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Japanese Communist Party 日本共産党 | |
|---|---|
 Nihon Kyōsantō | |
| Abbreviation | JCP |
| Chairperson | Tomoko Tamura |
| General Secretary | Akira Koike |
| Founded | July 15, 1922 |
| Legalized | September 2, 1945 |
| Banned | September 1929[1] |
| Headquarters | 4-26-7 Sendagaya, Shibuya, 151-8586 Japan |
| Newspaper | Shimbun Akahata |
| Youth wing | Democratic Youth League of Japan |
| Membership (2022) | 260,000[2] |
| Political orientation | Marxism (claimed) Social democracy (de facto) Monarchism |
| House of Representatives | 10 seats out of 465 seats |
| House of Councilors | 11 seats out of 242 seats |
| Website | |
| jcp.or.jp | |
 Twitter | @jcp_cc |
 YouTube channel | https://www.youtube.com/@jcpmovie |
| Part of a series on |
| Communist parties |
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The Japanese Communist Party[a] (JCP) is a self-proclaimed communist party in Japan that was founded in 1922. Currently, it's policies are more oriented towards achieving social democracy, advocating for ceremonial monarchism. It is one of the largest non-governing political parties in the world which considers itself communist.
On October 13th 2022, the JCP opposed Russia in the Ukraine proxy war.[3]
History[edit | edit source]
Founding[edit | edit source]
The Japanese Communist Party was founded in 1922 and was soon outlawed by the imperial government's Peace Preservation Law.[4] Fukumoto Kazuo advocated for "unity in separation" and ideological purity, which the Comintern denounced as ultra-left in 1927. The 1927 Comintern Theses argued that Japan still needed a bourgeois-democratic revolution against the emperor and landlordism.[5]
Fascist period[edit | edit source]
By the 1930s, two factions had emerged: the smaller Rōnō faction that defined the 1868 Meiji Restoration as a full bourgeois-democratic revolution and the larger Kōza faction that defined it as an incomplete bourgeois revolution.[5] In 1932 in Moscow, Nosaka Sanzō, the party's representative to the Comintern, wrote the 1932 Thesis,[4] aligning with the Kōza position. Party leader Noro Eitarō completed the Lectures on the History of Development of Japanese Capitalism in 1932, aligning with the 1932 Thesis, and died in prison in 1934.[5]
During the Second World War, Nosaka fled to China and joined the Chinese Red Army to fight against the Empire of Japan. He founded the Japanese People's Emancipation League, which attracted Japanese deserters and POWs to fight for socialism.[4]
Postwar period[edit | edit source]
Tokuda Kyūichi, who had spent 18 years in prison under the Peace Preservation Law, became leader of the party after the war. In 1946, Douglas MacArthur began the Red Purges against the party due to its popular support. The party went underground and called for armed national liberation struggle against the USA. The party incorrectly focused on the countryside and attempted to start a protracted people's war led by the peasantry.[5]
The JCP's Sixth Congress in 1955 rejected armed struggle and considered the return to the villages to be ultra-left adventurism. Due to its reformist deviations, it failed to lead the 1960 Anpo protests against the USA-Japan Joint Security Treaty.[5]
Positions[edit | edit source]
International relations[edit | edit source]
The JCP, in comparison to other self-proclaimed communist parties, is very critical of AES countries, even going to say that the Communist Party of China does not deserve to call itself communist[6].
It also currently maintains a position of maintaining support for the two-state solution concerning the 2023 Israel-Gaza war and genocide, calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza while advocating for the existence of the Zionist Entity.[7]
Party program[edit | edit source]
The JCP's current program, created in 2004 and updated in 2020, outlines the following:
- Guaranteed protection against abusive business practices
- To not revise Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, advocating for pacifism
- Rid Japan of nuclear weapons and nuclear power
Concerning international relations, the program says as so:
- Maintain an independent position concerning international relations
- To break away from the Japanese military alliance with the United States
- Strongly condemn Russia in the Ukraine proxy war.
- Apologize for atrocities committed during World War 2 by the Empire of Japan
- Work to regain the Kuril Islands, Habomai, and Shikotan Islands, claiming it as Japan's historical territory despite the fact that the Ainu inhabited them long before Japan had took them over
- Control of transnational corporations
- Active engagement in international aid, aiming to prevent poverty and starvation
- Aim for pacifism between nations and the promotion of diversity.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ "The Japanese Communist Party 1922-1945" (November 10, 2024).
- ↑ "A Profile of the Japanese Communist Party" (November 1, 2022).
- ↑ Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo (2022-10-13). "Responding to the UNGA resolution, Russia should stop its unlawful aggression and annexation, and immediately withdraw all of its military force. The JCP calls for maximum diplomatic efforts for a peaceful political resolution"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Comrade Saoirse. "The Japanese Communist Party during World War II" Retrieved 2022-05-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Gavin Walker (2024-04-06). "Marxist theory in Japan: A critical overview" MR Online. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
- ↑ ““The Chinese leadership’s mistake is extremely serious. That action does not deserve the name of the Communist Party,” party chief Kazuo Shii said at its convention, held for the first time in three years, referring to Beijing’s expansionary activities in the East and South China seas.”
"Japanese Communist Party slams China in first platform change since 2004" (2020-01-18). The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 19 February, 2020. Retrieved 10 November, 2024. - ↑ Kazuo Shii (2023-11-06). "JCP calls on governments concerned to work to stop genocide in Gaza" Japanese Communist Party. Archived from the original on 2023-12-07. Retrieved 2024-11-10.
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Japanese: 日本共産党