Left-Wing Parties in Japan. Their Origin, Rise, and Decline

Abstract

The article examines the history of the emergence and decline of the once influential leftist forces in Japanese politics. In the forthcoming elections in the fall of 2025, the Social Democratic Party (formerly the Japan Socialist Party) has every chance of losing their single seat in the more important lower house of the Japanese Diet. Another “left-wing” force, the communists, retain their positions, but they occupy about two percent of the total number of seats. Just as, before Japan, it was in European countries, one should, of course, seek the reasons for the current crisis in the fundamental changes in the social class structure and the employment structure caused by the waves of scientific and technological progress. The national specificities associated with the inertia of political preferences should be mentioned too. The pre-war history of Japanese politics exerted an influence on the formation and development of left-wing parties. It was related to the movements of Christian socialism, the Fabian Society, anarchist communism, and anarcho-syndicalism in Europe. The victory of the Bolsheviks in the 1917 revolution is directly related to the birth of the Japanese Communist Party as the “Japanese section of the Comintern.” In the post-war period, political events in neighboring China and the Korean Peninsula had a significant impact as well.
An analysis of the current situation of the left-wing parties shows that their decisive rejection of the now infamous Marxist-Leninist provisions of their political programs, an openly critical attitude towards the experience of building socialism in the Soviet Union and China, and the attempts to prove that the negative experience of these countries is the result of distorting the essence of socialism and perverting its principles do not help. The criticism does not increase their authority and ability to retain the sympathy of their supporters and attract new ones. Complete rejection of Marx and Lenin in favor of Lassalle and Bernstein by SDP was not helpful and was perceived as an opportunistic move and a sign of willingness to sacrifice principles for the sake of political gain.