Japanese Communist Party

The Japanese communist party, founded in 1922, one of the largest non governing communist parties in the world.

Overview

Founded in 1922 and legalized in 1945, the JCP endured prewar prison, built a fresh party around democratic revolution theory independent of Moscow after 1961, opposing both US alliance and Soviet interventionism, criticizing both. It polls in the single digits steadily, holding seats in every Diet since 1969 and thousands of local assembly members, the most of any party. It publishes Akahata, runs a consistent peace constitution defense, and cooperates tactically with opposition parties. Its membership of hundreds of thousands makes it an organizational anomaly: a Leninist form, a pacifist democratic program, and durable electoral existence.