July 20, 2007
Kenji Miyamoto, 98, Leader of Japan’s Communist Party, Dies

By DOUGLAS MARTIN

Kenji Miyamoto, a Japanese Communist who emerged from jail in 1945 to lead his party on a jagged postwar course in which it renounced Russian and Chinese Communism ― and even the phrase Marxist-Leninist ― in favor of more popular bread-and-butter issues, died Wednesday in Tokyo. He was 98.

His death was announced by a Communist Party official, Agence France-Presse reported.

Mr. Miyamoto, who occupied top party posts from 1958 to 1977, joined the party in 1931 after graduating from what is now called the University of Tokyo. He was convicted two years later of conspiring to beat and kick a police officer to death, a charge he adamantly denied. He was released after World War II, when his sentence was annulled by imperial decree.

But the episode came back to dominate the news in Japan in 1988 after Koichi Hamada, chairman of the budget committee in the House of Representatives, publicly called Mr. Miyamoto a murderer. Japanese decorum required that Mr. Hamada apologize, which he refused to do. After pressure mounted for a week, Mr. Hamada did so.

After the war, Mr. Miyamoto led the Communists’ campaign in the 1949 elections, in which the party won 35 seats. The Communists lost ground a year later, just before the outbreak of the Korean War, when Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur, supreme commander of the Allied powers, barred Mr. Miyamoto and 23 other members of the party’s central committee from public service.

The Communists rebounded, however, overcoming that rebuke as well as their unpopularity with many Japanese over the party’s rabid opposition to Japan’s imperial family. Fielding candidates in subsequent elections, the Communists reached their height in 1979, when they won more than 8 percent of the seats in the lower house of Parliament.

The independent path along which Mr. Miyamoto led his party drew wide attention, with many comparisons to Italy’s Communist Party. In 1958, Mr. Miyamoto abandoned his support for violent revolution in favor of what he called “smiling Communism,” with its emphasis on issues like inflation, housing and education.

In 1966, he visited China as it was going though the radical social changes of its Cultural Revolution. “The situation” there, he said, “is abnormal.” Two years later, he denounced the Soviet Union’s invasion of what was then Czechoslovakia. At a political convention in 1990, Mr. Miyamoto said he had never supported the line of old European Communists. He said the collapse of Communism in Europe did not represent a failure of Socialism, but a defeat of Stalinism and subsequent Soviet regimes. He consistently opposed the United States-Japan alliance.

The party did not release information on survivors.



Communist dies

TOKYO Kenji Miyamoto, Japan’s legendary communist leader who spent the Second World War in jail, has died aged 98. Mr Miyamoto led the Japanese Communist Party for half a century, but was critical of the Soviet system and steered his members to severing ties with Moscow. In the 1970s, the party became Japan’s fourth largest and held more than 8 per cent of seats in the Lower House. (AFP)(From The Times July 19, 2007 World in Brief)



EDITORIAL: Former JCP leader dies
07/20/2007

Kenji Miyamoto, former honorary chairman of the Japanese Communist Party who had long held sway over the party as its supreme leader, died at 98 on Wednesday.

Many people over a certain age must be filled with deep emotion upon hearing of Miyamoto's death, which came 10 years after he had fallen ill and retired from the party leadership.

Miyamoto joined the JCP before World War II when the party was outlawed. The charismatic communist spent 12 years in prison during which time he refused to give up his faith. After the war, he commanded the party both in terms of ideology and organization with strong leadership. In particular, his establishment of the democratic revolution party line that attached importance to the Diet will be remembered as an unshakable achievement.

With the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, socialist parties around the world found themselves in dire straits. Around that time, the era of Miyamoto's leadership was coming to an end. Ten years since Miyamoto's retirement as party chairman, former chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa and current chairman Kazuo Shii, who was strongly supported by Miyamoto, went through turbulent times.

While other parties have repeatedly split and formed new alliances, the JCP has maintained a certain number of seats in the Diet, despite its many ups and downs. Such success can be traced to the way the party has firmly stuck to its principles since Miyamoto's steadfast devotion and faith.

At the same time, however, its somewhat rigid political stance seems to have kept the JCP small and closed.

Instead of establishing a socialist government, the party aims at achieving democratic reform under the current Constitution by uniting political parties and forces that share its ideas. This is the gist of the concept of a democratic coalition government proposed under Miyamoto's leadership.

But the JCP has never taken part in a central government administration. By calling itself an "unfailing opposition party," it has no choice but to stay out of power and grope for survival.

In 2000, under Fuwa's leadership, the JCP deleted such terms as "avant-garde party" and "socialist revolution" from its party constitution. Furthermore, with the revision of its platform in 2004, the party recognized the emperor as a symbol of the state and the maintenance of the Self-Defense Forces. The party gradually adopted a more flexible stance.

But democratic centralism, a doctrine that is said to symbolize the party's closed nature, remains intact in its constitution. Apparently, even two generations after Miyamoto, the party is still unable to part with its "negative legacy."

This shows that the party is still halfway toward adopting a flexible policy.

The JCP exposed the monitoring of civilians by the SDF. It has been quick to point fingers at political corruption and has harshly criticized prime ministers' visits to Yasukuni Shrine. There is no doubt the JCP has a unique presence in politics. That is all the more why it should strive to be more open.

We urge the JCP to listen more seriously to voices within the party calling for radical reform, such as changing the party name and becoming a social democratic party.

The JCP has criticized Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan), saying it is no different from the Liberal Democratic Party. The JCP has refused to join hands with Minshuto after the Upper House election.

The JCP's relationship with the Social Democratic Party is also shaky. Members of the JCP are getting old and prospects for expansion remain dim. The party says it aims at realizing a democratic coalition government early in the 21st century. But as things stand, how many people think the goal is realistic?

For the JCP to outgrow the Miyamoto age, it needs to undergo more drastic changes.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 19(IHT/Asahi: July 20,2007)



Thursday, July 19, 2007

Miyamoto, key postwar leader of JCP, dies at 98

Kyodo News

Kenji Miyamoto, who in the 1930s was jailed amid a government crackdown on the Japanese Communist Party, then later held leadership positions in the JCP for about 50 years and played the key role in guiding it through the postwar period, died Wednesday at a Tokyo hospital, JCP sources said. He was 98.

As JCP general secretary, Miyamoto formulated a new platform in 1961 rescinding the party's advocacy of revolution by force and shifting to seeking democratic revolution.

The party has since maintained that basic policy.

Miyamoto became general secretary in 1958 and presidium chairman in 1970. Under his strong leadership the party maintained a unique position, distancing itself from the Communist parties of the former Soviet Union and China.

The JCP took a soft line under Miyamoto. At a party convention in 1976, it removed the phrase "proletarian dictatorship" from its platform and adopted a declaration of freedom and democracy.

Tetsuzo Fuwa took over as presidium chairman in 1982, but Miyamoto remained influential within the party. He held the post of chairman until his retirement in September 1997, after which he held an honorary position.

The party is currently led by Kazuo Shii.

Hailing from Yamaguchi Prefecture, Miyamoto graduated from Tokyo Imperial University's economic department and joined the party in 1931. He was arrested by the military police in 1933 over the death of a police spy and spent 12 years in prison until Japan surrendered in 1945.

He served two terms in the Upper House.(The Japan Times on line)