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2024 January 17 - 23 TOP3 [JCP]

Tamura elected as first woman JCP head at 29th Party Congress

The Japanese Communist Party on January 18 ended its 29th Party Congress, held for four days from January 15 in Shizuoka’s Atami City, after appointing Tamura Tomoko as the new Chair of the JCP Executive Committee. This is the first time that the JCP has nominated a woman to this post.

Along with Tamura, new Executive Committee consists of Secretariat Head Koike Akira and six Vice Chairs (Yamashita Yoshiki, Tanaka Yu, Ichida Tadayoshi, Ogata Yasuo, Kurabayashi Akiko, and Hamano Tadao).

The Congress elected a new Central Committee composed of 190 CC members and 25 sub-members. Former Executive Committee Chair Shii Kazuo was selected as the Central Committee Chair. The number of women executives increased by seven to 68 (31.6%) from the previous CC membership of 61 (27.6%), marking the highest level in JCP history in terms of the number and percentage of women.

Among the 190 CC members, Yamazoe Taku, 39, was chosen as the new JCP Policy Commission Chair.

The draft resolution calling on party members to build a bigger and stronger JCP and launch a national movement aimed at putting an end to the Liberal Democratic Party politics was adopted with the support of an overwhelming majority.

In discussions which took place for three days after the opening session, 60 people, including an openly LGBTQ person, spoke. The percentage of women rose to 45%, up 10 percentage points from the previous Congress.

On the second and third days, the Atami City mayor and 10 other guests delivered speeches. As of January 18, the Congress received 117 congratulatory messages and letters from municipal heads including Okinawa and Iwate governors, unions, organizations, and individuals. The Congress also received messages from the following 21 overseas political parties and organizations: the communist parties in the U.S., U.K., India (Marxist), Cuba, Chile, France, Vietnam, Venezuela, and Portugal; the Party of the European Left; Kazakhstan's Amanat party (formerly the Nur Otan party); Spain’s United Left party; the Denish Red-Green Alliance; the German Left Party; the Hungarian Workers' Party; the France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) party; the Citizenship Party in Brazil, the Workers' Party in Brazil, the Workers' Party of Belgium; The Lao People's Revolutionary Party; and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.