88-year JCP seeks people-based future

Japan Press Weekly

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

88-year JCP seeks people-based future - Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Japanese Communist Party on July 15 marks the 88th anniversary of its founding in 1922.

In the prewar period in which those who opposed the Tenno (emperor) system and the war of aggression were arrested and imprisoned, the JCP was founded to work for the people. At its founding, the JCP called for a Japan in which the people are the key players, opposed despotic rule, and demanded a halt to Japan’s war of aggression on the Korean Peninsula and in China. Looked at historically, they were very reasonable requests.

Its calls for an 8-hour work day, better social services, and a minimum wage system, have all been achieved to some degrees.

Many JCP members at that time struggled by risking their lives and were sometimes persecuted merely for setting up the party and advocating these requests which are accepted as common sense requests today. The defeat of Japan’s militarism and the postwar establishment of the principle of people’s sovereignty proved the JCP position to be correct. The very existence in the prewar period of a party opposing the war of aggression at the risk of the lives of party members and calling for the principle of people’s sovereignty is worthy of special mention in Japan’s prewar history.

In the 88 years since its inauguration, the path taken by the JCP has never been smooth. However, the JCP takes pride in always siding with the people to promote social progress without being discouraged by hardships. The JCP spirit since its start is: Where people are suffering, the JCP is there to struggle against it.

This year is the 50th year since the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960. From the postwar days when Japan was under U.S. occupation, the JCP opposed the expansion of U.S. military bases in Japan and the moves to rearm Japan and to strengthen the Japan-U.S. military alliance. In the 1960 struggle against the revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the JCP disclosed that the revision of the treaty had the aim of allowing Japan to take part in U.S. wars of aggression abroad. The JCP contribution to the people’s struggle is remembered throughout Japan with its determined participation in the mass struggle against the Security Treaty.

The JCP has always made efforts to protect people’s living standards and business conditions. The consumption tax rate increase, a major issue in the recent House of Councilors election, is the worst type of regressive tax imposing heavy burdens on people with low incomes. The JCP consistently opposed introduction of the tax, and the struggle is linked to the current struggle against a consumption tax rate increase.

The JCP was able to overcome various difficulties and achieve advances because of the people’s support and because of its determined stance to overcome Japan’s extraordinary subordination to the United States and the arbitrary rule of large corporations and financial circles as stated in the JCP Program and its call to create a new Japan in which the people are the key players.

Japan’s politics is in a stalemate, and behind this no-way-out situation is the political distortion caused by the government representing the interests of the United States and Japanese business circles. Along with the struggle to achieve the people’s just demands, the JCP will strive to inform the general public of the JCP position calling for a new Japan in which the people are the key players.

-Akahata, July 15, 2010