] In South Korea, the JCP is known as the only "pro-South Korea" political party in Japan.[71][72][73][74] Although it is illegal to form a communist party in South Korea, Mindan maintains friendly relations with the JCP.[75] In 2003, due to the consideration of the then liberal South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, formal exchanges between the JCP and the South Korean government began.[76]

Pacifism edit

The JCP has traditionally championed pacifism.[77] With regards to the Japan Self-Defence Forces (Japan's armed forces), the JCP's current policy is that it is not principally opposed to its existence (in 2000 the party stated that it would agree to its use should Japan ever be attacked), but that it will seek to abolish it in the long term, international situation permitting.[78] The JCP opposes the possession of nuclear weapons by any country, military blocs, and attempts to revise Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which says that "never again ... [will Japan] be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government". Regarding the resolution of disputes, it argues that priority must be given to peaceful means through negotiations, not to military solutions. The JCP says that Japan must adhere to the United Nations Charter.[78]

Organization edit

The party officially upholds democratic centralism. The party constitutions states decisions "shall be based on democratic discussion and finally decided by majority vote" and that "there shall be no factions or splinter groups". Along with Komeito, the JCP is unique amongst major Japanese political parties for the continuity of its leaders, with Shii having served as JCP chairman since 2000.[37]

Central organization edit

 
JCP Central Committee Building, October 2012

According to the party constitution, the highest body of the JCP is the Party Congress, organized by the Central Committee every 2–3 years, though it may be postponed in special circumstances.[79] Between the congresses, the highest body is the Central Committee, elected by the Party Congress. The Central Committee meets two times every year and can also hold a plenum at the request of one-third of its membership.[79] The Central Committee is made out of regular and alternate members; the latter can precipitate in Central Committee meetings but cannot vote. The Central Committee also elects the executive committee of the Central Committee, and its chairpersons and vice-chairpersons, the head of the Secretariat. The current chairman of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the JCP is Tomoko Tamura. The Central Committee also appoints the Disciplinary Commission and the Audit Commission, and may elect a Central Committee chairperson; the current Central Committee chair is Kazuo Shii.[79]

The executive committee manages party affairs between Central Committee meetings. It appoints the members of the Secretariat, which manages the day-to-day affairs of the party center, and the Central Organ Paper Editors Commission. It also elects the Standing Committee of the executive committee.[79]

Press edit

Shimbun Akahata (Japanese: Red Flag Newspaper) is the daily organ of the JCP in the form of a national newspaper. Musansha Shinbun (Japanese: Proletarian News) was another publication of the party which was circulated between 1925 and 1929.[80] Several other newspapers preceded and merged into Red Flag, including Daini Musansha Shinbun (Japanese: The Second Proletarian News), which was merged into Red Flag in 1932.[81] Daini Musansha Shinbun was itself the immediate successor to the original The Proletarian News, which was banned by the government in September 1929.[81] Daini Musansha Shinbun began publication immediately after the ban.[81]

In the past, the party published numerous other newspapers as well, including another national paper called Nihon Seiji Shinbun (Japanese: Japan Political News) and a theoretical journal called Zenshin (Japanese: Forward).[82] The party also published several regional newspapers such as Class War in and around Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, Shinetsu Red Flag in Nagano and Hokkaido News in Hokkaido.[83] They also published numerous (the exact number is unknown) factory newspapers.[84]

Some regional newspapers, such as Shin Kanagawa (Japanese: New Kanagawa) in Kanagawa, are still published.[85]

Affiliated organizations edit

The youth wing of JCP is the Democratic Youth League of Japan. In the 1920s and 1930s, the organization published several newspapers of its own, including Rēnin Seinen (English: Lenin Youth) and Proletarian Youth.[81]

The party also has affiliate medical and consumer co-ops.[86] The Japanese Consumers' Co-Operative Union (JCCU), the umbrella body of the co-operative movement in Japan, has a sizable number of communists in its ranks, although the exact numbers are difficult to verify.[86] Another example of the JCP's prevalence in the co-operative movement is the Co-op Kanagawa in the Kanagawa Prefecture, which has 800,000 members and has historical ties to the JCP.[86] It still advertises and occasionally is published in JCP newspapers such as Red Flag and New Kanagawa.[86] The prevalence of house unions in Japan as opposed to enterprise unions has prompted much of the exceptional development of other organizations by the JCP, as well as causing the JCP to seek other external organizational support, including from kōenkai.[86]

 
Official logo of the Japanese Communist Party and the highlighted acronym JCP

The Choir of JCP-fans (JCPファン雑唱団, JCP-fan zassyōdan) is a musical group which supports the JCP. Its repertory and artistic activity are strongly linked to The Singing Voice of Japan (日本のうたごえ, Nihon no utagoe) / うたごえ運動 Utagoe-undō), a musical movement of Japanese working class that dates back to 1948, when the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan (日本青年共産同盟中央合唱団, Nihon-seinen-kyōsan-dōmei Chuō-gassyōdan) was established. The group was founded in Kyoto in 2011 and is directed by Tadao Yamamoto, a composer, accordionist, choir director and ordinary member of the National Council of The Singing Voice of Japan. In various cultural events organized by the party, the Choir of JCP-fans appears as an element among the joined choirs of the volunteer singers of The Singing Voice of Japan. As of 2016, the choir is the only organization of Japanese musicians specializing in political support and in the cultural activity of the party.

Notable concerts and performances by the choir include:

  • 11 February 2011, Kyoto Kaikan Hall: Concert sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP).[87]
  • 1 August 2013, Nishijin Bunka Center (Kyoto): Cultural Live Revolutionary Pub, in collaboration with Tokiko Nishiyama (西山登紀子), former JCP member of the House of Councilors.[88]
  • 23 September 2014, Takaragaike Park (Kyoto): Festival Kyoto ed. 2014, organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP.[89]
  • 1 February 2015, Kyoiku Bunka Center (Kyoto): Festival sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP.[90]
  • 29 April 2016, Takaragaike Park (Kyoto): Festival Kyoto ed. 2016, organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP: performance with Seifuku Kōjō Iinkai (制服向上委員会) and Akira Koike (小池晃), JCP member of the House of Councilors and Secretary-General of the party.[91][92]

Membership edit

During the 1980s, party membership began to decline, falling to 500,000 by 1990[37] and 370,000 by 1997.[22]

Following its advancement in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election, the party enjoyed an increase in membership growth, with over 1,000 people joining in each of the final three months of 2013. Approximately 20% of new members during this period were aged 20 to 40, showing a higher ratio of young people joining the party than in the past. The JCP had approximately 320,000 members in January 2014.[93]

More recently, however, membership numbers have declined, with membership at around 300,000 in 2017 and 270,000 in 2020.[94]

Notable members edit

 
Takiji Kobayashi, prominent author of proletarian literature

Pre-war (1922–1941) edit

Wartime (1941–1945) edit

Post-war (1945–present) edit

Leaders edit

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee edit

No. Photo Name
(Birth–death)
Constituency / title Term of office Prime Minister (term)
Took office Left office
General Affairs Chief Secretary (1922–1923)
1   Arahata Katsuzō
(1887–1981)
None 5 July 1922 1923 Katō To. 1922–1923
Yamamoto 1923–1924
2   Sakai Toshihiko
(1871–1933)
None 1923 1923
Party outlawed by the Government
General Secretary (1945–1970)
1   Kyuichi Tokuda
(1894–1953)
Rep for
Tokyo 2nd
(1946)
Tokyo 3rd
(1947–1950)
3 December 1945 14 October 1953 Shidehara 1945–1946
Yoshida 1946–1947
Katayama 1947–1948
Ashida 1948
Yoshida 1948–1954
2   Sanzō Nosaka
(1892–1993)
Cou for
Tokyo at-large
(1956–1977)
14 October 1953 1 August 1958
Hatoyama I. 1954–1956
Ishibashi 1956–1957
Kishi 1957–1960
3   Kenji Miyamoto
(1908–2007)
None 1 August 1958 7 July 1970
Ikeda 1960–1964
Satō 1964–1972
Chairperson (1970–present)
1   Kenji Miyamoto
(1908–2007)
Cou for
National PR
(1977–1989)
7 July 1970 31 July 1982 Satō 1964–1972
Tanaka K. 1972–1974
Miki 1974–1976
Fukuda T. 1976–1978
Ōhira 1978–1980
Ito 1980 Acting
Suzuki Z. 1980–1982
2   Tetsuzo Fuwa
(born 1930)
Rep for
Tokyo 6th
31 July 1982 29 November 1987
Nakasone 1982–1987
Takeshita 1987–1989
3   Hiromu Murakami
(1921–2007)
Rep for
Osaka 3rd
29 November 1987 29 May 1989
4
(2)
  Tetsuzo Fuwa
(born 1930)
Rep for
Tokyo 6th
(1969–1996)
Tokyo PR block
(1996–2003)
29 May 1989 24 November 2000
Uno 1989
Kaifu 1989–1991
Miyazawa 1991–1993
Hosokawa 1993–1994
Hata 1994
Murayama 1994–1996
Hashimoto 1996–1998
Obuchi 1998–2000
Mori 2000–2001
5   Kazuo Shii
(born 1954)
Rep for
Southern Kanto
PR block
24 November 2000 18 January 2024
Koizumi 2001–2006
Abe S. 2006–2007
Fukuda Y. 2007–2008
Asō 2008–2009
Hatoyama Y. 2009–2010
Kan 2010–2011
Noda 2011–2012
Abe S. 2012–2020
Suga 2020–2021
Kishida 2021–present
6   Tomoko Tamura
(born 1965)
Cou for
National PR
18 January 2024 Incumbent

Chairman of the Central Committee edit

No. Photo Name
(Birth–death)
Term of office
Took office Left office
1   Sanzō Nosaka
(1892–1993)
1 August 1958 31 July 1987
2   Kenji Miyamoto
(1908–2007)
31 July 1982 26 September 1997
3   Tetsuzo Fuwa
(born 1930)
24 November 2000 14 January 2006
4   Kazuo Shii
(born 1954)
18 January 2024 Incumbent

Head of the Secretariat edit

No. Photo Name
(Birth–death)
Term of office
Took office Left office
1   Tetsuzo Fuwa
(born 1930)
7 July 1970 31 July 1982
2 Mitsuhiro Kaneko
(1924–2016)
31 July 1982 13 July 1990
3   Kazuo Shii
(born 1954)
13 July 1990 24 November 2000
4   Tadayoshi Ichida
(born 1942)
24 November 2000 18 January 2014
5 Yoshiki Yamashita
(born 1960)
18 January 2014 11 April 2016
6   Akira Koike
(born 1960)
11 April 2016 Incumbent

Electoral performance edit

House of Representatives edit

Prior to 1996, the entire House of Representatives was elected by majoritarian / "semi-proportional" voting systems with votes cast for individuals (1946: limited voting in multi-member districts, 1947 to 1993 SNTV in multi-member districts). Since 1996, the House of Representatives is elected in a parallel election system—essentially two separate elections only in the lower house complicated by the fact that a candidate may stand in both segments and the sekihairitsu system which ties proportional list ranking to FPTP results: only the majority of members the House of Representatives, 295 (initially 300) seats, are elected in a majoritarian system with voting for candidates (first-past-the-post in single-member districts), while the remaining 180 (initially 200) seats are elected by a proportional representation system (votes are cast for party lists in regional multi-member districts, called "blocks" in the House of Representatives). The votes and vote percentages in the table below are the JCP candidates' vote totals for the whole election from before 1993 and just the votes for the party in the election to the 180 proportional seats after 1996.

The JCP polled 11.3 percent of the vote in 2000, 8.2 percent in 2003, 7.3 percent in 2005, 7.0 percent in 2009, and 6.2 percent in 2012. These results seemed to indicate a trend of declining support, but the party won 21 seats in 2014, up from eight in the previous general election, as the JCP received 7,040,130 votes (13.3 percent) in the constituency section and 6,062,962 (11.37 percent) in the party lists. This continued a new wave of support that was also evident in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election in which the party doubled its representation. Fighting on a platform directly opposed to neoliberalism, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, attempts to rewrite the constitution, United States Forces Japan, and nuclear power, the JCP tapped into a minority current that seeks an alternative to Japan's rightward direction.[95] Following the 2016 Japanese House of Councillors election, the party held 13 seats in the House of Councillors.[96] After the 2017 Japanese general election, the party held 12 seats in the House of Representatives, and since the 2021 Japanese general election, it holds 10 seats.

House of Representatives
Election year No. of votes % Total seats ± Status
1946 2,135,757 3.8
6 / 464
Opposition
1947 1,002,883 3.7
4 / 466
 2 Opposition
1949 2,984,780 9.8
35 / 466
 31 Opposition
1952 896,765 2.5
0 / 466
 35 Extra-parliamentary[a]
1953 655,990 1.9
1 / 466
 1 Opposition
1955 733,121 2.0
2 / 467
 1 Opposition
1958 1,012,035 2.5
1 / 467
 1 Opposition
1960 1,156,723 2.9
3 / 467
 2 Opposition
1963 1,646,477 4.0
5 / 467
 2 Opposition
1967 2,190,564 4.8
5 / 486
 0 Opposition
1969 3,199,032 6.8
14 / 486
 9 Opposition
1972 5,496,827 10.5
38 / 491
 24 Opposition
1976 5,878,192 10.4
17 / 511
 21 Opposition
1979 5,625,527 10.4
39 / 511
 22 Opposition
1980 5,803,613 9.8
29 / 511
 10 Opposition
1983 5,302,485 9.3
26 / 511
 3 Opposition
1986 5,313,246 8.8
26 / 512
 0 Opposition
1990 5,226,987 8.0
16 / 512
 10 Opposition
1993 4,834,587 7.7
15 / 511
 1 Opposition
1996 7,268,743 13.1
26 / 500
 11 Opposition
2000 6,719,016 11.2
20 / 480
 6 Opposition
2003 4,586,172 7.8
9 / 480
 11 Opposition
2005 4,919,187 7.3
9 / 480
 0 Opposition
2009 4,943,886 7.0
9 / 480
 0 Opposition
2012 3,689,159 6.2
8 / 480
 1 Opposition
2014 6,062,962 11.4
21 / 475
 13 Opposition
2017 4,404,081 7.9
12 / 465
 9 Opposition
2021 4,166,076 7.2
10 / 465
 2 Opposition

House of Councillors edit

Elections to the House of Councillors are staggered. Every three years, half of the House is up for election to six-year terms. In addition, a parallel election system is used: the majority of members of the House of Councillors (currently 146 of 242, or 73 in one regular election to one half of the House) are elected in 45 (formerly 46→47) prefectural districts, votes are cast for individual candidates by SNTV, but with both multi- and single-member districts used and in the latter SNTV becomes identical to FPTP (winner-takes-all). The remaining, currently 96 members (48 per regular election) are elected in one nationwide district. Until 1980, votes there were cast for individuals too by SNTV. Since 1983, votes are cast for party lists and the seats are allocated proportionally (d'Hondt) in the nationwide district. Unlike in general elections to the lower house, a candidate may not be nominated in both segments of one regular election to the upper house. The seats totals show below are the JCP's overall post-election seat totals, not just their seats elected in that particular year. The votes shown are the votes in the election for the 48 (formerly 50) seats in the nationwide SNTV/PR segment.

Election year National district votes Total Status
No. of votes % Seats ±
1947 610,948 2.9
4 / 250
Opposition
1950 1,333,872 4.8
4 / 260
 0 Opposition
1953 293,877 1.1
2 / 260
 2 Opposition
1956 599,254 2.1
2 / 254
 0 Opposition
1959 551,916 1.9
3 / 254
 1 Opposition
1962 1,123,947 3.1
4 / 254
 1 Opposition
1965 1,652,364 4.4
6 / 254
 2 Opposition
1968 2,146,879 5.0
7 / 251
 1 Opposition
1971 3,219,307 8.1
10 / 251
 3 Opposition
1974 4,931,650 9.4
19 / 260
 9 Opposition
1977 4,260,050 8.4
16 / 252
 3 Opposition
1980 4,072,019 7.3
12 / 252
 4 Opposition
1983 4,163,877 8.9
14 / 252
 2 Opposition
1986 5,430,838 9.5
16 / 252
 2 Opposition
1989 3,954,408 7.0
14 / 252
 2 Opposition
1992 3,532,956 7.9
11 / 252
 3 Opposition
1995 3,873,955 9.5
14 / 252
 3 Opposition
1998 8,195,078 14.6
23 / 252
 9 Opposition
2001 4,329,210 7.9
20 / 247
 3 Opposition
2004 4,363,107 7.8
9 / 242
 11 Opposition
2007 4,407,937 7.5
7 / 242
 2 Opposition
2010 3,563,556 6.1
6 / 242
 1 Opposition
2013 5,154,055 9.7
11 / 242
 5 Opposition
2016 6,016,245 10.7
14 / 242
 3 Opposition
2019 4,483,411 8.95
13 / 245
 1 Opposition
2022 3,618,343 6.82
11 / 248
 2 Opposition

Current Diet members edit

House of Representatives edit

House of Councillors edit

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The JCP retained members in the House of Councillors.

References edit

Citations edit

  1. ^ "JCP elects new leadership" (12 April 2016). "The Japanese Communist Party 5th Central Committee Plenum on 11 April relieved Yamashita Yoshiki (House of Councilors member) of his duty as secretariat head for health reasons and elected Koike Akira (House of Councilors member and currently JCP vice chair) to the position". Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  2. ^ a b Uno 1991, p. 1030.
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  13. ^ a b Kapur 2018a, pp. 9–10.
  14. ^ Kapur 2018a, pp. 129, 133.
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  16. ^ Kapur 2018a, pp. 1, 19.
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  52. ^ Two opposition parties to mull coalition talks with JCP September 28, 2015 Japan Times Retrieved 29 September 2015
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    • Willy Jou, Masahisa Endo, ed. (2016). Generational Gap in Japanese Politics: A Longitudinal Study of Political Attitudes and Behaviour. Springer. p. 29. ISBN 978-1137503428. Conventional wisdom, still dominant in media and academic circles, holds that the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) occupy the conservative and progressive ends of the ideological spectrum, ...
    • Takemasa Ando, ed. (2013). Japan's New Left Movements: Legacies for Civil Society. Routledge. p. 33. ISBN 978-1135087388. Progressive parties: Progressive parties, the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) and the Japan Communist Party (JCP), also played a key role in the large-scale mobilisation
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Sources edit

Books edit

  • Beckmann, George M.; Okubo, Genji (1969). The Japanese Communist Party, 1922–1945. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0804706742.
  • Kapur, Nick (2018a). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  • Uno, Shun'ichi [in Japanese] (1991). Nihon zenshi: Japan chronik (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kodansha Ltd. ISBN 4-06-203994-X.

Journal articles edit

  • Berton, Peter (May 2000). . Japan Policy Research Institute (JPRI Working Paper No. 67). Archived from the original on 5 August 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  • Kapur, Nick (2018b). "The Empire Strikes Back? The 1968 Meiji Centennial Celebrations and the Revival of Japanese Nationalism". Japanese Studies. 38 (3): 305–328. doi:10.1080/10371397.2018.1543533. S2CID 149788596.

Further reading edit

  • Peter Berton and Sam Atherton, "The Japanese Communist Party: Permanent Opposition, but Moral Compass." New York: Routledge, 2018.
  • T.E. Durkee, The Communist Party of Japan, 1919–1932. PhD dissertation. Stanford University, 1953.
  • G.A. Hoston, Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
  • Hong M. Kim, Deradicalization of the Japanese Communist Party Under Kenji Miyamoto. Cambridge University Press, 1976.
  • Stephen S. Large, The Romance of Revolution in Japanese Anarchism and Communism during the Taishō Period. Cambridge University Press, 1977.
  • Robert A. Scalapino, The Japanese Communist Movement: 1920–1966. London: Cambridge University Press. 1967.
  • R. Swearingen and P. Langer, Red Flag in Japan: International Communism in Action, 1919–1951. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952.

External links edit

  • Official website
  • "Anti-Russian Organization Rises in Japan; Red Liaison Officer Says That American Occupation Too Soft". Times Daily. 9 October 1945.
  • "Military Oblivion Is Japs' Fate". The Evening Independent. 15 October 1945.
  • "Jap Communists Ask United Front Against Shidehara". The Evening Independent. 19 October 1945.
  • "Japanese Reds Enjoy Freedom For First Time". Berkeley Daily Gazette. 15 December 1945.
  • Members of the Communist Party march and protest in Tokyo (in Japanese). NHK. 27 December 1945.
  • Article on Japanese Communist Party from Japanese Press Translations 1945–1946. Dartmouth Digital Library Collections.
  • "Japanese Communist Party Asks End of Feudal System". Berkeley Daily Gazette. 23 February 1946.
  • "5–12 The Red Purge". National Diet Library. Modern Japan Archives. 6 June 1950.
  • "Red Parliament Members Fight Purge in Japan". The Owosso Argus-Press. 8 June 1950.
  • "Japan's Eight Top Communists Still Missing Without Clue". Reading Eagle. 3 June 1951.
  • Kazuo Shii: Comments from the Japanese Communist Party on the upcoming election. YouTube video (in English) of the JCP leader Kazuo Shii discussing the 2014 Japanese general election. Uploaded 8 December 2014.
  • "How the Japanese Communist Party Developed its Theory of Scientific Socialism". Japanese Communist Party. Retrieved 12 June 2019.

japanese, communist, party, 日本共産党, nihon, kyōsan, abbr, communist, party, japan, founded, 1922, oldest, political, party, country, members, 2020, update, making, largest, governing, communist, parties, world, party, chaired, tomoko, tamura, replaced, longtime,. The Japanese Communist Party 日本共産党 Nihon Kyōsan tō abbr JCP is a communist party in Japan Founded in 1922 it is the oldest political party in the country It has 270 000 members as of 2020 update making it one of the largest non governing communist parties in the world The party is chaired by Tomoko Tamura who replaced longtime leader Kazuo Shii in January 2024 Japanese Communist Party 日本共産党 Nihon Kyōsan tōAbbreviationJCPChairpersonTomoko TamuraSecretary GeneralAkira Koike 1 Representatives leaderChizuko TakahashiCouncillors leaderTomoko KamiFounded15 July 1922 101 years ago 15 July 1922 2 Headquarters4 26 7 Sendagaya Shibuya 151 8586 Japan 3 NewspaperShimbun AkahataYouth wingDemocratic Youth League of JapanMembership 2020 270 000IdeologyCommunismDemocratic socialismPacificismProgressivismPolitical positionLeft wing to far leftInternational affiliationIMCWPColorsRed 4 Representatives10 465Councillors11 248Prefectural assembly members139 2 614Municipal assembly members2 473 30 101Election symbolParty flagWebsitewww wbr jcp wbr or wbr jp Japanese www wbr jcp wbr or wbr jp wbr english English Politics of JapanPolitical partiesElections JCP headquarters in Tokyo s Shibuya Ward The JCP was repressed by the Japanese government in the three decades immediately following its founding The Allied occupation of Japan legalized the JCP after World War II but the party s unexpected success in the 1949 general election led to the Red Purge in which the Japanese government removed tens of thousands of actual and suspected communists from their jobs The Soviet Union encouraged the JCP to respond with a violent revolution the consequent internal debate fractured the party into several factions The dominant faction backed by the Soviets waged an unsuccessful guerrilla campaign in Japan s rural areas which undercut the party s public support In 1958 Kenji Miyamoto became the JCP s leader and moderated the party s policies abandoning the previous line of violent revolution His efforts to regain electoral support were particularly successful in urban areas such as Osaka Kyoto and Tokyo and the JCP worked with the Japan Socialist Party in the 1970s to elect a number of progressive mayors and governors By 1979 the JCP held about 10 percent of the seats in the National Diet Miyamoto also began distancing the JCP from the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s The party did not take sides during the Sino Soviet split and declared its support for multi party democracy as opposed to the one party politics of China and the Soviet Union The JCP did not suffer an internal crisis after the Soviet Union s dissolution in 1991 though its overall electoral strength remains in decline despite a brief resurgence after the collapse of the Japan Socialist Party in 1996 The party at present advocates the establishment of a democratic society based on scientific socialism and pacificism It believes that this objective can be achieved by working within an electoral framework while carrying out an extra parliamentary struggle against imperialism and its subordinate ally monopoly capital As such the JCP does not advocate violent revolution but rather a democratic revolution to achieve democratic change in politics and the economy It accepts the current constitutional position of the emperor but opposes the involvement of the Imperial House in politics A staunchly anti militarist party the JCP firmly supports Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and seeks to dissolve the Japan Self Defense Forces It opposes Japan s military alliance with the United States as an unequal relationship and infringement of Japan s national sovereignty Contents 1 History 1 1 Prewar roots 1 2 Outlawed and persecuted 1 3 Postwar reemergence 1 4 Red Purge and turn to violence 1 5 Anpo protests 1 6 Sino Soviet split 1 7 1980s to 21st century 2 Ideology and policies 2 1 Economic policy 2 2 Social policy 2 2 1 LGBT rights and feminism 2 3 Foreign policy 2 3 1 Pacifism 3 Organization 3 1 Central organization 3 2 Press 3 3 Affiliated organizations 4 Membership 5 Notable members 5 1 Pre war 1922 1941 5 2 Wartime 1941 1945 5 3 Post war 1945 present 6 Leaders 6 1 Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee 6 2 Chairman of the Central Committee 6 3 Head of the Secretariat 7 Electoral performance 7 1 House of Representatives 7 2 House of Councillors 8 Current Diet members 8 1 House of Representatives 8 2 House of Councillors 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 11 1 Citations 11 2 Sources 11 2 1 Books 11 2 2 Journal articles 12 Further reading 13 External linksHistory editPrewar roots edit The Japanese Communist Party was founded in Tokyo on 15 July 1922 2 Its early leadership was drawn from the anarcho syndicalist and Christian socialist movements that developed around the turn of the century From the former came Yamakawa Hitoshi Sakai Toshihiko and Arahata Kanson who had all been supporters of Kōtoku Shusui an anarchist executed in 1911 Katayama Sen another early party leader had been a Christian socialist for much of his political life The three former anarchists were reluctant to found the JCP with Yamakawa shortly after arguing that Japan was not ready for a communist party and calling for work to be done solely within labor unions Katayama s theoretical understanding of Marxism also remained low 5 6 In the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake there was a campaign of rumors instigated by Japanese state authorities that incited widespread massacres of suspected enemies of the state by military police and vigilante forces Military and police officials assassinated key leftist leaders under the cover of martial law including Ōsugi Sakae 7 Outlawed and persecuted edit nbsp Prominent wartime JCP members from left to right Kyuichi Tokuda Sanzō Nosaka and Yoshio Shiga c 1945 1946 The JCP was founded as an underground political association Outlawed in 1925 with the passage of the Peace Preservation Law the JCP was subjected to repression and persecution by the Special Higher Police Tokkō nicknamed the Thought Police 8 JCP members and sympathizers were imprisoned and pressured to convert tenkō suru to anti communist nationalism 8 Many of those who refused to convert remained imprisoned for the duration of the Pacific War The Japanese Communist Party member Hotsumi Ozaki who was part of the Richard Sorge spy ring for the Kremlin was the only Japanese person hanged for treason under the Peace Preservation Law 9 Police also widely used methods of torture against arrested communists One of the JCP members killed by police torture in this period was the writer Kobayashi Takiji 7 The JCP campaigned against the invasion of China and the imperial regime s expansionist policy in Asia 10 Postwar reemergence edit The Japan Communist Party was legalized in 1945 by the Allied military occupation of Japan and since then has been a legal political party able to contest elections In the aftermath of the war under the guidance of charismatic party chairman Sanzō Nosaka the party pursued a policy of portraying itself as lovable 11 Nosaka s strategy involved avoiding open calls for violent revolution and taking advantage of the seemingly pro labor stance of the Allied occupation to organize the urban working classes and win power at the ballot box and through propaganda 12 In particular the party was successful in winning acceptance of the notion that communists had been the only ones to resist Japanese wartime militarism 8 This propaganda effort won the party thousands of new members and an even larger number of sympathizers especially among artists and intellectuals 11 The party rapidly built up its strength and in 1949 made unprecedented gains by winning 10 percent of the vote and sending 35 representatives to the Diet Red Purge and turn to violence edit Beginning in the fall of 1949 in reaction to the JCP s electoral success and as part of the Reverse Course in Allied occupation policy amid rising Cold War tensions the Allied occupation authorities and the Japanese government carried out a sweeping Red Purge firing tens of thousands of communists and suspected communists from government posts teaching positions at schools and private corporations 13 The purge was further intensified in response to the outbreak of the Korean War 13 nbsp JCP headquarters in 1950 Against this backdrop in January 1950 the Soviet led Cominform at the behest of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin issued a blistering criticism of the JCP s peaceful line as opportunism and glorifying American imperialism It also demanded that the JCP carry out an immediate violent revolution along Maoist lines 12 This devastating Cominform Criticism led rival JCP factions to compete for the Cominform s approval and ultimately led to the militant 1951 Platform 51年綱領 which declared that it would be a serious mistake to think that Japan s liberation can be achieved through peaceful democratic means and called for an immediate violent revolution 12 The result was a campaign of violence in which JCP activists threw Molotov cocktails at police boxes and cadres were sent up into the mountains with instructions to organize ostensibly oppressed farmers into mountain guerrilla squads 12 The backlash to the JCP s new militant line was swift and severe Militants were rounded up tried and sentenced to lengthy prison terms and in the 1952 general election Japanese voters vented their ire at the JCP by stripping the party of every single one of its 35 Diet seats a blow from which it would take two decades to recover 14 Stunned the JCP gradually began to pull back from its militant line a process facilitated by the death of Stalin in 1953 15 At the 6th Party Congress in 1955 the JCP renounced the militant line completely returning to its old peaceful line of gradually pursuing socialist revolution through peaceful democratic means 15 Anpo protests edit nbsp Kenji Miyamoto held the party s leadership position from 1958 to 1982 In 1960 the JCP played a central role in organizing the massive Anpo protests against the U S Japan Security Treaty which were the largest protests in Japan s history 16 The JCP took a different line than the Japan Socialist Party Sohyo labor federation and other groups who argued that the main target of the protest movement was Japanese monopoly capitalism Instead the JCP argued that the main enemy was American imperialism and along with affiliated groups focused its protests around the U S Embassy in Tokyo 17 Accordingly JCP linked groups were the driving force behind the Hagerty Incident in which the car carrying U S President Eisenhower s press secretary James Hagerty was mobbed outside of Tokyo s Haneda Airport on 10 June 1960 provoking a major international incident and helping to precipitate the downfall of the Nobusuke Kishi cabinet 17 The Anpo protests were a turning point in the JCP s ongoing attempts to revive its political fortunes after the disastrous turn toward violent revolution in the early 1950s 12 Although the Maoists had been purged from the party following the earlier disaster the JCP was still riven by the age old rivalry between the Rōnō Ha Worker Farmer Faction and the Kōza Ha Lecture Faction which dated back to the prewar era 12 Among other disagreements the two factions disagreed over which stage of Marxist development Japan was currently in the Rōnō Ha believed that Japan had already achieved full capitalism which meant that an immediate socialist revolution was possible whereas the Kōza Ha argued that Japan s transition to capitalism was not yet complete and that therefore what was needed was a two stage revolution first a democratic revolution that would overthrow American imperialism and establish true democracy and then a socialist revolution that would establish communism 15 Although the mainstream of the JCP led by Kenji Miyamoto favored the Kōza Ha interpretation as late as the 7th Party Congress in 1958 the anti mainstream Rōnō Ha faction led by Shōjirō Kasuga still controlled around 40 percent of the delegates 12 The Anpo protests greatly strengthened the hand of the Kōza Ha faction 18 During the protest the JCP still scarred by the backlash to its violent line in the 1950s consistently advocated peaceful orderly and restrained protests 18 This stance was highly unpopular with the radical student activists of the Zengakuren student federation who broke decisively with the JCP as a result and began to build a New Left student movement 19 However the movement proved unpopular with the broader public and the JCP was able to use its image as a peaceful and positive force during the protests as a recruitment tool Membership in the party soared during the course of the protests doubling from 40 000 to 80 000 and most of the new recruits wound up supporting the Kōza Ha line 18 Over the remainder of the 1960s the Kōza Ha was able to purge many members from the Rōnō Ha faction and others dissatisfied with JCP policies quit the party of their own accord 20 Miyamoto was able to cement his control over the party and reigned as party chairman all the way until 1982 Meanwhile the party s membership continued to grow rapidly and the party began to make steady gains at the ballot box winning more and more seats in the National Diet 18 By the mid 1960s the United States Department of State estimated party membership to be approximately 120 000 0 2 of the working age population 21 and the party had acquired around 300 000 members by 1970 22 Sino Soviet split edit The party did not take sides during the Sino Soviet split of the 1960s Its politics were independent of the Soviet Union Reflecting this the party chairman Miyamoto announced the JCP s opposition to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia At the same time the party had distanced itself from Mao and Maoism which allowed it to avoid being associated with China s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution once they started coming more fully to light in the 1970s In July 1969 the JCP declared that if it ever came to power it would permit the free functioning of opposition parties in an effort to distinguish itself from the one party states in the Soviet Union and China 22 In 1976 mentions of Marxism Leninism in the party program were changed to scientific socialism 23 These efforts proved popular among Japanese voters In the 1972 general election the JCP won an astonishing 38 seats in the Diet surpassing its 1949 high of 35 and signaling the party s full recovery from the disastrous militant line of the early 1950s 24 Party membership continued to grow in the 1970s albeit at a slower rate than in the 1960s reaching approximately 500 000 members by 1980 22 1980s to 21st century edit This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information December 2021 After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the JCP released a press statement titled We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of great power chauvinism and hegemonism The party also criticized the Eastern Bloc countries which abandoned socialism describing their decisions as a reversal of history 25 Consequently the party did not suffer an internal crisis as a result of the Soviet Union s collapse in 1991 nor did it consider disbanding or changing its name However owing to a significant loss in electoral support the party revised its policies in the 1990s and became a more traditional democratic socialist party 26 Lam Peng Er argued in the Pacific Affairs in 1996 that the JCP s viability is crucial to the health of Japanese democracy because i t is the only established party in parliament that has not been coopted by the conservative parties It performs the watchdog role against the ruling parties without fear or favor More importantly the JCP often offers the only opposition candidate in prefectural governorship city mayoral and other local elections Despite the ostensible differences between the non Communist parties at the national level they often support a joint candidate for governor or mayor so that all parties are assured of being part of the ruling coalition If the JCP did not offer a candidate there would be a walkover and Japanese voters would be offered a fait accompli without an electoral avenue of protest Promoting women candidates in elections to win women s votes is another characteristic of the party More women are elected under the Communist label than other political parties in Japan 27 In 2008 foreign media recorded an increase in support for the party due to the effect of the global financial crisis on Japanese workers 28 29 However the party failed to increase its number of seats in the 2009 general election Subsequently the projected decline of the party was halted with the JCP becoming the third largest party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly 30 31 and making gains in the House of Councillors going from six to 11 seats The party surged in the 2014 elections receiving 7 040 130 votes 13 3 in the constituency section and 6 062 962 11 37 in the party lists During the nomination period of the July 2016 House of Councillors election the party signed an agreement with the Democratic Social Democratic and People s Life parties to field a jointly endorsed candidate in each of the 32 districts in which only one seat was contested uniting in an attempt to take control of the House from the LDP Komeito coalition 32 JCP leaders expressed willingness to enter into a coalition with the Democratic Party a notion which was rejected by then Democratic Party President Katsuya Okada as being impossible in the near future due to what he viewed as some of the extreme leftist policies promoted by the JCP 33 The party had three Councillors up for re election and fielded a total of 56 candidates in the election down from 63 candidates in the 2013 election but still the second highest number after the LDP 34 However only 14 of those candidates contested single and multi member districts while 42 contested the 48 seat national proportional representation block 34 Councillor Tomoko Tamura was appointed as the party s first chairwoman on 18 January 2024 replacing Kazuo Shii who had occupied the role for over 23 years 35 36 Ideology and policies editThe JCP is one of the largest non governing communist parties in the world 37 it is however politically moderate and advocates a peaceful transition to communism 38 Marxism Leninism which former party chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa had worked for years to make acceptable to the electorate was abandoned in favor of scientific socialism in 1976 39 40 According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica the JCP become a more traditional democratic socialist party after modifying its policies in the 1990s 26 This analysis is supported by the Japanese political scientist Kōji Nakakita who is often cited as a specialist on the JCP 41 However unlike the Italian Communist Party which became a social democratic party the JCP maintains a Marxist ideology 42 The party sits on the left 43 to far left 48 of the left right political spectrum Economic policy edit The JCP strives to change the nation s economic policy of what it views as serving the interests of large corporations and banks to one of defending the interests of the people It advocates establishing democratic rules that will check the activities of large corporations and protect the lives and basic rights of the people Regarding the international economy the JCP has advocated establishing a new international democratic economic order on the basis of respect for each country s economic sovereignty The party strongly opposed Japan s consideration of the failed Trans Pacific Partnership The JCP views the United States transnational corporations and international financial capital as the main pushers of globalization which it asserts is negatively affecting the global economy by further widening the North South economic divide and creating irrevocable environmental problems The JCP advocates the democratic regulation of activities by transnational corporations and international financial capital on an international scale In September 2015 after the passage of the 2015 Japanese military legislation the JCP called for cooperation from other opposition parties to form an interim government to abolish the bills It was the first time the party had called for such cooperation with other parties 49 50 51 52 Social policy edit The JCP is generally regarded as the most progressive party in Japanese politics 53 The JCP has traditionally been opposed to the existence of the Imperial House since its inception However the party changed its stance in 2004 by acknowledging the Emperor as Japan s head of state 25 The JCP has stated that it supports the establishment of a democratic republic but also that the monarchy s continuation or discontinuation should be decided by the will of the majority of the people in future when the time is ripe to do so 54 In 2000 the party opposed legislation which reintroduced two symbolic practices to secondary school graduation ceremonies in Japan namely the raising of the national flag and the singing of the national anthem both of which the party views as relics of Japan s militarist past 55 LGBT rights and feminism edit The JCP has been one of the political parties to vocally back LGBTQ rights in the country Communist lawmakers have been working to win passage of marriage equality and anti discrimination laws in parliament 56 The JCP jointly supports the passing of an LGBT equality law with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan CDP the Social Democratic Party SDP and Reiwa Shinsengumi 57 The JCP has maintained a friendly relationship with the Japanese feminist camp since its inception and is still the most active in women s rights issues among Japan s major political parties The JCP was the first party to call for universal suffrage for women 58 59 60 The party supports eliminating the wage gap between men and women 61 and has called for the participation of more women in Japanese politics and political life 62 Foreign policy edit One of the JCP s main objectives is terminating the Japan United States military alliance and the dismantling of all American military bases in Japan 62 It wants to make Japan a non aligned and neutral country in accordance with its principles of self determination and national sovereignty There are about 130 American military bases and related facilities in Japan with Okinawa Prefecture alone hosting more than half of United States Forces Japan personnel The JCP adheres to the idea that Japan as an Asian country must not allow its relationship with the United States and the G8 to define its foreign relations and should put its East Asian neighbors at the center of its diplomatic efforts It supports establishing an independent foreign policy in the interests of the Japanese people and rejects uncritically following any foreign power The JCP advocates that Japan issue further apologies for its actions during World War II and has condemned prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine 63 In the 1930s while the JCP was still illegal it was the only political party to vocally oppose Japan s war with China 64 The JCP supports Japanese territorial claims over the Kuril and Senkaku Islands and Liancourt Rocks 65 66 Furthermore the JCP has condemned North Korea s nuclear weapons testing calling for effective sanctions but opposing the prospect of a military response 67 In 2020 the JCP revised its platform for the first time since 2004 The new platform criticized the Chinese Communist Party denouncing China s great power chauvinism and hegemonism as an adverse current to world peace and progress The JCP also removed a line from its platform which described China as a country that is beginning a new quest for socialism JCP members have stated that this was due to human rights conditions in China The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China denounced the accusations of the JCP as groundless and biased 68 69 The JCP s leading politicians are known to be the most active opponents of anti Korean racism and xenophobia in Japan Contemporary JCP politicians criticize mainstream Japanese politicians for instigating contempt towards Korea and oppose historical revisionism in regard to Korean history and Japanese war crimes The JCP was one of the few Japanese parties which supported the Korean independence movement In the latter half of the 1940s a training school for Korean revolutionaries was operated jointly by the JCP and several Korean organizations including the Communist Party of Korea 70 In South Korea the JCP is known as the only pro South Korea political party in Japan 71 72 73 74 Although it is illegal to form a communist party in South Korea Mindan maintains friendly relations with the JCP 75 In 2003 due to the consideration of the then liberal South Korean president Roh Moo hyun formal exchanges between the JCP and the South Korean government began 76 Pacifism edit The JCP has traditionally championed pacifism 77 With regards to the Japan Self Defence Forces Japan s armed forces the JCP s current policy is that it is not principally opposed to its existence in 2000 the party stated that it would agree to its use should Japan ever be attacked but that it will seek to abolish it in the long term international situation permitting 78 The JCP opposes the possession of nuclear weapons by any country military blocs and attempts to revise Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which says that never again will Japan be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government Regarding the resolution of disputes it argues that priority must be given to peaceful means through negotiations not to military solutions The JCP says that Japan must adhere to the United Nations Charter 78 Organization editThe party officially upholds democratic centralism The party constitutions states decisions shall be based on democratic discussion and finally decided by majority vote and that there shall be no factions or splinter groups Along with Komeito the JCP is unique amongst major Japanese political parties for the continuity of its leaders with Shii having served as JCP chairman since 2000 37 Central organization edit nbsp JCP Central Committee Building October 2012 According to the party constitution the highest body of the JCP is the Party Congress organized by the Central Committee every 2 3 years though it may be postponed in special circumstances 79 Between the congresses the highest body is the Central Committee elected by the Party Congress The Central Committee meets two times every year and can also hold a plenum at the request of one third of its membership 79 The Central Committee is made out of regular and alternate members the latter can precipitate in Central Committee meetings but cannot vote The Central Committee also elects the executive committee of the Central Committee and its chairpersons and vice chairpersons the head of the Secretariat The current chairman of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the JCP is Tomoko Tamura The Central Committee also appoints the Disciplinary Commission and the Audit Commission and may elect a Central Committee chairperson the current Central Committee chair is Kazuo Shii 79 The executive committee manages party affairs between Central Committee meetings It appoints the members of the Secretariat which manages the day to day affairs of the party center and the Central Organ Paper Editors Commission It also elects the Standing Committee of the executive committee 79 Press edit Shimbun Akahata Japanese Red Flag Newspaper is the daily organ of the JCP in the form of a national newspaper Musansha Shinbun Japanese Proletarian News was another publication of the party which was circulated between 1925 and 1929 80 Several other newspapers preceded and merged into Red Flag including Daini Musansha Shinbun Japanese The Second Proletarian News which was merged into Red Flag in 1932 81 Daini Musansha Shinbun was itself the immediate successor to the original The Proletarian News which was banned by the government in September 1929 81 Daini Musansha Shinbun began publication immediately after the ban 81 In the past the party published numerous other newspapers as well including another national paper called Nihon Seiji Shinbun Japanese Japan Political News and a theoretical journal called Zenshin Japanese Forward 82 The party also published several regional newspapers such as Class War in and around Kyoto Osaka and Kobe Shinetsu Red Flag in Nagano and Hokkaido News in Hokkaido 83 They also published numerous the exact number is unknown factory newspapers 84 Some regional newspapers such as Shin Kanagawa Japanese New Kanagawa in Kanagawa are still published 85 Affiliated organizations edit The youth wing of JCP is the Democratic Youth League of Japan In the 1920s and 1930s the organization published several newspapers of its own including Renin Seinen English Lenin Youth and Proletarian Youth 81 The party also has affiliate medical and consumer co ops 86 The Japanese Consumers Co Operative Union JCCU the umbrella body of the co operative movement in Japan has a sizable number of communists in its ranks although the exact numbers are difficult to verify 86 Another example of the JCP s prevalence in the co operative movement is the Co op Kanagawa in the Kanagawa Prefecture which has 800 000 members and has historical ties to the JCP 86 It still advertises and occasionally is published in JCP newspapers such as Red Flag and New Kanagawa 86 The prevalence of house unions in Japan as opposed to enterprise unions has prompted much of the exceptional development of other organizations by the JCP as well as causing the JCP to seek other external organizational support including from kōenkai 86 nbsp Official logo of the Japanese Communist Party and the highlighted acronym JCP The Choir of JCP fans JCPファン雑唱団 JCP fan zassyōdan is a musical group which supports the JCP Its repertory and artistic activity are strongly linked to The Singing Voice of Japan 日本のうたごえ Nihon no utagoe うたごえ運動 Utagoe undō a musical movement of Japanese working class that dates back to 1948 when the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan 日本青年共産同盟中央合唱団 Nihon seinen kyōsan dōmei Chuō gassyōdan was established The group was founded in Kyoto in 2011 and is directed by Tadao Yamamoto a composer accordionist choir director and ordinary member of the National Council of The Singing Voice of Japan In various cultural events organized by the party the Choir of JCP fans appears as an element among the joined choirs of the volunteer singers of The Singing Voice of Japan As of 2016 the choir is the only organization of Japanese musicians specializing in political support and in the cultural activity of the party Notable concerts and performances by the choir include 11 February 2011 Kyoto Kaikan Hall Concert sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the Japanese Communist Party JCP 87 1 August 2013 Nishijin Bunka Center Kyoto Cultural Live Revolutionary Pub in collaboration with Tokiko Nishiyama 西山登紀子 former JCP member of the House of Councilors 88 23 September 2014 Takaragaike Park Kyoto Festival Kyoto ed 2014 organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP 89 1 February 2015 Kyoiku Bunka Center Kyoto Festival sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP 90 29 April 2016 Takaragaike Park Kyoto Festival Kyoto ed 2016 organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP performance with Seifuku Kōjō Iinkai 制服向上委員会 and Akira Koike 小池晃 JCP member of the House of Councilors and Secretary General of the party 91 92 Membership editDuring the 1980s party membership began to decline falling to 500 000 by 1990 37 and 370 000 by 1997 22 Following its advancement in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election the party enjoyed an increase in membership growth with over 1 000 people joining in each of the final three months of 2013 Approximately 20 of new members during this period were aged 20 to 40 showing a higher ratio of young people joining the party than in the past The JCP had approximately 320 000 members in January 2014 93 More recently however membership numbers have declined with membership at around 300 000 in 2017 and 270 000 in 2020 94 Notable members edit nbsp Takiji Kobayashi prominent author of proletarian literature Main article List of members of the Japanese Communist Party Pre war 1922 1941 edit Kanson Arahata Sen Katayama Hajime Kawakami Fukumoto Kazuo Takiji Kobayashi Toshihiko Sakai Hitoshi Yamakawa Wartime 1941 1945 edit Kim Chon hae Sanzō Nosaka Yoshio Shiga Kyuichi Tokuda Post war 1945 present edit Kiyoteru Hanada Kenji Miyamoto Hiromu Murakami Tetsuzo Fuwa Kazuo Shii Hisashi Inoue Takeshi KimuraLeaders editChairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee edit No Photo Name Birth death Constituency title Term of office Prime Minister term Took office Left office General Affairs Chief Secretary 1922 1923 1 nbsp Arahata Katsuzō 1887 1981 None 5 July 1922 1923 Katō To 1922 1923 Yamamoto 1923 1924 2 nbsp Sakai Toshihiko 1871 1933 None 1923 1923 Party outlawed by the Government General Secretary 1945 1970 1 nbsp Kyuichi Tokuda 1894 1953 Rep forTokyo 2nd 1946 Tokyo 3rd 1947 1950 3 December 1945 14 October 1953 Shidehara 1945 1946 Yoshida 1946 1947 Katayama 1947 1948 Ashida 1948 Yoshida 1948 1954 2 nbsp Sanzō Nosaka 1892 1993 Cou forTokyo at large 1956 1977 14 October 1953 1 August 1958 Hatoyama I 1954 1956 Ishibashi 1956 1957 Kishi 1957 1960 3 nbsp Kenji Miyamoto 1908 2007 None 1 August 1958 7 July 1970 Ikeda 1960 1964 Satō 1964 1972 Chairperson 1970 present 1 nbsp Kenji Miyamoto 1908 2007 Cou forNational PR 1977 1989 7 July 1970 31 July 1982 Satō 1964 1972 Tanaka K 1972 1974 Miki 1974 1976 Fukuda T 1976 1978 Ōhira 1978 1980 Ito 1980 Acting Suzuki Z 1980 1982 2 nbsp Tetsuzo Fuwa born 1930 Rep forTokyo 6th 31 July 1982 29 November 1987 Nakasone 1982 1987 Takeshita 1987 1989 3 nbsp Hiromu Murakami 1921 2007 Rep forOsaka 3rd 29 November 1987 29 May 1989 4 2 nbsp Tetsuzo Fuwa born 1930 Rep forTokyo 6th 1969 1996 Tokyo PR block 1996 2003 29 May 1989 24 November 2000 Uno 1989 Kaifu 1989 1991 Miyazawa 1991 1993 Hosokawa 1993 1994 Hata 1994 Murayama 1994 1996 Hashimoto 1996 1998 Obuchi 1998 2000 Mori 2000 2001 5 nbsp Kazuo Shii born 1954 Rep forSouthern KantoPR block 24 November 2000 18 January 2024 Koizumi 2001 2006 Abe S 2006 2007 Fukuda Y 2007 2008 Asō 2008 2009 Hatoyama Y 2009 2010 Kan 2010 2011 Noda 2011 2012 Abe S 2012 2020 Suga 2020 2021 Kishida 2021 present 6 nbsp Tomoko Tamura born 1965 Cou forNational PR 18 January 2024 Incumbent Chairman of the Central Committee edit No Photo Name Birth death Term of office Took office Left office 1 nbsp Sanzō Nosaka 1892 1993 1 August 1958 31 July 1987 2 nbsp Kenji Miyamoto 1908 2007 31 July 1982 26 September 1997 3 nbsp Tetsuzo Fuwa born 1930 24 November 2000 14 January 2006 4 nbsp Kazuo Shii born 1954 18 January 2024 Incumbent Head of the Secretariat edit No Photo Name Birth death Term of office Took office Left office 1 nbsp Tetsuzo Fuwa born 1930 7 July 1970 31 July 1982 2 Mitsuhiro Kaneko 1924 2016 31 July 1982 13 July 1990 3 nbsp Kazuo Shii born 1954 13 July 1990 24 November 2000 4 nbsp Tadayoshi Ichida born 1942 24 November 2000 18 January 2014 5 Yoshiki Yamashita born 1960 18 January 2014 11 April 2016 6 nbsp Akira Koike born 1960 11 April 2016 IncumbentElectoral performance editHouse of Representatives edit Prior to 1996 the entire House of Representatives was elected by majoritarian semi proportional voting systems with votes cast for individuals 1946 limited voting in multi member districts 1947 to 1993 SNTV in multi member districts Since 1996 the House of Representatives is elected in a parallel election system essentially two separate elections only in the lower house complicated by the fact that a candidate may stand in both segments and the sekihairitsu system which ties proportional list ranking to FPTP results only the majority of members the House of Representatives 295 initially 300 seats are elected in a majoritarian system with voting for candidates first past the post in single member districts while the remaining 180 initially 200 seats are elected by a proportional representation system votes are cast for party lists in regional multi member districts called blocks in the House of Representatives The votes and vote percentages in the table below are the JCP candidates vote totals for the whole election from before 1993 and just the votes for the party in the election to the 180 proportional seats after 1996 The JCP polled 11 3 percent of the vote in 2000 8 2 percent in 2003 7 3 percent in 2005 7 0 percent in 2009 and 6 2 percent in 2012 These results seemed to indicate a trend of declining support but the party won 21 seats in 2014 up from eight in the previous general election as the JCP received 7 040 130 votes 13 3 percent in the constituency section and 6 062 962 11 37 percent in the party lists This continued a new wave of support that was also evident in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election in which the party doubled its representation Fighting on a platform directly opposed to neoliberalism the Trans Pacific Partnership attempts to rewrite the constitution United States Forces Japan and nuclear power the JCP tapped into a minority current that seeks an alternative to Japan s rightward direction 95 Following the 2016 Japanese House of Councillors election the party held 13 seats in the House of Councillors 96 After the 2017 Japanese general election the party held 12 seats in the House of Representatives and since the 2021 Japanese general election it holds 10 seats House of Representatives Election year No of votes Total seats Status 1946 2 135 757 3 8 6 464 Opposition 1947 1 002 883 3 7 4 466 nbsp 2 Opposition 1949 2 984 780 9 8 35 466 nbsp 31 Opposition 1952 896 765 2 5 0 466 nbsp 35 Extra parliamentary a 1953 655 990 1 9 1 466 nbsp 1 Opposition 1955 733 121 2 0 2 467 nbsp 1 Opposition 1958 1 012 035 2 5 1 467 nbsp 1 Opposition 1960 1 156 723 2 9 3 467 nbsp 2 Opposition 1963 1 646 477 4 0 5 467 nbsp 2 Opposition 1967 2 190 564 4 8 5 486 nbsp 0 Opposition 1969 3 199 032 6 8 14 486 nbsp 9 Opposition 1972 5 496 827 10 5 38 491 nbsp 24 Opposition 1976 5 878 192 10 4 17 511 nbsp 21 Opposition 1979 5 625 527 10 4 39 511 nbsp 22 Opposition 1980 5 803 613 9 8 29 511 nbsp 10 Opposition 1983 5 302 485 9 3 26 511 nbsp 3 Opposition 1986 5 313 246 8 8 26 512 nbsp 0 Opposition 1990 5 226 987 8 0 16 512 nbsp 10 Opposition 1993 4 834 587 7 7 15 511 nbsp 1 Opposition 1996 7 268 743 13 1 26 500 nbsp 11 Opposition 2000 6 719 016 11 2 20 480 nbsp 6 Opposition 2003 4 586 172 7 8 9 480 nbsp 11 Opposition 2005 4 919 187 7 3 9 480 nbsp 0 Opposition 2009 4 943 886 7 0 9 480 nbsp 0 Opposition 2012 3 689 159 6 2 8 480 nbsp 1 Opposition 2014 6 062 962 11 4 21 475 nbsp 13 Opposition 2017 4 404 081 7 9 12 465 nbsp 9 Opposition 2021 4 166 076 7 2 10 465 nbsp 2 Opposition House of Councillors edit Elections to the House of Councillors are staggered Every three years half of the House is up for election to six year terms In addition a parallel election system is used the majority of members of the House of Councillors currently 146 of 242 or 73 in one regular election to one half of the House are elected in 45 formerly 46 47 prefectural districts votes are cast for individual candidates by SNTV but with both multi and single member districts used and in the latter SNTV becomes identical to FPTP winner takes all The remaining currently 96 members 48 per regular election are elected in one nationwide district Until 1980 votes there were cast for individuals too by SNTV Since 1983 votes are cast for party lists and the seats are allocated proportionally d Hondt in the nationwide district Unlike in general elections to the lower house a candidate may not be nominated in both segments of one regular election to the upper house The seats totals show below are the JCP s overall post election seat totals not just their seats elected in that particular year The votes shown are the votes in the election for the 48 formerly 50 seats in the nationwide SNTV PR segment Election year National district votes Total Status No of votes Seats 1947 610 948 2 9 4 250 Opposition 1950 1 333 872 4 8 4 260 nbsp 0 Opposition 1953 293 877 1 1 2 260 nbsp 2 Opposition 1956 599 254 2 1 2 254 nbsp 0 Opposition 1959 551 916 1 9 3 254 nbsp 1 Opposition 1962 1 123 947 3 1 4 254 nbsp 1 Opposition 1965 1 652 364 4 4 6 254 nbsp 2 Opposition 1968 2 146 879 5 0 7 251 nbsp 1 Opposition 1971 3 219 307 8 1 10 251 nbsp 3 Opposition 1974 4 931 650 9 4 19 260 nbsp 9 Opposition 1977 4 260 050 8 4 16 252 nbsp 3 Opposition 1980 4 072 019 7 3 12 252 nbsp 4 Opposition 1983 4 163 877 8 9 14 252 nbsp 2 Opposition 1986 5 430 838 9 5 16 252 nbsp 2 Opposition 1989 3 954 408 7 0 14 252 nbsp 2 Opposition 1992 3 532 956 7 9 11 252 nbsp 3 Opposition 1995 3 873 955 9 5 14 252 nbsp 3 Opposition 1998 8 195 078 14 6 23 252 nbsp 9 Opposition 2001 4 329 210 7 9 20 247 nbsp 3 Opposition 2004 4 363 107 7 8 9 242 nbsp 11 Opposition 2007 4 407 937 7 5 7 242 nbsp 2 Opposition 2010 3 563 556 6 1 6 242 nbsp 1 Opposition 2013 5 154 055 9 7 11 242 nbsp 5 Opposition 2016 6 016 245 10 7 14 242 nbsp 3 Opposition 2019 4 483 411 8 95 13 245 nbsp 1 Opposition 2022 3 618 343 6 82 11 248 nbsp 2 OppositionCurrent Diet members editHouse of Representatives edit Seiken Akamine Okinawa 1st Akira Kasai Tokyo PR Keiji Kokuta Kinki PR contested Kyoto 1st Takeshi Miyamoto Kinki PR Tōru Miyamoto Tokyo PR contested Tokyo 20th Nobuko Motomura Tōkai PR Kazuo Shii Minami Kantō PR Tetsuya Shiokawa Kita Kantō PR Chizuko Takahashi Tōhoku PR Takaaki Tamura Kyushu PR contested Fukuoka 10th House of Councillors edit This section needs to be updated Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information July 2022 Up for re election in 2019 Satoshi Inoue National PR Tomoko Kami National PR Yoshiko Kira Tokyo at large Akira Koike National PR Akiko Kurabayashi Kyoto at large Sōhei Nihi National PR Kōtarō Tatsumi Osaka at large Yoshiki Yamashita National PR Up for re election in 2022 Mikishi Daimon National PR Tadayoshi Ichida National PR Tomo Iwabuchi National PR Ryōsuke Takeda National PR Tomoko Tamura National PR Taku Yamazoe Tokyo at large See also edit nbsp Japan portal nbsp Communism portal Appeal to the People Democracy in Marxism Political dissidence in the Empire of Japan List of foreign delegations at the 21st Japanese Communist Party Congress List of foreign delegations at the 22nd Japanese Communist Party Congress Relations between Japanese revolutionaries the Comintern and the Soviet Union Socialist thought in Imperial Japan ZengakurenNotes edit The JCP retained members in the House of Councillors References editCitations edit JCP elects new leadership 12 April 2016 The Japanese Communist Party 5th Central Committee Plenum on 11 April relieved Yamashita Yoshiki House of Councilors member of his duty as secretariat head for health reasons and elected Koike Akira House of Councilors member and currently JCP vice chair to the position Retrieved 7 June 2016 a b Uno 1991 p 1030 a b Japanese Communist Party bloomberg com Bloomberg L P Retrieved 25 January 2022 Japanese Communist Party JCP operates as a left wing political party in Japan The Company conducts membership organization established to promote the interests of a national State or local political party or candidate 日本に定着するか 政党のカラー Will the colors of political parties settle in Japan in Japanese Nikkei Inc 21 October 2017 Retrieved 29 May 2020 Crooke Matthew 2018 Betraying Revolution The Foundations of the Japanese Communist Party master s thesis University of San Francisco p 9 Retrieved 25 August 2019 Walker David Gray Daniel 13 August 2009 The A to Z of Marxism Scarecrow Press pp 162 164 ISBN 978 0 8108 7018 5 a b The Japanese Communist Party Has Been a Vital Presence in Japan s Politics jacobin com a b c Kapur 2018b p 307 Johnson Chalmers A 1990 An Instance of Treason Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring Stanford University Press p 2 ISBN 978 0 8047 1766 3 How a Young Communist Won and Lost Power in Postwar Japan jacobin com a b Kapur 2018a p 12 a b c d e f g Kapur 2018a p 128 a b Kapur 2018a pp 9 10 Kapur 2018a pp 129 133 a b c Kapur 2018a p 129 Kapur 2018a pp 1 19 a b Kapur 2018a p 27 a b c d Kapur 2018a p 130 Kapur 2018a pp 146 151 Kapur 2018a pp 131 132 Benjamin Roger W Kautsky John H March 1968 Communism and Economic Development American Political Science Review American Political Science Association 62 1 110 123 JSTOR 1953329 At p 122 a b c d Berton 2000 Abe Hitoshi Shindō Muneyuki Kawato Sadafumi 2018 Pekkanen Robert J ed Critical Readings on the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan Vol 1 Brill p 106 ISBN 978 90 04 38052 3 Retrieved 26 December 2022 In 1976 even the term proletarian authority was expunged from the party program and Marxism Leninism was changed to scientific socialism Kapur 2018a p 133 a b The Daily Yomiuri JCP struggling to become relevant July 16 2012 Retrieved on 12 July 2012 a b c Japanese Communist Party political party Japan Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Retrieved 11 October 2019 Er Lam Peng The Japanese Communist Party Organization and Resilience in the Midst of Adversity in Pacific Affairs Vol 69 No 3 Autumn 1996 pp 362 363 Japan s young turn to Communist Party as they decide capitalism has let them down Daily Telegraph 18 October 2008 Communism on rise in recession hit Japan BBC News 4 May 2009 JCP book to be published for the first time in South Korea jcp or jp Retrieved 27 March 2018 Dvorak Phred 21 July 2013 Japan Communists Celebrate a Little Victory The Wall Street Journal Retrieved 27 March 2018 Opposition parties activists ink policy pact for Upper House election Japan Times 7 June 2016 Retrieved 23 June 2016 Osaki Tomohiro 21 June 2016 Abe to take responsibility if ruling bloc fails to win 61 seats in Upper House election Japan Times Retrieved 23 June 2016 a b 第3極衰退で候補者減 タレント候補10人に Fewer candidates with the demise of the third pole 10 celebrity candidates Yomiuri Shimbun in Japanese 23 June 2016 Retrieved 23 June 2016 Miki Rieko 19 January 2024 Japanese Communist Party seeks reboot with 1st female leader Nikkei Asia Retrieved 20 January 2024 Johnston Eric 18 January 2024 Japanese Communist Party picks first ever female leader The Japan Times a b c Fujita Yuki 30 January 2023 Japan Communist Party in turmoil as calls emerge for new leadership Nikkei Asian Review Retrieved 12 March 2023 Hoover William D 2018 Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan Rowman amp Littlefield p 170 ISBN 978 1 5381 1156 7 Retrieved 26 May 2023 The JCP a moderate communist party today is not against religion and does not strive to eliminate the emperor Stressing a peaceful transition to communism the JCP has adopted an independent and nationalist potision Samuels Richard J 2019 Machiavelli s Children Leaders and Their Legacies in Italy and Japan Cornell University Press p 311 ISBN 978 1 5017 2029 1 Retrieved 26 May 2023 Miyamoto s successor Fuwa Tetsuzo was one of that group He long been engaged in an effort to make Marxism Leninism palatable to the electorate But throughout while emphasizing the JCP s independence he insisted that the JCP was the correct inheritor of scientific socialism Abe Hitoshi Shindō Muneyuki Kawato Sadafumi 2018 Pekkanen Robert J ed Critical Readings on the Liberal Democratic Party in Japan Vol 1 Brill p 106 ISBN 978 90 04 38052 3 Retrieved 26 May 2023 In 1976 even the term proletarian authority was expunged from the party program and Marxism Leninism was changed to scientific socialism Tanida Kuniichi 26 September 2022 The Japanese Communist Party A Century of Moving with the Times nippon com Retrieved 22 June 2023 Peng Er Lam 2005 Green Politics in Japan Routledge p 57 ISBN 978 1134637669 Retrieved 26 May 2023 3 26 Robert J Pekkanen Steven R Reed Ethan Scheiner Daniel M Smith eds 2018 Japan Decides 2017 The Japanese General Election Springer p 93 ISBN 978 3319764757 Ronald J Hrebenar ed 2019 Japan s New Party System Routledge ISBN 978 0429721083 This trend erodes the traditional support of the progressive parties especially those as with the JCP perceived to be on the extreme Left Jou Willy Endo Masahisa eds 2016 Generational Gap in Japanese Politics A Longitudinal Study of Political Attitudes and Behaviour Palgrave Macmillan p 16 ISBN 978 1137503428 Election campaign the Japanese way The Straits Times 13 June 2017 Retrieved 16 October 2017 Both the LDP and Kibo no To are in favour of constitutional revision unlike the new left leaning Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and the far left Japanese Communist Party 44 45 46 47 Shii Kazuo We Call For Establishing a National Coalition Government to Repeal the War Security Legislation September 19 2015 Retrieved 29 September 2015 JCP proposes establishing a national coalition gov t to repeal war legislation September 20 2015 Japan Press Weekly Retrieved 29 September 2015 JCP seeks cooperation from opposition parties on new security laws September 21 2015 Japan Times Retrieved 29 September 2015 Two opposition parties to mull coalition talks with JCP September 28 2015 Japan Times Retrieved 29 September 2015 The JCP is on an independent path different from other communist parties and has traditionally been regarded as a socially progressive party in the context of Japanese politics Ronald J Hrebenar ed 2019 Japan s New Party System Routledge ISBN 978 0429721083 This trend erodes the traditional support of the progressive parties especially those as with the JCP perceived to be on the extreme Left Willy Jou Masahisa Endo ed 2016 Generational Gap in Japanese Politics A Longitudinal Study of Political Attitudes and Behaviour Springer p 29 ISBN 978 1137503428 Conventional wisdom still dominant in media and academic circles holds that the Liberal Democratic Party LDP and the Japanese Communist Party JCP occupy the conservative and progressive ends of the ideological spectrum Takemasa Ando ed 2013 Japan s New Left Movements Legacies for Civil Society Routledge p 33 ISBN 978 1135087388 Progressive parties Progressive parties the Japan Socialist Party JSP and the Japan Communist Party JCP also played a key role in the large scale mobilisation Shii answers reporters questions on JCP decision to attend opening ceremony of the Diet JapanPress wky japan press co jp Retrieved 27 March 2018 日の丸 君が代 子どもへの強制やめよう in Japanese Japanese Communist Party 6 March 2000 Retrieved 11 December 2022 Atkins C J 6 February 2024 Japanese Communists first woman leader Tomoko Tamura comes out punching for peace People s World FOCUS Japan election pledges on LGBT rights boost legislation hopes Kyodo News 28 October 2021 Retrieved 25 January 2022 The main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and three others the Japanese Communist Party the Social Democratic Party and Reiwa Shinsengumi agreed on a common policy of enacting an LGBT equality law Ian Neary ed 2009 The Buraku Issue and Modern Japan The Career of Matsumoto Jiichiro Routledge Melissa Haussman Birgit Sauer ed 2007 Gendering the State in the Age of Globalization Women s Movements and State Feminism in Postindustrial Democracies Rowman amp Littlefield p 196 Movement The repression in the 1920s of all leftist organizations including the Japanese Communist Party which had been formed in 1922 led to their women militants being hounded and also to the suppression of feminist activities Voters elect 41 women to the Tokyo assembly the most ever The Asahi Shimbun 6 July 2021 Retrieved 26 January 2022 Of all the parties the Japanese Communist Party saw the highest number of its female candidates elected to the assembly at 14 Voters sent 19 of the party s candidates to the assembly in total Japan election latest Tokyo stocks jump as LDP win eases uncertainty Nikkei Asia 1 November 2021 Retrieved 25 January 2021 The JCP also put gender at the center of its platform vowing to eliminate wage gaps between men and women a b Durand Damien Le Japon est il l avenir du communisme JCP Chair Shii comments on Abe s shrine visit Japanese Communist Party 26 December 2013 Retrieved 2 April 2014 日本共産党の八十年 1922 2002 in Japanese 日本共産党中央委員会出版局 2003 ISBN 978 4 530 04393 5 尖閣 竹島 千島 領土問題 特集 Japanese Communist Party Retrieved 11 December 2022 領土問題 尖閣諸島 竹島 日本共産党はこう考えます in Japanese Japanese Communist Party 11 September 2012 Retrieved 11 December 2022 Shii comments on DPRK nuclear test Japanese Communist Party 16 February 2013 2 April 2014 Japanese Communist Party slams China in first platform change since 2004 The Japan Times Online 18 January 2020 ISSN 0447 5763 Retrieved 19 February 2020 China s Communist Party a threat to peace says Japanese counterpart South China Morning Post 20 January 2020 Retrieved 19 February 2020 Langer Paul Swearingen Rodger 1950 The Japanese Communist Party the Soviet Union and Korea Pacific Affairs 23 4 352 doi 10 2307 2752742 ISSN 0030 851X JSTOR 2752742 일본 내 친한파 온건파 목소리 커져 이제 대화 분위기 형성 Seoul Shinmun 13 October 2019 Retrieved 19 March 2023 시이 가즈오 일본공산당 위원장 역사수정주의 최우선한 아베 정권 위안부 강제징용 문제 내팽개쳐 Kyunghyang Shinmun 26 November 2018 Retrieved 19 March 2023 아베 국내 돌파구 못 찾아 해외에 적 만들어 일본 참의원 발언 눈길 Hankook Ilbo 5 August 2019 Retrieved 19 March 2023 일본 국가주의와 싸우는 사람들 시사IN 26 November 2018 Retrieved 19 March 2023 재일민단 신년회 참석한 일본공산당 서기국장 연합뉴스 13 January 2016 Retrieved 19 March 2023 日本共産党の委員長 訪韓に意欲的 KBS World JAPANESE 12 June 2003 Retrieved 21 March 2023 Japan s persistent pacifism in English East Asia Forum 24 October 2013 Retrieved 4 January 2014 a b 日本共産党綱領 Japanese Communist Party Platform in Japanese Japanese Communist Party Central Committee Retrieved 29 August 2022 a b c d Constitution of the Japanese Communist Party Japanese Communist Party Retrieved 19 September 2022 Musansha shinbun Stanford University Libraries Retrieved 14 April 2022 a b c d Beckmann amp Okubo 1969 p 188 Beckmann amp Okubo 1969 p 250 Beckmann amp Okubo 1969 pp 138 139 Beckmann amp Okubo 1969 p 152 Lam Peng Er 1999 Green Politics in Japan p63 a b c d e Lam Peng Er 1999 Green Politics in Japan pp62 64 いっぱい花咲かそうコンサート2011 日本共産党京都府委員会 First performance of the Choir of JCP fans in a concert Kyoto Kaikan Hall sponsored by the committee of Kyoto of the JCP Japanese Communist Party 文化ライブで勝利に貢献 共産 文化後援会が革命酒場 京都民報 in Japanese 5 August 2013 2014 京都まつり 文化の森 ステージ にぎわいの広場 日本共産党京都府委員会 in Japanese Kyoto Committee of the JCP 9 September 2014 いっぱい花咲かそうフェスタ2015 同上 in Japanese Kyoto Committee of the JCP 29 January 2015 2016 京都まつり 宝が池公園 制服向上委員会 小池晃 参議院議員 日本共産党書記局長 共演 2016京都まつり 同上 in Japanese Kyoto Committee of the JCP 2 April 2016 制服向上委員会公式ブログ 2016 04 23 イベント告知 in Japanese Seifuku Kojo Iinkai SKI 23 April 2016 Archived from the original on 20 June 2016 Retrieved 22 June 2016 Japanese Communist Party seeing sharp increase in new young members in English Mainichi Shimbun 7 January 2014 Archived from the original on 10 January 2014 Retrieved 9 January 2014 A Profile of the Japanese Communist Party 2020 Japanese Communist Party Retrieved 29 January 2021 Katz Phil Kinder Scout Trespass commemoration sponsored fundraiser www communist party org uk Archived from the original on 30 October 2017 Retrieved 27 March 2018 Upper House Election 2016 The Japan News 11 July 2016 Retrieved 11 July 2016 Sources edit Books edit Beckmann George M Okubo Genji 1969 The Japanese Communist Party 1922 1945 Stanford CA Stanford University Press ISBN 978 0804706742 Kapur Nick 2018a Japan at the Crossroads Conflict and Compromise after Anpo Cambridge MA Harvard University Press ISBN 978 0674984424 Uno Shun ichi in Japanese 1991 Nihon zenshi Japan chronik in Japanese Tokyo Kodansha Ltd ISBN 4 06 203994 X Journal articles edit Berton Peter May 2000 The Japanese Communist Party and Its Transformations Japan Policy Research Institute JPRI Working Paper No 67 Archived from the original on 5 August 2016 Retrieved 26 July 2020 Kapur Nick 2018b The Empire Strikes Back The 1968 Meiji Centennial Celebrations and the Revival of Japanese Nationalism Japanese Studies 38 3 305 328 doi 10 1080 10371397 2018 1543533 S2CID 149788596 Further reading editPeter Berton and Sam Atherton The Japanese Communist Party Permanent Opposition but Moral Compass New York Routledge 2018 T E Durkee The Communist Party of Japan 1919 1932 PhD dissertation Stanford University 1953 G A Hoston Marxism and the Crisis of Development in Prewar Japan Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 1986 Hong M Kim Deradicalization of the Japanese Communist Party Under Kenji Miyamoto Cambridge University Press 1976 Stephen S Large The Romance of Revolution in Japanese Anarchism and Communism during the Taishō Period Cambridge University Press 1977 Robert A Scalapino The Japanese Communist Movement 1920 1966 London Cambridge University Press 1967 R Swearingen and P Langer Red Flag in Japan International Communism in Action 1919 1951 Cambridge MA Harvard University Press 1952 External links edit nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Japanese Communist Party Official website Anti Russian Organization Rises in Japan Red Liaison Officer Says That American Occupation Too Soft Times Daily 9 October 1945 Military Oblivion Is Japs Fate The Evening Independent 15 October 1945 Jap Communists Ask United Front Against Shidehara The Evening Independent 19 October 1945 Japanese Reds Enjoy Freedom For First Time Berkeley Daily Gazette 15 December 1945 Members of the Communist Party march and protest in Tokyo in Japanese NHK 27 December 1945 Article on Japanese Communist Party from Japanese Press Translations 1945 1946 Dartmouth Digital Library Collections Japanese Communist Party Asks End of Feudal System Berkeley Daily Gazette 23 February 1946 5 12 The Red Purge National Diet Library Modern Japan Archives 6 June 1950 Red Parliament Members Fight Purge in Japan The Owosso Argus Press 8 June 1950 Japan s Eight Top Communists Still Missing Without Clue Reading Eagle 3 June 1951 Kazuo Shii Comments from the Japanese Communist Party on the upcoming election YouTube video in English of the JCP leader Kazuo Shii discussing the 2014 Japanese general election Uploaded 8 December 2014 How the Japanese Communist Party Developed its Theory of Scientific Socialism Japanese Communist Party Retrieved 12 June 2019 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Japanese Communist Party amp oldid 1222122642, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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