Japanese Communist Party

Japanese Communist Party 日本共産党 Nihon Kyōsan-tō
Councillors		11 / 248
Prefectural assembly members	139 / 2,614
Municipal assembly members	2,473 / 30,101
Election symbol
Party flag
Website
www.jcp.or.jp (Japanese) www.jcp.or.jp/english (English)
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

The Japanese Communist Party (日本共産党, Nihon Kyōsan-tō,

The JCP was repressed by the Japanese government in the three decades immediately following its founding. The Allied occupation of Japan legalized the JCP after World War II, but the party's unexpected success in the 1949 general election led to the "Red Purge", in which the Japanese government removed tens of thousands of actual and suspected communists from their jobs. The Soviet Union encouraged the JCP to respond with a violent revolution; the consequent internal debate fractured the party into several factions. The dominant faction, backed by the Soviets, waged an unsuccessful guerrilla campaign in Japan's rural areas, which undercut the party's public support.

In 1958, Kenji Miyamoto became the JCP's leader and moderated the party's policies, abandoning the previous line of violent revolution. His efforts to regain electoral support were particularly successful in urban areas such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo, and the JCP worked with the Japan Socialist Party in the 1970s to elect a number of progressive mayors and governors. By 1979, the JCP held about 10 percent of the seats in the National Diet.

Miyamoto also began distancing the JCP from the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s. The party did not take sides during the Sino-Soviet split and declared its support for multi-party democracy, as opposed to the one-party politics of China and the Soviet Union. The JCP did not suffer an internal crisis after the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, though its overall electoral strength remains in decline, despite a brief resurgence after the collapse of the Japan Socialist Party in 1996.

The party at present advocates the establishment of a democratic society based on

History

Prewar roots

The Japanese Communist Party was founded in Tokyo on 15 July 1922.

The JCP was founded as an

The JCP campaigned against the invasion of China and the imperial regime's expansionist policy in Asia.[10]

Postwar reemergence

The Japan Communist Party was legalized in 1945 by the Allied military occupation of Japan and since then has been a legal political party able to contest elections. In the aftermath of the war, under the guidance of charismatic party chairman Sanzō Nosaka, the party pursued a policy of portraying itself as "lovable".^[11] Nosaka's strategy involved avoiding open calls for violent revolution and taking advantage of the seemingly pro-labor stance of the Allied occupation to organize the urban working classes and win power at the ballot box and through propaganda.^[12] In particular, the party was successful in winning acceptance of the notion that communists had been the only ones to resist Japanese wartime militarism.^[8] This propaganda effort won the party thousands of new members and an even larger number of sympathizers, especially among artists and intellectuals.^[11] The party rapidly built up its strength and in 1949, made unprecedented gains by winning 10 percent of the vote and sending 35 representatives to the Diet.

Red Purge and turn to violence

Beginning in the fall of 1949, in reaction to the JCP's electoral success and as part of the "Reverse Course" in Allied occupation policy amid rising Cold War tensions, the Allied occupation authorities and the Japanese government carried out a sweeping Red Purge, firing tens of thousands of communists and suspected communists from government posts, teaching positions at schools, and private corporations.^[13] The purge was further intensified in response to the outbreak of the Korean War.^[13]

Against this backdrop in January 1950, the Soviet-led Cominform, at the behest of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, issued a blistering criticism of the JCP's peaceful line as "opportunism" and "glorifying American imperialism". It also demanded that the JCP carry out an immediate violent revolution along Maoist lines.^[12] This devastating "Cominform Criticism" led rival JCP factions to compete for the Cominform's approval, and ultimately led to the militant "1951 Platform" (51年綱領) which declared that "it would be a serious mistake to think that Japan's liberation can be achieved through peaceful, democratic means" and called for an immediate violent revolution.^[12] The result was a campaign of violence in which JCP activists threw Molotov cocktails at police boxes and cadres were sent up into the mountains with instructions to organize ostensibly oppressed farmers into "mountain guerrilla squads".^[12]

The backlash to the JCP's new militant line was swift and severe. Militants were rounded up, tried, and sentenced to lengthy prison terms, and in the 1952 general election, Japanese voters vented their ire at the JCP by stripping the party of every single one of its 35 Diet seats, a blow from which it would take two decades to recover.^[14] Stunned, the JCP gradually began to pull back from its militant line, a process facilitated by the death of Stalin in 1953.^[15] At the 6th Party Congress in 1955, the JCP renounced the militant line completely, returning to its old "peaceful line" of gradually pursuing socialist revolution through peaceful, democratic means.^[15]

Anpo protests

In 1960, the JCP played a central role in organizing the massive

The Anpo protests were a turning point in the JCP's ongoing attempts to revive its political fortunes after the disastrous turn toward violent revolution in the early 1950s.[12] Although the Maoists had been purged from the party following the earlier disaster, the JCP was still riven by the age-old rivalry between the Rōnō Ha (Worker-Farmer Faction) and the Kōza Ha (Lecture Faction), which dated back to the prewar era.^[12] Among other disagreements, the two factions disagreed over which stage of Marxist development Japan was currently in; the Rōnō Ha believed that Japan had already achieved full capitalism, which meant that an immediate socialist revolution was possible, whereas the Kōza Ha argued that Japan's transition to capitalism was not yet complete and that therefore what was needed was a "two-stage" revolution—first a "democratic revolution" that would overthrow American imperialism and establish true democracy, and then a "socialist revolution" that would establish communism.^[15] Although the "mainstream" of the JCP, led by Kenji Miyamoto, favored the Kōza Ha interpretation, as late as the 7th Party Congress in 1958 the "anti-mainstream" Rōnō Ha faction, led by Shōjirō Kasuga, still controlled around 40 percent of the delegates.^[12]

The Anpo protests greatly strengthened the hand of the Kōza Ha faction.^[18] During the protest, the JCP, still scarred by the backlash to its violent line in the 1950s, consistently advocated peaceful, orderly, and restrained protests.^[18] This stance was highly unpopular with the radical student activists of the Zengakuren student federation, who broke decisively with the JCP as a result and began to build a New Left student movement.^[19] However, the movement proved unpopular with the broader public, and the JCP was able to use its image as a "peaceful" and "positive" force during the protests as a recruitment tool. Membership in the party soared during the course of the protests, doubling from 40,000 to 80,000, and most of the new recruits wound up supporting the Kōza Ha line.^[18]

Over the remainder of the 1960s, the Kōza Ha was able to purge many members from the Rōnō Ha faction, and others, dissatisfied with JCP policies, quit the party of their own accord.^[20] Miyamoto was able to cement his control over the party and reigned as party chairman all the way until 1982. Meanwhile, the party's membership continued to grow rapidly, and the party began to make steady gains at the ballot box, winning more and more seats in the National Diet.^[18] By the mid-1960s, the United States Department of State estimated party membership to be approximately 120,000 (0.2% of the working-age population),^[21] and the party had acquired around 300,000 members by 1970.^[22]

Sino-Soviet split

The party did not take sides during the

These efforts proved popular among Japanese voters. In the 1972 general election, the JCP won an astonishing 38 seats in the Diet, surpassing its 1949 high of 35 and signaling the party's full recovery from the disastrous militant line of the early 1950s.^[24] Party membership continued to grow in the 1970s, albeit at a slower rate than in the 1960s, reaching approximately 500,000 members by 1980.^[22]

1980s to 21st century

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (December 2021)

After the

Lam Peng Er argued in the Pacific Affairs in 1996 that "the JCP's viability is crucial to the health of Japanese democracy" because "[i]t is the only established party in parliament that has not been coopted by the conservative parties. It performs the watchdog role against the ruling parties without fear or favor. More importantly, the JCP often offers the only opposition candidate in prefectural governorship, city mayoral and other local elections. Despite the ostensible differences between the non-Communist parties at the national level, they often support a joint candidate for governor or mayor so that all parties are assured of being part of the ruling coalition. If the JCP did not offer a candidate, there would be a walkover and Japanese voters would be offered a fait accompli without an electoral avenue of protest. Promoting women candidates in elections to win women's votes is another characteristic of the party. More women are elected under the Communist label than other political parties in Japan."^[27]

In 2008, foreign media recorded an increase in support for the party due to the effect of the

Councillor Tomoko Tamura was appointed^{[by whom?]} as the party's first chairwoman on 18 January 2024, replacing Kazuo Shii who had occupied the role for over 23 years.^[35][36]

Ideology and policies

The JCP is one of the largest non-governing

In September 2015, after the passage of the 2015 Japanese military legislation, the JCP called for cooperation from other opposition parties to form an interim government to abolish the bills. It was the first time the party had called for such cooperation with other parties.^{[49][50][51][52]}

Social policy

The JCP is generally regarded as the most

The JCP has maintained a friendly relationship with the Japanese feminist camp since its inception, and is still the most active in women's rights issues among Japan's major political parties. The JCP was the first party to call for universal suffrage for women.^[58][59][60] The party supports eliminating the wage gap between men and women^[61] and has called for the participation of more women in Japanese politics and political life.^[62]

Foreign policy

One of the JCP's main objectives is terminating the

The JCP advocates that Japan issue further apologies for its actions during World War II and has condemned prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine.^[63] In the 1930s, while the JCP was still illegal, it was the only political party to vocally oppose Japan's war with China.^[64] The JCP supports Japanese territorial claims over the Kuril and Senkaku Islands and Liancourt Rocks.^[65][66] Furthermore, the JCP has condemned North Korea's nuclear-weapons testing, calling for effective sanctions, but opposing the prospect of a military response.^[67]

In 2020, the JCP revised its platform for the first time since 2004. The new platform criticized the Chinese Communist Party, denouncing China's "great-power chauvinism and hegemonism" as "an adverse current to world peace and progress". The JCP also removed a line from its platform which described China as a country "that is beginning a new quest for socialism". JCP members have stated that this was due to human rights conditions in China. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China denounced the accusations of the JCP as "groundless and biased".^[68][69]

The JCP's leading politicians are known to be the most active opponents of

The party officially upholds democratic centralism. The party constitutions states decisions "shall be based on democratic discussion and finally decided by majority vote" and that "there shall be no factions or splinter groups". Along with Komeito, the JCP is unique amongst major Japanese political parties for the continuity of its leaders, with Shii having served as JCP chairman since 2000.^[37]

Central organization

According to the party constitution, the highest body of the JCP is the Party Congress, organized by the Central Committee every 2–3 years, though it may be postponed in special circumstances.^[79] Between the congresses, the highest body is the Central Committee, elected by the Party Congress. The Central Committee meets two times every year and can also hold a plenum at the request of one-third of its membership.^[79] The Central Committee is made out of regular and alternate members; the latter can precipitate in Central Committee meetings but cannot vote. The Central Committee also elects the executive committee of the Central Committee, and its chairpersons and vice-chairpersons, the head of the Secretariat. The current chairman of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the JCP is Tomoko Tamura. The Central Committee also appoints the Disciplinary Commission and the Audit Commission, and may elect a Central Committee chairperson; the current Central Committee chair is Kazuo Shii.^[79]

The executive committee manages party affairs between Central Committee meetings. It appoints the members of the Secretariat, which manages the day-to-day affairs of the party center, and the Central Organ Paper Editors Commission. It also elects the Standing Committee of the executive committee.^[79]

Press

Shimbun Akahata (Japanese: Red Flag Newspaper) is the daily organ of the JCP in the form of a national newspaper. Musansha Shinbun (Japanese: Proletarian News) was another publication of the party which was circulated between 1925 and 1929.^[80] Several other newspapers preceded and merged into Red Flag, including Daini Musansha Shinbun (Japanese: The Second Proletarian News), which was merged into Red Flag in 1932.^[81] Daini Musansha Shinbun was itself the immediate successor to the original The Proletarian News, which was banned by the government in September 1929.^[81] Daini Musansha Shinbun began publication immediately after the ban.^[81]

In the past, the party published numerous other newspapers as well, including another national paper called Nihon Seiji Shinbun (Japanese: Japan Political News) and a theoretical journal called Zenshin (Japanese: Forward).^[82] The party also published several regional newspapers such as Class War in and around Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe, Shinetsu Red Flag in Nagano and Hokkaido News in Hokkaido.^[83] They also published numerous (the exact number is unknown) factory newspapers.^[84]

Some regional newspapers, such as Shin Kanagawa (Japanese: New Kanagawa) in

The youth wing of JCP is the Democratic Youth League of Japan. In the 1920s and 1930s, the organization published several newspapers of its own, including Rēnin Seinen (English: Lenin Youth) and Proletarian Youth.^[81]

The party also has affiliate medical and consumer co-ops.^[86] The Japanese Consumers' Co-Operative Union (JCCU), the umbrella body of the co-operative movement in Japan, has a sizable number of communists in its ranks, although the exact numbers are difficult to verify.^[86] Another example of the JCP's prevalence in the co-operative movement is the Co-op Kanagawa in the Kanagawa Prefecture, which has 800,000 members and has historical ties to the JCP.^[86] It still advertises and occasionally is published in JCP newspapers such as Red Flag and New Kanagawa.^[86] The prevalence of house unions in Japan as opposed to enterprise unions has prompted much of the exceptional development of other organizations by the JCP, as well as causing the JCP to seek other external organizational support, including from kōenkai.^[86]

The Choir of JCP-fans (JCPファン雑唱団, JCP-fan zassyōdan) is a musical group which supports the JCP. Its repertory and artistic activity are strongly linked to The Singing Voice of Japan (日本のうたごえ, Nihon no utagoe) / うたごえ運動 Utagoe-undō), a musical movement of Japanese working class that dates back to 1948, when the Choir of the Communist Youth League of Japan (日本青年共産同盟中央合唱団, Nihon-seinen-kyōsan-dōmei Chuō-gassyōdan) was established. The group was founded in Kyoto in 2011 and is directed by Tadao Yamamoto, a composer, accordionist, choir director and ordinary member of the National Council of The Singing Voice of Japan. In various cultural events organized by the party, the Choir of JCP-fans appears as an element among the joined choirs of the volunteer singers of The Singing Voice of Japan. As of 2016, the choir is the only organization of Japanese musicians specializing in political support and in the cultural activity of the party.

Notable concerts and performances by the choir include:

• 11 February 2011,
  Kyoto Kaikan Hall: Concert sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP).^[87]
• 1 August 2013, Nishijin Bunka Center (
  House of Councilors.^[88]
• 23 September 2014, Takaragaike Park (Kyoto): Festival Kyoto ed. 2014, organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP.[89]
• 1 February 2015, Kyoiku Bunka Center (Kyoto): Festival sponsored by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP.^[90]
• 29 April 2016, Takaragaike Park (Kyoto): Festival Kyoto ed. 2016, organized by the Kyoto Committee of the JCP: performance with Seifuku Kōjō Iinkai (制服向上委員会) and
  House of Councilors and Secretary-General of the party.^[91][92]

During the 1980s, party membership began to decline, falling to 500,000 by 1990[37] and 370,000 by 1997.^[22]

Following its advancement in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election, the party enjoyed an increase in membership growth, with over 1,000 people joining in each of the final three months of 2013. Approximately 20% of new members during this period were aged 20 to 40, showing a higher ratio of young people joining the party than in the past. The JCP had approximately 320,000 members in January 2014.^[93]

More recently, however, membership numbers have declined, with membership at around 300,000 in 2017 and 270,000 in 2020.^[94]

Notable members

Pre-war (1922–1941)

• Kanson Arahata
• Sen Katayama
• Hajime Kawakami
• Fukumoto Kazuo
• Takiji Kobayashi
• Toshihiko Sakai
• Hitoshi Yamakawa

Wartime (1941–1945)

• Kim Chon-hae
• Sanzō Nosaka
• Yoshio Shiga
• Kyuichi Tokuda

Post-war (1945–present)

• Kiyoteru Hanada
• Kenji Miyamoto
• Hiromu Murakami
• Tetsuzo Fuwa
• Kazuo Shii
• Hisashi Inoue
• Takeshi Kimura

Leaders

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Central Committee

No.	Photo	Name (Birth–death)	Constituency / title	Term of office		Prime Minister (term)
				Took office	Left office
General Affairs Chief Secretary (1922–1923)
1		Arahata Katsuzō (1887–1981)	None	5 July 1922	1923		Katō To. 1922–1923
							Yamamoto 1923–1924
2		Sakai Toshihiko (1871–1933)	None	1923	1923
Party outlawed by the Government
General Secretary (1945–1970)
1		Kyuichi Tokuda (1894–1953)	Rep for Tokyo 2nd (1946) Tokyo 3rd (1947–1950)	3 December 1945	14 October 1953		Shidehara 1945–1946
							Yoshida 1946–1947
							Katayama 1947–1948
							Ashida 1948
							Yoshida 1948–1954
2		Sanzō Nosaka (1892–1993)	Cou for Tokyo at-large (1956–1977)	14 October 1953	1 August 1958
							Hatoyama I. 1954–1956
							Ishibashi 1956–1957
							Kishi 1957–1960
3		Kenji Miyamoto (1908–2007)	None	1 August 1958	7 July 1970
							Ikeda 1960–1964
							Satō 1964–1972
Chairperson (1970–present)
1		Kenji Miyamoto (1908–2007)	Cou for National PR (1977–1989)	7 July 1970	31 July 1982		Satō 1964–1972
							Tanaka K. 1972–1974
							Miki 1974–1976
							Fukuda T. 1976–1978
							Ōhira 1978–1980
							Ito 1980 Acting
							Suzuki Z. 1980–1982
2		Tetsuzo Fuwa (born 1930)	Rep for Tokyo 6th	31 July 1982	29 November 1987
							Nakasone 1982–1987
							Takeshita 1987–1989
3		Hiromu Murakami (1921–2007)	Rep for Osaka 3rd	29 November 1987	29 May 1989
4 (2)		Tetsuzo Fuwa (born 1930)	Rep for Tokyo 6th (1969–1996) Tokyo PR block (1996–2003)	29 May 1989	24 November 2000
							Uno 1989
							Kaifu 1989–1991
							Miyazawa 1991–1993
							Hosokawa 1993–1994
							Hata 1994
							Murayama 1994–1996
							Hashimoto 1996–1998
							Obuchi 1998–2000
							Mori 2000–2001
5		Kazuo Shii (born 1954)	Rep for Southern Kanto PR block	24 November 2000	18 January 2024
							Koizumi 2001–2006
							Abe S. 2006–2007
							Fukuda Y. 2007–2008
							Asō 2008–2009
							Hatoyama Y. 2009–2010
							Kan 2010–2011
							Noda 2011–2012
							Abe S. 2012–2020
							Suga 2020–2021
							Kishida 2021–present
6		Tomoko Tamura (born 1965)	Cou for National PR	18 January 2024	Incumbent

Chairman of the Central Committee

No.	Photo	Name (Birth–death)	Term of office
			Took office	Left office
1		Sanzō Nosaka (1892–1993)	1 August 1958	31 July 1987
2		Kenji Miyamoto (1908–2007)	31 July 1982	26 September 1997
3		Tetsuzo Fuwa (born 1930)	24 November 2000	14 January 2006
4		Kazuo Shii (born 1954)	18 January 2024	Incumbent

Head of the Secretariat

No.	Photo	Name (Birth–death)	Term of office
			Took office	Left office
1		Tetsuzo Fuwa (born 1930)	7 July 1970	31 July 1982
2		Mitsuhiro Kaneko (1924–2016)	31 July 1982	13 July 1990
3		Kazuo Shii (born 1954)	13 July 1990	24 November 2000
4		Tadayoshi Ichida (born 1942)	24 November 2000	18 January 2014
5		Yoshiki Yamashita (born 1960)	18 January 2014	11 April 2016
6		Akira Koike (born 1960)	11 April 2016	Incumbent

Electoral performance

House of Representatives

Prior to 1996, the entire House of Representatives was elected by majoritarian / "semi-proportional" voting systems with votes cast for individuals (1946: limited voting in multi-member districts, 1947 to 1993 SNTV in multi-member districts). Since 1996, the House of Representatives is elected in a parallel election system—essentially two separate elections only in the lower house complicated by the fact that a candidate may stand in both segments and the sekihairitsu system which ties proportional list ranking to FPTP results: only the majority of members the House of Representatives, 295 (initially 300) seats, are elected in a majoritarian system with voting for candidates (first-past-the-post in single-member districts), while the remaining 180 (initially 200) seats are elected by a proportional representation system (votes are cast for party lists in regional multi-member districts, called "blocks" in the House of Representatives). The votes and vote percentages in the table below are the JCP candidates' vote totals for the whole election from before 1993 and just the votes for the party in the election to the 180 proportional seats after 1996.

The JCP polled 11.3 percent of the vote in 2000, 8.2 percent in 2003, 7.3 percent in 2005, 7.0 percent in 2009, and 6.2 percent in 2012. These results seemed to indicate a trend of declining support, but the party won 21 seats in 2014, up from eight in the previous general election, as the JCP received 7,040,130 votes (13.3 percent) in the constituency section and 6,062,962 (11.37 percent) in the party lists. This continued a new wave of support that was also evident in the 2013 Tokyo prefectural election in which the party doubled its representation. Fighting on a platform directly opposed to neoliberalism, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, attempts to rewrite the constitution, United States Forces Japan, and nuclear power, the JCP tapped into a minority current that seeks an alternative to Japan's rightward direction.^[95] Following the 2016 Japanese House of Councillors election, the party held 13 seats in the House of Councillors.^[96] After the 2017 Japanese general election, the party held 12 seats in the House of Representatives, and since the 2021 Japanese general election, it holds 10 seats.

House of Representatives

Election year	No. of votes	%	Total seats	±	Status
1946	2,135,757	3.8	6 / 464		Opposition
1947	1,002,883	3.7	4 / 466	2	Opposition
1949	2,984,780	9.8	35 / 466	31	Opposition
1952	896,765	2.5	0 / 466	35	Extra-parliamentary[a]
1953	655,990	1.9	1 / 466	1	Opposition
1955	733,121	2.0	2 / 467	1	Opposition
1958	1,012,035	2.5	1 / 467	1	Opposition
1960	1,156,723	2.9	3 / 467	2	Opposition
1963	1,646,477	4.0	5 / 467	2	Opposition
1967	2,190,564	4.8	5 / 486	0	Opposition
1969	3,199,032	6.8	14 / 486	9	Opposition
1972	5,496,827	10.5	38 / 491	24	Opposition
1976	5,878,192	10.4	17 / 511	21	Opposition
1979	5,625,527	10.4	39 / 511	22	Opposition
1980	5,803,613	9.8	29 / 511	10	Opposition
1983	5,302,485	9.3	26 / 511	3	Opposition
1986	5,313,246	8.8	26 / 512	0	Opposition
1990	5,226,987	8.0	16 / 512	10	Opposition
1993	4,834,587	7.7	15 / 511	1	Opposition
1996	7,268,743	13.1	26 / 500	11	Opposition
2000	6,719,016	11.2	20 / 480	6	Opposition
2003	4,586,172	7.8	9 / 480	11	Opposition
2005	4,919,187	7.3	9 / 480	0	Opposition
2009	4,943,886	7.0	9 / 480	0	Opposition
2012	3,689,159	6.2	8 / 480	1	Opposition
2014	6,062,962	11.4	21 / 475	13	Opposition
2017	4,404,081	7.9	12 / 465	9	Opposition
2021	4,166,076	7.2	10 / 465	2	Opposition

House of Councillors

Elections to the House of Councillors are staggered. Every three years, half of the House is up for election to six-year terms. In addition, a parallel election system is used: the majority of members of the House of Councillors (currently 146 of 242, or 73 in one regular election to one half of the House) are elected in 45 (formerly 46→47) prefectural districts, votes are cast for individual candidates by SNTV, but with both multi- and single-member districts used and in the latter SNTV becomes identical to FPTP (winner-takes-all). The remaining, currently 96 members (48 per regular election) are elected in one nationwide district. Until 1980, votes there were cast for individuals too by SNTV. Since 1983, votes are cast for party lists and the seats are allocated proportionally (d'Hondt) in the nationwide district. Unlike in general elections to the lower house, a candidate may not be nominated in both segments of one regular election to the upper house. The seats totals show below are the JCP's overall post-election seat totals, not just their seats elected in that particular year. The votes shown are the votes in the election for the 48 (formerly 50) seats in the nationwide SNTV/PR segment.

Election year	National district votes		Total		Status
	No. of votes	%	Seats	±
1947	610,948	2.9	4 / 250		Opposition
1950	1,333,872	4.8	4 / 260	0	Opposition
1953	293,877	1.1	2 / 260	2	Opposition
1956	599,254	2.1	2 / 254	0	Opposition
1959	551,916	1.9	3 / 254	1	Opposition
1962	1,123,947	3.1	4 / 254	1	Opposition
1965	1,652,364	4.4	6 / 254	2	Opposition
1968	2,146,879	5.0	7 / 251	1	Opposition
1971	3,219,307	8.1	10 / 251	3	Opposition
1974	4,931,650	9.4	19 / 260	9	Opposition
1977	4,260,050	8.4	16 / 252	3	Opposition
1980	4,072,019	7.3	12 / 252	4	Opposition
1983	4,163,877	8.9	14 / 252	2	Opposition
1986	5,430,838	9.5	16 / 252	2	Opposition
1989	3,954,408	7.0	14 / 252	2	Opposition
1992	3,532,956	7.9	11 / 252	3	Opposition
1995	3,873,955	9.5	14 / 252	3	Opposition
1998	8,195,078	14.6	23 / 252	9	Opposition
2001	4,329,210	7.9	20 / 247	3	Opposition
2004	4,363,107	7.8	9 / 242	11	Opposition
2007	4,407,937	7.5	7 / 242	2	Opposition
2010	3,563,556	6.1	6 / 242	1	Opposition
2013	5,154,055	9.7	11 / 242	5	Opposition
2016	6,016,245	10.7	14 / 242	3	Opposition
2019	4,483,411	8.95	13 / 245	1	Opposition
2022	3,618,343	6.82	11 / 248	2	Opposition

Current Diet members

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2022)

See also

• Appeal to the People
• Democracy in Marxism
• Political dissidence in the Empire of Japan
• List of foreign delegations at the 21st Japanese Communist Party Congress
• List of foreign delegations at the 22nd Japanese Communist Party Congress
• Relations between Japanese revolutionaries, the Comintern and the Soviet Union
• Socialist thought in Imperial Japan
• Zengakuren

Notes

References

Citations