Japan Communist Party leader Kazuo Shii
Photo illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

Red star rising: With global capitalism on ropes, communism gains in Japan

By C B Liddell

TOKYO —

Even before the global economic crisis started to bite late last year, political pundits in Japan had already noticed a surprising phenomenon. A 1920s novel about the harsh lives of the workers on Japanese crab fishing and canning ships in the Sea of Okhotsk, written by
a young communist author, had become a surprise bestseller. “Kanikosen” (The Crab Factory Ship) sold well over 500,000 copies last year, while a manga version published by East Press added another 200,000 to the total.

The book, detailing the tyrannical management practices and inhuman living conditions on the ships and the struggle of the workers to unite in their defense, was penned by a 26-year-old bank clerk named Takiji Kobayashi in 1929 — four years before he was arrested and tortured to death by the Japanese police.

Last May, the media began taking note of the renewed interest in the book and started to link it with growing dissatisfaction with modern capitalism, especially among the younger generation. The Yomiuri Shimbun ran a story titled “Kanikosen: Sad Reminder, Lamenting Disparity, Young People’s Empathy,” and the Mainichi followed with “Kanikosen, Proletarian Masterpiece—Unusual Bestseller.” The success of the novel, written from a Marxist viewpoint, also signaled a growing interest among ordinary Japanese voters in the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), which until recently had been greatly vilified.

Throughout the boom times of Japan’s “economic miracle,” the JCP had looked like a ghost at the feast of an incredibly successful capitalist system. The truth, however, is that Japan’s former economic success had been bought at a high cost in human terms, with unpaid overtime, low quality of life, and even the infamous phenomenon of “karoshi,” or death caused by overwork. To this has been added a two-tier employment system of higher-paid, directly employed workers and lower-paid agency staff, as major Japanese corporations have sought greater competitiveness through cost cutting. It’s this situation that makes the extreme exploitation depicted in “Kanikosen” resonate with the present generation.

In a recent essay in the Daily Yomiuri, Waseda University literature professor Hirokazu Toeda wrote, “Kanikosen is discussed and analyzed every time a critical social issue occurs — the disparity society, severe labor conditions, consumer product falsification, random killings. This is a unique characteristic of the ‘Kanikosen’ boom and it now is symbolizing or mirroring all those negative aspects of current day Japan.”

The Japanese Communist Party, which operates from a large headquarters in Tokyo’s Yoyogi area, has seen the benefit. In the last general election in 2005, the JCP grabbed a solid 7.25% of the vote, behind only the Liberal Democratic Party (38%), the Democratic Party of Japan (31%), and Soka Gakkai-sponsored New Komeito (13.25%). Since then, support and membership has been growing. Throughout 2008, approximately 1,000 new members joined every month, swelling the ranks of party members to more than 415,000.

In the same month that the major daily newspapers started running articles about “Kanikosen,” the JCP’s leader, Kazuo Shii, was invited onto a “wide” show to explain Marxism to the masses.
“TV Asahi asked me to appear and pick up some words and phrases from Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ to show using flip boards to the audience,” the 54-year old Shii said at his party’s headquarters.

“I made flip boards with three messages: ‘After me, the deluge.’ This is the slogan of capitalism — in order to get the profits, they don’t care at all what will happen afterwards. The second phrase has been borne out by the subprime crisis: ‘Excessive credit system will give rise to excessive speculation.’ The third one was Engel’s expression that “nature will revenge itself on people,” connected to environmental destruction. This was the first time in Japanese history that a commercial television station has shown such phrases from Marx and Engels.”

Since being elected leader in 2000, Shii, a robust looking man who emanates an atmosphere of pugnacious concern, has worked hard to champion the rights of Japan’s increasing army of temp workers, who are usually the first in line to suffer in any economic downturn. He has also made strides in the party’s decades-long struggle to rebrand itself.

Communist party rebranded

During the Cold War, the JCP was typically seen as a dangerous undemocratic organization, fomenting violence and chaos at the behest of an international communist conspiracy to take over the world — an image that still resonates with many older voters. But, spurred by a sense of disillusionment with the manipulative regimes in Moscow and Beijing, the JCP started to distance itself from international communism in the ’60s and develop a more democratic and nationalistic communism that focused on the concerns and values of ordinary Japanese voters.

This process had advanced so far that, when the Soviet Union collapsed, leading to the disbanding of the Soviet Communist Party in 1991, the JCP reacted enthusiastically and was the only communist party in the world to issue a statement that positively welcomed its demise. For many years before this, the JCP had been a stern critic of Moscow’s attempts to extend its power around the world.

“The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as if it represented world socialism, continuously caused evils of great-power chauvinism and hegemonism which had nothing in common with socialism,” Shii pointed out in a recent speech.

Because of its rejection of foreign control of Japanese affairs, whether from Moscow, Beijing or Washington, it could be claimed that the JCP is actually a more nationalist party than the so-called far right groups with their sound trucks and imperialist rhetoric. Like the far right, the JCP calls for the return of the Kurile Islands from Russia and restricts party membership to Japanese citizens, but unlike these parties, it also strongly and vocally opposes Japan’s subservience to the US. According to Shii, many of the problems Japan faces come from its unequal relationship with its main ally.

The most obvious symbol of this skewed relationship is the continued large-scale U.S. military presence, 18 years after the Cold War ended. To many Japanese, this represents a continuation of the postwar occupation that can no longer be justified by the threat of a Soviet superpower.

Economic data tells a similar story. In 2007 the U.S. ran yet another trade deficit with Japan — $82 billion — suggesting that Japan’s economic role is to make the goods that America consumes. In order to support such exports, however, Japan has kept the yen artificially low by buying dollars and driving down interest rates.

Opposed to subservience to U.S.

“America has a lot of debts and these have been exported to other countries,” Shii comments. “For example, Japan bought a lot of national dollar bonds. In order to support this, Japan’s interest rate has always been very low, almost zero, which is unbelievable in the capitalist system. This is in order to support the United States, and this shows how Japan is subservient to the United States economically.”

Although the JCP’s rhetoric sometime strikes an anti-American and anti-globalist note, Shii is keen to point out the importance of good international relationships. “We don’t endorse anti-globalization,” Shii points out. “What we are calling for is democratic and orderly globalization. This means that the economic sovereignty of each nation should be respected and equal, and mutually beneficial relations should be respected.”

At a time of economic instability linked in the public’s mind to international finance and speculation, the JCP’s message is a popular one. But what about the details?

“In the face of the present financial crisis, three things are important. First, we have to prevent the negative effects of this being imposed on ordinary people. Second, we have to change the character of the Japanese economy, from one depending on foreign demand to one based on internal domestic demand. Third, we have to be clear that the financial crisis we are currently witnessing has been the result of excessive deregulation.”

In 2009, the LDP-Komeito coalition government of Prime Minister Taro Aso will have to call a general election. With the economic situation shaky, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, led by Ichiro Ozawa, looks set to win. But for Shii, the two main parties are almost identical in terms of economic outlook and their views of Japan’s continuing relationship with America. The fact that Ozawa used to be secretary general of the LDP before joining the DPJ has strengthened this perception among voters who are increasingly cynical about the main parties.

“The people are disillusioned by the LDP and the Democratic Party of Japan,” Shii says. “A public opinion poll recently showed a very interesting result. When asked who would be a better prime minister, Ozawa or Aso, Ozawa narrowly won. But a majority of the respondents also said that neither of them is appropriate. People are beginning to realize that it isn’t enough to change the face on the package, you have to change the contents of government as well.”

Although economic times are hard, conditions are far from being as bad as they were on Kobayashi’s fictitious factory ships in the waters off Siberia. Nevertheless, Japan’s export-geared economy, dominated by large corporations keen to retain competiveness by squeezing labor, supported by a political system that relies heavily on big business contributions, is creating the dissatisfaction needed to fuel political change. Although the Communists are unlikely to win power anytime soon, under the leadership of Kazuo Shii, they seem set to make impressive gains in 2009.

This story originally appeared in Metropolis magazine (www.metropolis.co.jp).

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Latest 15 of 82 Total Comments Show All

usaexpat at 12:31 AM JST - 21st January

Yeah, communism worked out so well in Russia, Cuba, China and elsewhere. Communism in practice leads to haves and have nots just like unrestrained capitalism. The only difference is that as practiced here on earth communism has always depended on brutal repression to keep the populace under the thumb of the party elites. I don't see the communist party in Japan making too many gains but I guess they can always dream. Yes folks there is something worse than LDP rule as strange as that seems.
ReikiZen at 10:50 PM JST - 23rd January

Socialism in concept as well as Communism if followed by the rules would work. Unfortunately though it doesn't as history has so soberly proven. The whole redistribution of wealth concept is a good one but how do you decide you deserves it more then someone else. Does the man on the street deserves it more then the waiter in the restaurant trying to feed his family? Well to some it would but this can easily be abused. Did the guy on the street deserve it which didn't even work for the money vs the man in the restaurant who actually did. This is just one example of coarse. Another being of coarse: Where do we get the wealth? From the government. Where does the government get the wealth? From the rich. Where do the rich get the wealth? From exploiting the poor. So the money runs a cycle back to its rightful source. This is pure bunk as the world doesn't work that way.

Socialism doesn't’t work as its structure denies incentive, innovation and information, which in turn leads to dissatisfaction, waste, inefficiency and possible war. Communism is another story but has similar problems. Communism does not take into account human nature. The result is not plenty with everyone content but is more commonly the expectation to consume exceeding the commitment to produce. If everyone were economically equal, everyone would be poor. Otherwise, it is necessary (1) to imprison/eliminate those who will not contribute, (2) to rely upon human nature changing from living on a "conscious level" to living on a "conscience level." It is the most common flaw I find in these theories that result in utopian mind frame. Another problem with communism as an entire economic system is it must remain pure. It cannot blend with a little capitalism and a little socialism. As such repressing, eliminating, or silencing opposing concepts is necessary for the system to remain pure.

Finally, and most importantly, those who are in charge are in control of all the resources and power. It tends to corrupt them even though their intentions may have been good at first or in their minds eye at least. Though it happens in all systems to some degree. In pure communist systems it is very important for those in the community to remain in the good graces of those who will wield their power against anyone deemed dissident, non-productive, or of different thought. Instead of equality, there are vast chasms separating the few in control from the controlled masses. I guess if a return to a dark ages type rule is what people want then this is certainly a option. Capitalism has it problems as well but I doubt society on it's own can come up with anything better which ultimately will have to deal with the same issues in the end.
Betzee at 11:47 PM JST - 23rd January

The whole redistribution of wealth concept is a good one but how do you decide you deserves it more then someone else.

After they have established power, communist governments are not really interested in redistributing wealth but in accumulating it for, say, defense (North Korea), industrialization (China prior to the mid-1980s). The public has no say in the state's investment priorities. Though corporate interests may carry far greater weight in the capitals of many countries with market economies such as Japan, citizens can at least weigh in.
Roger2 at 11:56 PM JST - 23rd January

Socialism is working fine. Look at many of the European countries not to mention the Nordic countries who all have socialist governments they all do fine and enjoy a high standard and quality of life which most Americans can only dream of.

Americans with their free-market fundamentalism fail to recognize that the socialist model which is working is aneconomic system which involves a balance between the government and private business and this no different than what the Japanese Communist Party wants.
Betzee at 12:16 AM JST - 24th January

Americans with their free-market fundamentalism fail to recognize that the socialist model which is working is aneconomic system which involves a balance between the government and private business and this no different than what the Japanese Communist Party wants.

It's the name of the party which causes that reaction. I don't think the JCP's intention is to replicate North Korea but to offer a greater safety net and more job security. The question is, can this be done in an era when capital is mobile? The Scandanavian countries have enjoyed some success here.
Roger2 at 12:26 AM JST - 24th January

I can agree to the name. The name JCP has a bad ring to it. Should scrap the communist word and call it something milder. In American terms they would be on the very very left of the Democrats which I do not think exists there. They do have Chomsky and other left leaning scholars there but. In European terms they would be the Socialists, or the Reds and in most European countries the socialist parties do fairly well. I used to live in Yoyogi right next to the head quaters of JCP. Id read the posters and agree to lots of the things they were saying but I was more irritated by the noise pollution they were causing at Sendagaya Station spewing out their propaganda through their microphone. WIsh they could have kept quiet in a residental area and gone to Shinjuku or Shibuya instead.
Betzee at 05:07 AM JST - 24th January

Socialist parties have long been part of governing coalitions in most parliamentary democracies. To the best of my knowledge, none have advocated appropriating private property, a hallmark of communist dictatorships.

All governments face the same challenge, namely to create stable societies which usually requires a majority of residents have above subsistence level livelihoods. The standards are higher for democracies because dissatisfied constituents can vote elected officials out of office. Hence, in the "free market" US it's standard operating procedure for local governments to waive taxes for some period of time on businesses which agree to put so many jobs in the community. Economists would recognize that as an implicit subsidy.

It's not a great surprise that parties on the left see improved prospects at the ballot box when the economy goes south. People may even seek out information about them, reducing the need to bombard the public in high density locales!

The problem for the JCP is that by representing the interests of the workers, their demands may cause private enterprise to outsource jobs to low wage locales where a segment of the local populace is highly educated, such as India or China.
taniwha at 09:59 AM JST - 25th January

Roger2

Socialism is working fine. Look at many of the European countries not to mention the Nordic countries who all have socialist governments they all do fine and enjoy a high standard and quality of life which most Americans can only dream of.

Roger, I'd like to make two points here for you to consider. I am taking for granted your post is not being ahem, ironic.

Firstly, there are no Nordic countries that are presently "doing fine", and secondly no none of them actually governments that fulfil the basic criteria of what it means to be socialist. The last of course hinges on just whether we are using the phrase 'socialist' government to refer to one that is to some degree 'left leaning', or whether we are actually mistaking what the term 'socialist' in fact means.

Messing about with the meaning of the terms we use is really the critical point here, because as you may appreciate this is one trait of political leaders and corporate directors that recently the majority of us have grown exceedingly wary of.
taniwha at 11:02 AM JST - 25th January

Betzee

Your post is something of an exercise in obfuscation. You appear to construe socialism to equal those existing political parties that choose to label themselves as 'socialist parties'. All OFFICIAL political parties that are part of any so called existing democratic nation are by definition according to their policies, capitalist.

At least since Roosevelt's presidency there has been a steady progress undertaken by all political powers to bring all socialist political parties into the mainstream. The fact that any political party that has refused the status quo has meant effectively disallowed from taking part in any national election list, and in many cases made outright illegal with dire consequences for any individual found to be a member of that banned socialist political party.

The problem for the JCP is that by representing the interests of the workers, their demands may cause private enterprise to outsource jobs to low wage locales where a segment of the local populace is highly educated, such as India or China.

This statement shows a complete lack of understanding of the effects of globalization and actually of the history itself. In the past four decades the principle component of cost to a company has shifted from being the price of raw material to wages (as you yourself note above). The reason wages go up is because wage earners in those previously 'poor' countries demand it. This generally is a tendency across the working demographic, and is not an attribute solely attached to any 'segment of the local population' and certainly doesn't confine itself to the 'highly educated'.

Since when have factory workers been considered to be 'highly educated'?

It is the general manufacturing plants, the factories, that have been the source of any 'real value added products' that have led say, China and India to enrich their economies. In the case of South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan earlier in the previous century there was a shift from agricultural raw products, to value added food products, onward until they were producing most of the world's high end electronics.

Now here is the point with respect to capitalism and globalization. Thee sweep of capitalism in the last three decades has meant the pace of the process of globalization has vastly increased. Today, maintaining an acceptable rate of profit means that corporations, no matter whether they are American, Japanese, or Indian, must today look toward cutting costs. The reason is globalization has meant that local products become progressively too expensive compared to comparable imported products. Local produced goods such as American cars not produced overseas cannot compete with imports. Result, local production is virtually killed off. Consumers just prefer quality at a lower cost, particularly when they have so little money of their own to spend.

Manufacturers find they can only put up their prices so far, in effect, globalization means the capitalist requirement of ever increasing profit is no longer a possibility. When consumers refuse to buy products at higher prices, no matter the bells and whistles added, or the choice of flavors offered, corporations cut wages! This cut in wages has a direct effect both on what consumers within an economy spend (they have less spending power). Meanwhile back in the once 'poor' economy where all the factories are now producing goods once made in the rich economies, workers demand higher wages NOT because they are 'highly educated' but simply because increasing production requires more labour, i.e. they are in demand and so they are now a valuable quantity and can demand increased wages!

Whether the JCP gets into power or not will not change one iota what happens outside of Japan. Point of fact, the JCP have a nationalist agenda, as does every single OFFICIAL and LEGAL communist political party existing in the world at present. Which means if the JCP took control of Japan they would just replicate the problems suffered by any other country in the past that labeled itself communist. Of course, the JCP has itself a conundrum. To be effectively communist, they must control all facets of the economy, including as you point out private ownership, and this would mean they would have to effect a dictatorship.

Socialism and nationalism are oxymorons. The nation state is a product of capitalism itself. But socialism to work at all requires the dissolution of nation states. And by the way, the dissolution of nation states is absolutely the only way to avoid the world returning to medieval times. International socialism is the true form supported by the Fourth International, it is the only workable form, and it is true democracy.
wuzzademcrat at 11:34 AM JST - 25th January

I just laugh at the opponents of capitalism, using the internet - as fine an example of 'the invisible hand' and the genius of free markets as could be found - to propagate their ludicrous fantasies of 'international' socialism.
Betzee at 11:38 AM JST - 25th January

This statement shows a complete lack of understanding of the effects of globalization and actually of the history itself.

That's quite an assertion, and an incorrect one at that. For several years I lived in a community which experienced the different trends evident in today's globalized economy. One was the mobility of labor, principally undocumented Latinos, who gathered in various places designated by the community to await offers of lawn and construction work. Most probably had very few years of formal education, if any. (California has the highest illiteracy rate in the USA).

In the community there was also no shortage of skilled, highly educated IT workers who'd seen their jobs outsourced, principally to India. Capital was mobile and they were not. Some parts of India have skipped the manufacturing stage of development and gone right into activities we associate with post-industrialism. Moreover, it's no longer a back office operation; sophisticated financial work, along with preparing legal documents, has been outsourced to educated Indians. It will be along time before they are in a position to get American-level wages; for one thing their cost of living is much lower. China has attracted both ends of the FDI spectrum, both the low end and the high end stuff. Hence the huge deficits it runs with just about every post-industrial country it trades with.

So this leaves the JCP in exactly the position I outlined. If they make too many demands on private enterprise to provide higher salaries or greater benefits to salary men those companies are in a position to say, adios pal. Factory jobs disappeared long ago; now it's white-collar workers who face the same prospect.
taniwha at 03:44 PM JST - 25th January

Betzee

You are all over the place with this one. Your example of latino migrant workers in California is spot on as an example of the process of globalization above. Your example of educated workers in the IT industry in India is also part of the process. The two examples lie at different ends of the process. A process which is world wide, has been happening over this last century, but that accelerated quickly under the dominant free market policies actioned by the world's nations.

For several years I lived in a community which experienced the different trends evident in today's globalized economy. One was the mobility of labor, principally undocumented Latinos, who gathered in various places designated by the community to await offers of lawn and construction work. Most probably had very few years of formal education, if any. (California has the highest illiteracy rate in the USA).

Well, let's take up your example here.

The mobility of labor is a direct manifestation of the forces of globalisation. Workers move to where wages are highest. This is precisely what free market policies encouraged, no prescribed. Low wage rural contract work attracts Mexican laborers, the majority unskilled and many barely may not be literate. It is this group of workers that have been attracted into crossing the border to take up the kind of work that unskilled Americans did not For the Mexican laborers the money offered is marginally better than they could receive at home for similar work. This is a phenomenon NOT confined to California or even America, it is also typically seen throughout Northern Europe, the UK, Australasia, the Emirates in the UE, and in Japan to name just a few examples.

Actually, we should keep in mind this is largely in the past now. American unskilled labor forces faces increasingly extremely diminished employment opportunities, and of course as a result now must accept the kind of work conditions they would not have accepted prior to 2008. Recent immigrant workers legal or not are now a lot less able to find work since the face competition from the local native language speakers. Language is only one reason though that employers may now choose not to hire immigrant workers over locals given there is no shortage of supply.

What you are describing is a WORLD WIDE phenomenon, a direct result of the processes of globalization, driven over the past few decades to quicken under free market policies. The same free market policies that are at odds with globalization itself. You don't seem to understand the contradiction these two entail. At least you fail to address it, preferring instead to engage in generalizations, and now this reference to 'post industrialization'. What the heck do you mean by this precisely? Are you attempting to invoke the still born notion of 'postmodernism'. This dream child loved by self deceived academics and intellectuals, and deceiving liberal political historians, the idea that history has ended, that everything amounts to a universe of disunity where all is equal and cause has no effect.

Hey, did you realise the financial crises has beaten down the front door of just about everybody else's house bar yours? Its real, its an effect with a cause, the end result of an entire series of cause and effect.
taniwha at 08:24 PM JST - 25th January

Wuzz,

I just laugh at the opponents of capitalism, using the internet - as fine an example of 'the invisible hand' and the genius of free markets as could be found - to propagate their ludicrous fantasies of 'international' socialism

An example of the 'invisible hand'? The free market?

Actually none of this relates to how the Internet came about. Its roots lie in the rigidly controlled environment, of top down management you might know as the American military. The next major creator of the Internet as a means of mass communication for the general public was a direct result of developments from that one traditionally free-market free environment of the 1970's and 1980's inhabited by academic researchers, i.e. western universities.

You know what? Today the Internet exists as the most democratic tool of mass communication in existence, it has global reach and the ability to link every individual able to access a terminal, and the terminals come in many forms. As such the Internet is not only the number one way for people to 'break through the matrix', but also offers a very good approximation of what international socialism represents! Good eh!

It is this free movement of ideas around the globe and a multitude of languages that now presents a threat to the various nation states. Ideas are disseminated beyond the control of governments. The response of course by governments is to attempt to control the Internet by censorship structures. The commercialization of the Internet was always inevitable under the Capitalist system and we can see how the corporate world sets about attempting to maintain markets through laws and regulations.

In reference to the JCP, one of the first policies they would action would be to censor the Internet. After all the very concept of the Internet is democratic and runs counter to the raison d'être of a nationalism and particularly one that is a dictatorship, which as I said above, would be the only possible way for a 'communism' modeled on Stalin's Russia to be enacted in Japan, or any nation. And this as I have said above would not in any way equate with what socialism is about.
Betzee at 12:34 AM JST - 26th January

You are all over the place with this one.

No. I pretty much made the same point (over and over again).

What you are describing is a WORLD WIDE phenomenon, a direct result of the processes of globalization, driven over the past few decades to quicken under free market policies.

Exactly. Japan doesn't stand a chance of avoiding it whether the JCP improves its electoral fortunes or not.
Betzee at 12:45 AM JST - 26th January

I just laugh at the opponents of capitalism, using the internet - as fine an example of 'the invisible hand' and the genius of free markets as could be found

If it were really the offspring of the free market, well using it wouldn't be free. Indeed, UC Berkeley, that bastion of leftism which is also in the forefront of technological innovation, has realized "we can't give away anything for free."

Though a public university, they increasingly operate in a privatized economic environment which necessitates getting the best return you can on whatever you invent.