Friday, Jun. 22, 2007
Communism Is Alive and Well and Living in Japan
By Bryan Walsh

Cute as Hello Kitty, 19-year-old Michiko Suzuki looks like any of the thousands of teens haunting the street fashion stores of Tokyo's youthful Harajuku district. But when the Wako University student takes time off from study sessions dissecting Marx to hit the street, it's usually in order to distribute political literature. To her classmates, the party may be something to which you bring the karaoke machine, but Suzuki knows it's really the revolutionary vanguard of class struggle. That's because Suzuki is a teenage communist.

Bolshevism runs in her family: The daughter and granddaughter of party members, she joined the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) as soon as she turned 18. "I think it's cool to see [fellow members] struggling unyieldingly," says Suzuki, smiling shyly. "I really love that last word."

The idea of a communist party soldiering on in the world's second-largest economy more than 15 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union may invite comparisons to Japanese soldiers who remained hidden on isolated Pacific islands because nobody told them World War II had ended. But the JCP is far from extinct: It claims some 400,000 members, and earned 7.3% of the vote in the most recent legislative elections, in 2005 ― that's 4.36 million voters.

"The JCP is probably the most successful non-ruling communist party in Asia, if not the world," says Lam Peng-er, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.

That success has its roots in the party's long history in Japan. Born in 1922 as the Japanese branch of the Communist International, the international federation of Marxist-Leninist parties created by Moscow, the JCP quickly adapted itself to local conditions. It was one of the few Japanese groups to stand up to the rise of Japanese militarists in the run-up to World War II, and suffered heavily as a result.

"The JCP was the only political party that struggled against the past war of aggression with the sacrifice of members' lives," says Kazuo Shii, the JCP's salaryman-suited chairman. That principled stance earned the respect of many Japanese after the war ended, and the newly legal JCP was allowed to run for election. But the JCP's early success spooked American occupation officials fearful of Soviet infiltration, and they moved to curtail the party's influence. In the "Red Purge" of 1949, they removed all communists and other left-wingers from official positions in Japan, leaving the LDP to dominate for decades. Still, the JCP formed a reliable leftist opposition bloc with the larger and more mainstream Japanese Socialist Party, steadfastly pacifist and opposed to a security alliance with the U.S.

Of course, communist parties elsewhere in the industrialized world that had followed a similar script nonetheless faded into irrelevance in the 1990s. But the JCP, although weaker than in its heyday, still matters in Japanese politics.

Shii credits the JCP's consistent independence from Moscow for its survival. But the JCP's endurance has more to do with its role in the domestic political arena. The largest parties in Japanese politics lack a clear and cohesive identity, functioning more as loose alliances of interest with few discernible political differences, and they draw support less on ideological bases than through personal networks of patronage built by individual candidates. "It's like Tammany Hall," says Lam. Support for the parties themselves is weak, and getting weaker, as increasingly sophisticated Japanese voters seek meaningful political choice.

The JCP may benefit by virtue of actually standing for something ― "the socialist/communist society," according to its manifesto. "The JCP is a boutique party, but it's the only political party in Japan that has a strong grassroots organization," says Lam. "In a way, the communists are probably the most modern political party in Japan."

Despite holding only 18 of the 722 seats in the Diet, the JCP often functions as the only genuine opposition to politics-as-usual in Tokyo. Virtually alone among Japan's parties, the communists have hammered Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and others for backsliding on Japan's role in forcing tens of thousands of Asian women into prostitution during World War II. Communist politicians have repeatedly uncovered damaging financial scandals in government ― they're too far removed from power to be enmeshed in Tokyo's endemic corruption. "We are the watchdog, but we go further than that," says Shii. "I think the advance of the JCP will be key to the advance of Japanese politics."

Well, maybe ― it may be the most progressive party in Japanese politics, but it still adheres to Marxism. (When I half-seriously ask one college-aged party member whether he reads the classics, he reaches into his backpack and produces Volume 2 of the 13-volume Japanese translation of Das Kapital.) And the JCP's cohesion comes at the expense of flexibility and openness ― Leninist discipline still applies, and when the Central Committee has ruled on an issue, members are expected to obey. "That's increasingly out of sync with postmodern Japan," says Lam. "But the fear of the JCP is that if they relent, the party will lose its cohesiveness."

The JCP's performance won't change the outcome of July's legislative elections, which could decide the fate of Abe. The Prime Minister's popularity has dropped to record lows in recent weeks due to public anger over mismanaged pension accounts, and he may be forced to resign if the ruling LDP loses too many seats. Still, most Japanese voters will choose either the LDP or the opposition Democratic Party, however unenthusiastically. But the JCP will pick up protest votes, and maybe more, if young Japanese follow Suzuki's example. "I think my friends and those around me have a lot of difficulty and hardship finding themselves, having any confidence in themselves," says Suzuki. "But as a member of the JCP, I have a wider perspective on my future. I know we have possibility." Who said the war was over?


Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1636115,00.html



米『タイム』誌の日本共産党特集
日本の共産党「活気あふれ健在」　日本で唯一の真の野党　侵略戦争反対 尊敬集める

　米『タイム』誌電子版は二十二日、「共産主義は日本で活気にあふれ健在」との見出しで日本共産党の特集記事を掲載しました。同誌は、志位委員長とシンガポール国立大学の藍平児研究員へのインタビューや十九歳の女子学生党員への取材を通じて、日本共産党を紹介。「アジアあるいは世界の中でもっとも成功している非政権党の共産党だろう」「強い草の根の組織を持つ日本で唯一の政党」「もっとも近代的な政党だ」と指摘しています。

　同誌は、日本共産党の戦前、戦後の歴史にも触れ、日本共産党は「日本の旧態依然たる政治への唯一の真の野党」だとしています。

　『タイム』誌は、一九二三年に創刊された米国の有力週刊誌で世界初のニュース雑誌。政治、経済、最先端科学、エンターテインメントなどあらゆる情報を網羅しています。

　米『タイム』誌電子版二十二日付の日本共産党の特集記事では､志位和夫委員長とのインタビューをまじえ､｢日本の四百万人を超える有権者は前回国政選挙で共産党に投票した｡主要政党がなにものも代弁していないからだ｣としています｡

　同記事は、大勢の十代の若者と何も変わったところはない十九歳の和光大学の学生、鈴木通子さんのクラスメートの中での活動を紹介、親子三代が党員である鈴木さんの「家族の一員が不屈にたたかっているのを見るってかっこいいと思う」との発言を引用しています。

　また､シンガポール国立大学の藍平児研究員の言葉を引用して｢日本共産党はおそらく､アジアあるいは世界の中でもっとも成功している非政権党の共産党だろう｣｢日本共産党は､小政党だが､強い草の根の組織を持つ日本で唯一の政党だ｣｢ある意味では､日本共産党はおそらく日本でもっとも近代的な政党だ｣と日本共産党を描いています｡

歴史に根ざす

　同記事は、日本共産党を「ソ連崩壊後十五年以上たつのに世界第二の経済大国で頑張り続ける共産党」だとし、「日本共産党は絶滅とは程遠い。約四十万の党員をもち、二〇〇五年の最新の衆院選挙では四百三十六万、7.3％の得票を得た」と強調しています。

　「その成功は、日本における同党の長い歴史に根ざしている」として、志位委員長が「日本共産党は、党員が命がけで過去の侵略戦争に反対してたたかった唯一の政党です」とインタビューで述べた部分を紹介､｢その首尾一貫した立場は、終戦後多くの日本人の尊敬を勝ち取った」ことを指摘しています。さらに同誌は日本共産党の戦後のたたかいを紹介し、「いまなお日本政治で重きをなしている」と述べています。

　同誌は、志位委員長が、同党の生き残りの理由を、日本共産党がモスクワからの独立性を常に貫いたことにあると指摘したことを紹介、「日本共産党の耐久性は、国内政治でのその役割に負うところがもっと大きい。日本政界の大政党は、明確で一貫したアイデンティティーを持っておらず、利権集団のゆるやかな同盟として機能しており、識別できるような政治的な立場の違いはほとんどない。それらの大政党は、イデオロギー的な基礎に基づく支持ではない」と指摘しています。

政治とカネ追及

　同誌はさらに、「国会七百二十二議席のうちたった十八議席しかないものの、日本共産党はしばしば、日本の旧態依然たる政治への唯一の真の野党としての役割を果たしている」と指摘。「日本の政党のうち事実上、共産党だけが、第二次世界大戦時に数万人のアジア女性に売春を強要した日本の役割をめぐって、安倍晋三首相やその他の政治家の後ろ向きの姿勢を厳しく追及している。共産党の政治家は、政府に打撃を与える金銭スキャンダルを繰り返し暴露してきた」と強調。志位委員長の言葉として「われわれは監視者だが、それ以上のことをやっている」「日本共産党の前進は、日本の政治の前進の鍵となると思う」と引用しています。

　同誌は、七月の参院選挙について「日本共産党は抗議票を集めるだろうし、もし若者たちが鈴木さんを見習えば、抗議にとどまらない票を集めるかもしれない」と述べ、鈴木さんの「私の友人やまわりにいる人たちは、自分探しで苦労しています。自分に自信がもてないんです」「でも私は日本共産党の党員として、未来へのもっと広い視野を持っています。私たちに可能性があることを私は知っていますから」という言葉で記事を締めくくっています。（2007年6月24日(日)「しんぶん赤旗」）