Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists

[Bozita]

Source: Guardian UK

Disgruntled Japanese turn to resurgent communists
Web-savvy Japanese Communist party's message of welfare and jobs lures young voters away from sleazed-mired political mainstream
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 April 2009 19.02 BST
Article history


Faced with an economy in steep decline, rising unemployment and an uncertain future, a growing number of Japanese are shunning the conservative consensus and turning instead to a new brand of cuddly communism.

While the leaders of Japan's two main political parties battle poor opinion poll ratings and accusations of sleaze, the Japanese Communist party (JCP) has seen its fortunes transformed after years of being dismissed as an irrelevant hangover from the cold war.

In the last 16 months membership has soared to more than 410,000 as the revamped party courts younger voters from the working poor. Of the 14,000 people to have joined since the end of 2007, about a quarter are aged under 30, the party says. That contrasts with the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP), whose membership has plummeted from 5 million at its peak to about a million today.

By dispensing with ideological rhetoric and focusing on welfare and jobs, the JCP has struck a chord with students, the unemployed and the estimated 10 million Japanese earning less than 2m yen (about £14,000) a year.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/27/japanese-communist-party-resurgence

[Mojorabbit]

1. This happened here during

the great depression if I am remembering right. They helped get workers organized.

[Greyhound]

4. Yes you are. It was one of the forces from below that pushed FDR to the left. n/t

:kick:

[JVS]

2. Sweet!

[Boojatta]

3. There's a very thin sugar coating. Otherwise nobody would swallow that pill.

[primavera]

5. I dunno

Capitalism's gotten at least as many things wrong as communism did and we've swallowed that pill without batting an eye. I don't really know how fervent Japan's anti-communist heritage is, it may be that they've been less conditioned to react negatively to anything even remotely resembling communism, so they may be more open to its message than we are. Mind you, I have no illusions that communism got everything right or that its attempted implementation as a form of government worked out particularly well, but it did have some legitimate points mixed in there as well. Much of what Marx forecast as systemic problems of capitalism have in fact come to pass, pretty much exactly as he predicted they would. Given the catastrophic track record of unfettered capitalism, the predictable fruits of which we're experiencing today, I don't know that learning a lesson or two from other forms of governance, even including communism, wouldn't be a worthwhile pursuit.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Japan never went through a McCarthy era, so their attitude

towards Communism is more like that of the Italians. In fact, Kyoto is only the best known of several cities that have had Communist mayors over the years. I may be wrong, but I think that even Tokyo has had a Communist mayor. During election seasons, they have their loudspeaker trucks out like everyone else.

I'm glad the Communists are gaining support. They can provide a much-needed counterweight to the introduction of brutal, number-crunching American-style business practices in recent years, and if they gather enough support, they may be able to scare the old fossils in the Japanese Establishment into rescinding some of the "innovations" (using part-timers instead of full-timers, outsourcing to cheaper countries, importing Latin Americans of Japanese descent as cheap labor, letting big box stores drive out small businesses) of the past twenty years.

[Art_from_Ark]

8. Well, there isn't a mayor of Tokyo per se

considering that Tokyo is not officially a city but a conglomeration of 23 "ku" or wards or boroughs, some of which, such as Sumida-ku, are calling themselves "cities" now. Then there's the Tokyo Metropolis, which is more like a state and includes areas that are not part of the 23 wards.It's all pretty confusing, actually.

Anyway, I don't know how much support the Kyosan-to Communists actually have here in Japan. During election time, I see their posters everywhere it seems, but when it comes to national election results, they usually don't do so well outside of their base of the Keihanshin industrial area. I think a lot of disgruntled voters in this area may opt instead for the Komei-to, which is essentially the ultra right wing of the ruling LDP.

[happyslug]

11. No, the Japanese killed them all off in the early 1930s

Thus come August 1945, the only Japanese leader in opposition to the then ruling military clique was staying in Moscow, and the subsequent invasion of Manchuria by Russia, starting on the 90th day after the end of the war in Europe (Stalin had promise to do so to FDR). It is an interesting History, the US dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima on August 8th, 1945, the Russians started their invasion on August 9th, the US Dropped the Second bomb on August 10th, and it still took the Japanese Government till August 15th to Surrender. The traditional western view was Japan surrendered do to the A-bombing, the Russian moved in after the Japanese had already decided to give up. The problem the facts do NOT support such history, even the US Army thought it would be tough for Stalin to move enough units from Europe to Manchuria within 90 days. We dropped the A-bomb on the 89th day to try beat the Russians, the Russian launched their attack the next day, but it is clear it had been planned over the previous 90 days, including getting the troops, equipment and supplies to support the invasion. Thus the Soviet Invasion was NOT the Soviets just moving into as Japan was defeated by the US, but a full scale movement planned while BEFORE the A-bombing.

A good argument can be made that the invasion of Manchuria killed any remaining hoped of Japan against the US (i.e. the US and the USSR would come to blows in Europe and Russia could give Japan the two things it needed in 1945, fuel and pilots). This was more an hope then anything actually planned on, for once you view the situation the stupidity of it becomes clear, but by 1945 the Japanese leadership was looking at desperate situation and grasping any any straw it could image. The Russian Invasion killed most of those hopes, more so then the A-bombing. Once it became clear Russia would enter what is now North Korea by September 1st, and take all of Korea by October 1st, Japan was looking at a combined US-USSR invasion (OR worse, dual invasions) by November 1st, 1945. Given that the only Japanese leader NOT tied in with the Military Rulers of the 1930s and 1940s was sitting in Moscow, the Japanese Leaders were looking at a Communist future, so they surrendered to the Americans to prevent that from happening. Russians were still in Manchuria on August 15th, but the Japanese Army had already been destroyed and they was nothing Japan could do to stop the Russian short of the Japanese sea, and not even there without American Assistance.

http://www.emayzine.com/lectures/JAP1930.html

1921 Assassination of a Japanese Prime Minster:
http://www.ndl.go.jp/modern/e/cha3/description10.html

1931 attempted assassination of the Japanese Prime Minster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamaguchi_Osachi

March 5th, 1932 Assassination of a left wing political leader:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Takuma

The May 15, 1932 Assassination of the Japanese Prime Minster by the Japanese Right Wing:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_15th_Incident

1936 Assassination of a former Prime Minster, but by 1936 Fiance Minster:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takahashi_Korekiyo
This was part of the February 26, 1936 incident, where many politicians were killed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26_Incident

The "League of Blood Incident" a 1930 incident:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Blood_Incident

More on the 1930s and Japan:
http://books.google.com/books?id=yadHD-aCo_cC&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq=Japan+assassination&source=bl&ots=m_QTSkkHUJ&sig=hhAUJaDvypjjX_7f-5Bis-DmS6M&hl=en&ei=QbX3SavEGYXuMp_jxMUP&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8

This has continued, though NOT on the scale of the 1930s:

Assassination of Left Wing leader in 1960:
http://www.worldsfamousphotos.com/assassination-of-japan-socialist-inejiro-asanuma-1960.html

1990 attempted Assassination on Author who reported that Hirohito was NOT a innocent bystander when it came to Japanese Militarism, but its Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/19/world/mayor-who-faulted-hirohito-is-shot.html

As to worker's rights, the 1953 Nissan Steel Strike was vicious:
Here is a Communist site that mentions the anti-union actions of Japan between 1949 and 1960:
http://www.workers.org/ww/1998/japan0430.php

The 1960 Coal Strike was even worse, but get even less attention then the 1953 Nissan Strike. In both cases (and in other businesses between 1953 and 1960) any NON-company union were destroyed and their left wing leaders kicked off the job. The McCarthyism was alive and well, but ignored in most history of Japan as told in the west.

[DBoon]

the JCP is so far from being a Leninist vanguard party

that the sugar coating now IS the pill

[TankLV]

6. Uh oh boss!!!

now Rochester...!!!

[Joanne98]

9. That's interesting.

[Blue_Tires]

10. i was always wondering if there would be a backlash

doesn't japan have a terribly oppressive corporate culture with next to no worker rights?