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122-514: His influences include Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , Murasaki Shikibu and Fyodor Dostoyevsky . His last book, No Longer Human , is his most popular work outside of Japan. A pseudonym he used was Shunpei Kuroki (黒木 舜平), on the book Illusion of the Cliffs (断崖の錯覚, Dangai no Sakkaku ). Shūji Tsushima was born on June 19, 1909, the eighth surviving child of a wealthy landowner and politician in Kanagi , located in

244-499: A New Left student movement. 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. Over the remainder of

366-529: A geisha named Hatsuyo Oyama  [ ja ] and was formally disowned by his family. Nine days after being expelled from Tokyo Imperial University, Dazai attempted suicide by drowning off a beach in Kamakura with another woman, 19-year-old bar hostess Shimeko Tanabe  [ ja ] . Tanabe died, but Dazai lived, was rescued by a fishing boat, and was charged as an accomplice in Tanabe's death. Shocked by

488-572: A proletarian party . Those members arrested in 1923, and released in 1924 believed that the conditions for a communist party were not present and decided to dissolve the party at the Morigasaki Conference in March. However, Grigori Voitinsky rejected this and ordered them to reestablish the party. In August, a committee with Tokuda as chair was formed to reestablish the party. Masanosuke Watanabe and Sano held positions in this committee and Arahata

610-457: A Stupid Man"), and Bungeiteki na, amari ni bungeiteki na ("Literary, All Too Literary", 1927). Towards the end of his life, Akutagawa suffered from visual hallucinations and anxiety over the fear that he had inherited his mother's mental disorder. In 1927, he survived a suicide attempt, together with a friend of his wife. He later died of suicide after taking an overdose of Veronal , which had been given to him by Mokichi Saitō on 24 July of

732-506: A Withered Field", 1918), Jigoku hen ("Hell Screen", 1918); Hōkyōnin no shi ("The Death of a Christian", 1918), and Butōkai ("The Ball", 1920). Akutagawa was a strong opponent of naturalism . He published Mikan ("Mandarin Oranges", 1919) and Aki ("Autumn", 1920) which have more modern settings. In 1921, Akutagawa interrupted his writing career to spend four months in China , as a reporter for

854-581: A bit. He managed to obtain the assistance of established writer Masuji Ibuse , whose connections helped him get his works published and establish his reputation. The next few years were productive for Dazai. He wrote at a feverish pace and used the pen name "Osamu Dazai" for the first time in a short story called "Ressha" ("列車", "Train") in 1933. This story was his first experiment with the I-novel that later became his trademark. In 1935 it started to become clear to Dazai that he would not graduate. He failed to obtain

976-539: A brief electoral resurgence after the collapse of the JSP in 1996; however, the party has generally been in decline since in terms of electoral results and party membership. The party at present advocates the establishment of a democratic society based on pacificism . It believes that this objective can be achieved by working within an electoral framework while carrying out an extra-parliamentary struggle against " imperialism and its subordinate ally, monopoly capital ". As such,

1098-850: A certain peculiar sense of the joy in life; my mental anguish and exhaustion were such that the oleanders blooming in one corner of the garden appeared to me merely flicking tongues of flame... In the 1930s and 1940s, Dazai wrote a number of subtle novels and short stories that are autobiographical in nature. His first story, Gyofukuki (魚服記, "Transformation", 1933), is a grim fantasy involving suicide. Other stories written during this period include Dōke no hana (道化の花, "Flowers of Buffoonery", 1935), Gyakkō (逆行, "Losing Ground", 1935), Kyōgen no kami (狂言の神, "The God of Farce", 1936), an epistolary novel called Kyokō no Haru (虚構の春, False Spring , 1936) and those published in his 1936 collection Bannen ( Declining Years or The Final Years ), which describe his sense of personal isolation and his debauchery. Japan widened

1220-455: A communist party and calling for work to be done solely within labor unions. Katayama's theoretical understanding of Marxism also remained low. In the aftermath of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake , there was a campaign of rumors instigated by Japanese state authorities that incited widespread massacres of suspected enemies of the state by military, police, and vigilante forces. Military and police officials assassinated key leftist leaders under

1342-409: A five-day allied strike, which resulted in the principal's resignation and no disciplinary action against the students. Dazai hardly participated in the strike, but in imitation of the proletarian literature in vogue at the time, he summarized the incident in a novel called Student Group and read it to Ueda. The Tsushima family was wary of Dazai's leftist activities. On January 16 of the following year,

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1464-493: A form of chanted narration used in bunraku . Around 1928, Dazai edited a series of student publications and contributed some of his own works. He also published a magazine called Saibō bungei ( Cell Literature ) with his friends, and subsequently became a staff member of the college's newspaper. Dazai's success in writing was brought to a halt when his idol, the writer Ryūnosuke Akutagawa , committed suicide in 1927 at 35 years old. Dazai started to neglect his studies, and spent

1586-468: A job at a Tokyo newspaper as well. Dazai finished The Final Years ( Bannen ), which was intended to be his farewell to the world, and tried to hang himself March 19, 1935, failing yet again. Less than three weeks later, Dazai developed acute appendicitis and was hospitalized. In the hospital, he became addicted to Pavinal, a morphine-based painkiller. After fighting the addiction for a year, in October 1936 he

1708-567: 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." In 2008, foreign media recorded an increase in support for

1830-500: A kimono merchant who frequented the young Tsushima family, was shown the scene of the water ingress by a detective from the Mitaka police station. He speculated that "Dazai was asked to die, and he simply agreed, but just before his death, he suddenly felt an obsession with life". Ry%C5%ABnosuke Akutagawa Ryūnosuke Akutagawa ( 芥川 龍之介 , Akutagawa Ryūnosuke , 1 March 1892 – 24 July 1927) , art name Chōkōdō Shujin ( 澄江堂主人 ) ,

1952-601: 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". 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 ,

2074-524: A meeting of members of the Japanese Communist Party in Atami . According to a March 1933 article on the raid, the accused were not the "rag-tag-and-bobtail" of the people. Only a very small minority of the accused were laborers. Almost all the accused were of the "better classes". Among the accused were two judges, two professors of universities, lawyers, teachers, and students. Professor S.H Roberts of

2196-476: A middle school teacher named Michiko Ishihara ( 石原美知子 ). Their first daughter, Sonoko ( 園子 ), was born in June 1941. The year before last I was expelled from my family and, reduced to poverty overnight, was left to wander the streets, begging help for various quarters, barely managing to stay alive from one day to the next, and just when I'd begun to think I might be able to support myself with my writing, I came down with

2318-749: A milk production business. His mother experienced mental illness shortly after his birth , so he was adopted and raised by his maternal uncle, Michiaki Akutagawa, from whom he received the Akutagawa family name. He was interested in classical Chinese literature from an early age, as well as in the works of Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki . He entered the First High School in 1910 and developed relationships with classmates such as Kan Kikuchi , Kume Masao , Yūzō Yamamoto , and Tsuchiya Bunmei  [ ja ] , all of whom would later become authors. He began writing after entering Tokyo Imperial University (now

2440-635: A prominent member on 18 March 1929. This resulted in mass arrests that left Yamamoto, who was sick in Moscow, as one of the few leaders not in prison. 81 high-ranking members of Zenkyō were arrested in April. The party was reconstituted by Seigen Tanaka, Zenshirō Zennō, and Hiroshi Sano in July. Many members wanted to dissolve the party as the Peace Preservation Law was amended to inflict the death penalty. Jōkichi Kazama

2562-459: A serious illness. Thanks to the compassion of others, I was able to rent a small house in Funabashi, Chiba, next to the muddy sea, and spent the summer there alone, convalescing. Though battling an illness that each and every night left my robe literally drenched with sweat, I had no choice but to press ahead with my work. The cold half pint of milk I drank each morning was the only thing that gave me

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2684-514: A training school for Korean revolutionaries was operated jointly by the JCP and several Korean organizations, including the Communist Party of Korea . In South Korea, the JCP is known as the only "pro-South Korea" political party in Japan. Although it is illegal to form a communist party in South Korea, Mindan maintains friendly relations with the JCP. In 2003, due to the consideration of

2806-436: A union affiliated with the JCP, had around 1.5 million members as overall Japanese union membership rose to 6 million in the post-war period. The JCP benefited from Japan's Korean population that was more favorable to communism due to discrimination and high unemployment rates. The JCP made dramatic gains in the 1949 general election , tripling its popular vote support and increasing its seat total from 4 to 35. Beginning in

2928-460: A writer Mishima admired. Alongside this Dazai also wrote Jugonenkan ( For Fifteen Years ), another autobiographical piece. This, alongside Almanac of Pain , may serve as a prelude to a consideration of Dazai's postwar fiction. In July 1947, Dazai's best-known work, Shayo ( The Setting Sun , translated 1956) depicting the decline of the Japanese nobility after the war, was published, propelling

3050-402: Is in some way ferocious. First, I dislike his face. Second, I dislike his rustic preference for urban sophistication. Third, I dislike the fact that he played the roles that were not appropriate for him. Other participants at the dinner could not remember if events occurred as Mishima described. They did report that he did not enjoy Dazai's "clowning" and that they had a dispute about Ōgai Mori ,

3172-432: Is set in the early missionary period. The portrayal of women in Akutagawa's stories was mainly shaped by the influence of three women who acted as his mother figures. Most significant was his biological mother Fuku, from whom he worried about inheriting her madness. Although Akutagawa was removed from Fuku eight months after his birth, he identified strongly with her and believed that, if at any moment he might go mad, life

3294-521: Is the oldest political party in the country . It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired by Tomoko Tamura , who replaced longtime leader Kazuo Shii in January 2024. The JCP was repressed by the Japanese government in the three decades immediately following its founding. The Allied occupation of Japan legalized

3416-574: The Asahi Shimbun , titled Goodbye , but it was never finished. On June 13, 1948, Dazai and Tomie drowned themselves in the rain-swollen Tamagawa Canal , near his house. Their bodies were not discovered until six days later, on June 19, which would have been his 39th birthday. His grave is at the temple of Zenrin-ji, in Mitaka, Tokyo . At the time, there was a lot of speculation about the incident, with theories of forced suicide by Tomie. Keikichi Nakahata,

3538-512: The Osaka Mainichi Shinbun . The trip was stressful and he suffered from various illnesses, from which his health would never recover. Shortly after his return he published Yabu no naka (" In a Grove ", 1922). During the trip, Akutagawa visited numerous cities of southeastern China including Nanjing , Shanghai , Hangzhou and Suzhou . Before his travel, he wrote a short story " The Christ of Nanjing  [ ja ] "; concerning

3660-491: The 1928 election , but a crackdown on 15 March resulted in 1,200 people, including Communist leaders, being arrested and the Japanese government dissolved Hyōgikai and Labour-Farmer Party. Sano, Watanabe, Shoichi Ichikawa , Kenzō Yamamoto, and Hideo Namba avoided arrest as they were serving as representatives to the 6th World Congress of the Communist International and reorganized the party. The Labour-Farmer Party

3782-540: The Allied military occupation of Japan . The first issue of Shimbun Akahata after the end of the war thanked the Allied occupation for the "democratic revolution" that was occurring and called for the recreation of a communist political party. A national conference was held on 8 November 1945, and the 4th Party Congress was held from 1 to 2 December. Nosaka returned to Japan after fourteen years in exile on 10 January 1946. Under

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3904-962: The Communist Party USA . Katayama founded the Association of Japanese Socialists in America and served as chair of the Far Eastern People's Congress. In 1921, Katayama was informed by the Communist International (Comintern) that the First Congress of the Toiler of the Far East would be held on 21 January 1922 in Irkutsk. Three men from his organization (Watanabe Haruo, Taguchi Unzo, and Maniwa Suekichi) served as delegates. The Japanese Communist Party

4026-627: The House of Peers . This caused Dazai's father to be absent during much of his early childhood; with his mother, Tane, being ill, Dazai was brought up mostly by the family's servants and his aunt Kiye. In 1916, Dazai began his education at Kanagi Elementary. On March 4, 1923, his father Gen'emon died from lung cancer. A month later, in April, Dazai attended Aomori Junior High School, followed by entering Hirosaki University 's literature department in 1927. He developed an interest in Edo culture and began studying gidayū,

4148-717: The National Diet . 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), Miyamoto reported a membership above 100,000 in 1964, and the party had acquired around 300,000 members by 1970. The JCP's vote totals in the prefectural assemblies doubled between the 1959 and 1963 elections and their seats rose from 12 to 22 despite running 200 fewer candidates. The JCP's vote totals and seats in city council elections rose from 509,069 to 880,991 votes and 218 to 369 seats. Their vote totals in

4270-564: The Pacific War by attacking the United States in December, but Dazai was excused from the draft because of his chronic chest problems, as he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. The censors became more reluctant to accept Dazai's offbeat work, but he managed to publish quite a bit regardless, remaining one of very few authors who managed to get this kind of material accepted in this period. A number of

4392-487: The Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Reiwa Shinsengumi . 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 . The party supports eliminating the wage gap between men and women and has called for

4514-563: The United Nations Charter . The JCP took a neutral stance during the Sino-Soviet split and Miyamoto believed that it was unnecessary for the JCP to take a side. A pro-Chinese faction under the leadership of Hakamada Satomi and pro-Soviet faction under the leadership of Yoshio Shiga and Shigeo Kamiyama existed within the JCP. However, both groups were in the minority compared to the neutral faction. Another pro-Soviet faction of

4636-513: The University of Sydney reported in a 1934 newspaper that "all Japan was stirred when it was realized that only a minority of prisoners were laborers." In addition, the arrested were also accused of being connected to the Omori Bank Robbery . Kazama and other leaders were arrested in fall 1932. The party was reformed by Masami Yamamoto, who was also sent from Moscow, in January 1933, but he

4758-514: The dissolution of the Soviet Union , the JCP released a press statement titled "We welcome the end of a party which embodied the historical evil of great power chauvinism and hegemonism ". The party also criticized the Eastern Bloc countries which abandoned socialism, describing their decisions as a "reversal of history". Consequently, the party did not suffer an internal crisis as a result of

4880-413: The left–right political spectrum . The JCP strives to change the nation's economic policy of what it views as serving the interests of large corporations and banks to one of "defending the interests of the people". It advocates establishing "democratic rules" that will check the activities of large corporations and "protect the lives and basic rights of the people". Regarding the international economy ,

5002-566: The literary award for promising new writers, the Akutagawa Prize , in his honor. In 2020 NHK produced and aired the film A Stranger in Shanghai . It depicts Akutagawa's time as a reporter in the city and stars Ryuhei Matsuda . Japanese Communist Party The Japanese Communist Party ( 日本共産党 , Nihon Kyōsan-tō , abbr. JCP ) is a communist party in Japan . Founded in 1922, it

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5124-505: The national anthem , both of which the party views as relics of Japan's militarist past. The JCP has been one of the political parties to vocally back LGBTQ+ rights in the country ; communist lawmakers have been working to win the passage of same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination laws in parliament. The JCP jointly supports the passing of an LGBT equality law with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP),

5246-486: The one-party politics of China and the Soviet Union, and purged pro-Soviet or Chinese members. 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 (JSP) in the 1970s to elect a number of progressive mayors and governors. By 1979, the JCP held about 10% of the seats in the National Diet . The party saw

5368-514: The "Thought Police". JCP members and sympathizers were imprisoned and pressured to " convert " ( tenkō suru ) to anti-communist nationalism. Many of those who refused to convert remained imprisoned for the duration of the Pacific War . The Japanese Communist Party member Hotsumi Ozaki , who was part of the Richard Sorge spy ring for the Kremlin , was the only Japanese person hanged for treason under

5490-482: The 1930s, while the JCP was still illegal, it was the only political party to vocally oppose Japan's war with China . The JCP supports Japanese territorial claims over the Kuril and Senkaku Islands and Liancourt Rocks . Furthermore, the JCP has condemned North Korea's nuclear-weapons testing, calling for effective sanctions, but opposing the prospect of a military response. The JCP's leading politicians are known to be

5612-471: 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. 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

5734-549: The 2014 elections, receiving 7,040,130 votes (13.3%) in the constituency section and 6,062,962 (11.37%) in the party lists. During the nomination period of the July 2016 House of Councillors election , the party signed an agreement with the Democratic , Social Democratic and People's Life parties to field a jointly endorsed candidate in each of the 32 districts in which only one seat was contested, uniting in an attempt to take control of

5856-483: The Chinese Christian community; according to his own imaginative vision of Nanjing, as influenced by classical Chinese literature. Akutagawa's stories were influenced by his belief that the practice of literature should be universal and could bring together Western and Japanese cultures. The idea can be seen in the way that Akutagawa used existing works from a variety of cultures and time periods and either rewrites

5978-587: The House from the LDP–Komeito coalition. JCP leaders expressed willingness to enter into a coalition with the Democratic Party, a notion which was rejected by then-Democratic Party President Katsuya Okada as being "impossible" in the near future due to what he viewed as some of the "extreme leftist policies" promoted by the JCP. The party had three Councillors up for re-election and fielded a total of 56 candidates in

6100-414: 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

6222-504: The JCP argued that the main enemy was American imperialism, and along with affiliated groups, focused its protests around the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Accordingly, JCP-linked groups were the driving force behind the " Hagerty Incident " in which the car carrying U.S. President Eisenhower 's press secretary James Hagerty was mobbed outside of Tokyo's Haneda Airport on 10 June 1960, provoking a major international incident and helping to precipitate

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6344-422: The JCP became a more traditional democratic socialist party after modifying its policies in the 1990s. This analysis is supported by the Japanese political scientist Kōji Nakakita  [ ja ] , who is often cited as a specialist on the JCP. The JCP follows a Marxist ideology, stating that the theory of Marx and Engels is the foundation of their program. The party sits on the left to far-left of

6466-657: The JCP does not advocate violent revolution but rather a "democratic revolution" to achieve "democratic change in politics and the economy". It accepts the current constitutional position of the emperor but opposes the involvement of the Imperial House in politics. A staunchly anti-militarist party, the JCP firmly supports Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution and seeks to dissolve the Japan Self-Defense Forces . It opposes Japan's military alliance with

6588-420: The JCP gradually began to pull back from its militant line, a process facilitated by the death of Stalin in 1953. 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. Shigeo Shida  [ ja ] and Ritsu Itō  [ ko ] were informally controlling

6710-417: The JCP has advocated establishing a new international democratic economic order on the basis of respect for each country's economic sovereignty . The party strongly opposed Japan's consideration of the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership . The JCP views the United States, transnational corporations, and international financial capital as the main pushers of globalization , which it asserts is negatively affecting

6832-476: The JCP in the early 1950s. Tokuda's death in 1953 created a power vacuum in the party. Shida won and Itō was expelled from the party, having been accused of being a spy. Shida's influence waned in the late 1950s as Miyamoto, who became General Secretary in 1958, gained power. Members of Shida's faction later broke away to from a new JCP in September 1965. This group performed poorly in elections despite support from

6954-527: The Japanese Emperor of the time, Emperor Hirohito and his son Akihito . Dazai was a known communist throughout his career, and also expressed his beliefs through this Almanac of Pain . On December 14, Dazai and a group of writers were joined by Yukio Mishima at a restaurant for dinner. The latter recalled that on that occasion, he gave vent to his dislike of Dazai. According to a later statement by Mishima: The disgust in which I hold Dazai's literature

7076-430: The Kōza Ha (Lecture Faction), which dated back to the prewar era. 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

7198-498: The Peace Preservation Law. Police also widely used methods of torture against arrested communists. One of the JCP members killed by police torture in this period was the writer Kobayashi Takiji . Hyōgikai was formed on 25 May 1925, and this union served as a vehicle for the communist party. Other proletariat parties ( Japan Farmers Party , Japan Labour-Farmer Party , Social Democratic Party , and Labour-Farmer Party ) were formed during this period. These parties won seven seats in

7320-524: The Rashomon Gate taken from Akutagawa's Rashōmon . Ukrainian composer Victoria Poleva wrote the ballet Gagaku (1994), based on Akutagawa's Hell Screen . Japanese composer Mayako Kubo wrote an opera entitled Rashomon , based on Akutagawa's story. The German version premiered in Graz, Austria in 1996, and the Japanese version in Tokyo in 2002. The central conceit of the story (i.e. conflicting accounts of

7442-655: The Soviet Union and China. A purge of pro-Chinese elements in the JCP, including Tokuda's son Nishizawa Ryūji from the Central Committee, was conducted in 1966. In 1976, mentions of "Marxism–Leninism" in the party program were changed to " scientific socialism ". 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

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7564-456: The Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, nor did it consider disbanding or changing its name. However, owing to a significant loss in electoral support, the party revised its policies in the 1990s and became a more traditional democratic socialist party. 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

7686-403: The Soviet Union. In 1960, the JCP played a central role in organizing the massive Anpo protests against the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty , which were the largest protests in Japanese history. The JCP took a different line than the Japan Socialist Party , Sohyo labor federation, and other groups who argued that the main target of the protest movement was Japanese monopoly capitalism. Instead,

7808-522: 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. This devastating "Cominform Criticism" led rival JCP factions to compete for the Cominform's approval, and ultimately led to

7930-579: 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. Miyamoto also began distancing the JCP from the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s. The party maintained a neutral stance during the Sino-Soviet split , declared its support for multi-party democracy in opposition to

8052-586: The Special High Police arrested Ueda and nine other students of the Hiroko Institute of Social Studies, who were working as activists for Seigen Tanaka's armed Communist Party. In college, Dazai met activist Eizo Kudo, and made a monthly financial contribution of ¥10 to the Japanese Communist Party . The reason he was expelled from his family after his marriage to Hatsuyo Oyama was to prevent

8174-416: The United States as an unequal relationship and infringement of Japan's national sovereignty . Sanzō Nosaka became a communist in the late 1910s and was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain . Sen Katayama left Japan for the United States in 1914, after serving a prison sentence for supporting a strike. He became a communist during his time in the country and was a founding member of

8296-453: The University of Tokyo) in 1913, where he studied English literature . While still a student, he proposed marriage to a childhood friend, Yayoi Yoshida, but his adoptive family did not approve the union. In 1916 he became engaged to Fumi Tsukamoto  [ ja ] , whom he married in 1918. They had three children: Hiroshi Akutagawa (1920–1981) was an actor, Takashi Akutagawa (1922–1945)

8418-581: The already popular writer into celebrityhood. This work was based on the diary of Shizuko Ōta ( 太田静子 ), an admirer of Dazai's works who first met him in 1941. The pair had a daughter, Haruko, ( 治子 ) in 1947. A heavy drinker, Dazai became an alcoholic and his health deteriorated rapidly. At this time he met Tomie Yamazaki ( 山崎富栄 ), a beautician and war widow who had lost her husband after just ten days of marriage. Dazai effectively abandoned his wife and children and moved in with Tomie. Dazai began writing his novel No Longer Human (人間失格 Ningen Shikkaku , 1948) at

8540-544: The association of illegal activities with Bunji, who was a politician. After his marriage, Dazai was ordered to hide his sympathies and moved repeatedly. In July 1932, Bunji tracked him down, and had him turn himself in at the Aomori Police Station. In December, Dazai signed and sealed a pledge at the Aomori Prosecutor's Office to completely withdraw from leftist activities. Dazai kept his promise and settled down

8662-475: The bills. It was the first time the party had called for such cooperation with other parties. The JCP is generally regarded as the most progressive party in Japanese politics. The JCP has traditionally been opposed to the existence of the Imperial House since its inception. However, the party changed its stance in 2004 by acknowledging the Emperor as Japan's head of state. The JCP has stated that it supports

8784-574: The cover of martial law, including Ōsugi Sakae . In May 1923, a roster of the JCP's membership was found by police at Manabu Sano's quarters at Waseda University . A series of protests were occurring at the university about military training. On 5 June, almost every member of the party, except those in rural areas or outside the country, were arrested. A group of Japanese communists, including Arahata, assembled in Vladivostok in August, and decided to create

8906-476: The delegates. The Anpo protests greatly strengthened the hand of the Kōza Ha faction. During the protest, the JCP, still scarred by the backlash to its violent line in the 1950s, consistently advocated peaceful, orderly, and restrained protests. 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

9028-508: The downfall of the Nobusuke Kishi cabinet. 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. 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

9150-449: The election, down from 63 candidates in the 2013 election, but still the second-highest number after the LDP. However, only 14 of those candidates contested single- and multi-member districts, while 42 contested the 48-seat national proportional representation block. Councillor Tomoko Tamura was appointed as the party's first chairwoman on 18 January 2024, replacing Kazuo Shii who had occupied

9272-406: The establishment of a democratic republic, but also that "[the monarchy's] continuation or discontinuation should be decided by the will of the majority of the people in future, when the time is ripe to do so". In 2000, the party opposed legislation which reintroduced two symbolic practices to secondary school graduation ceremonies in Japan, namely the raising of the national flag and the singing of

9394-504: The events, Dazai's family intervened to stop a police investigation. His allowance was reinstated, and he was released of any charges. In December, Dazai recovered at Ikarigaseki and married Hatsuyo there. In 1929, when its principal's misappropriation of public funds was discovered at Hirosaki High School, the students, under the leadership of Ueda Shigehiko (Ishigami Genichiro), leader of the Social Science Study Group, staged

9516-412: 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. The purge

9638-403: The following year in the literary magazine Teikoku Bungaku ("Imperial Literature"), while still a student. The story, based on a twelfth-century tale, was not well received by Akutagawa's friends, who greatly criticized it. Nonetheless, Akutagawa gathered up the courage to visit his idol, Natsume Sōseki , in December 1915 for Sōseki's weekly literary circles. In November, he published the work in

9760-513: The global economy by further widening the North–South economic divide and creating irrevocable environmental problems. The JCP advocates the "democratic regulation of activities by transnational corporations and international financial capital on an international scale". 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

9882-432: The guidance of Nosaka, the party pursued a policy of portraying itself as "lovable". 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. In particular, the party was successful in winning acceptance of the notion that communists had been

10004-434: The hot-spring resort Atami . He moved to Ōmiya with Tomie and stayed there until mid-May, finishing his novel. A quasi-autobiography, it depicts a young, self-destructive man seeing himself as disqualified from the human race. The book is considered one of the classics of Japanese literature, and has been translated into several foreign languages. In the spring of 1948, Dazai worked on a novella scheduled to be serialized in

10126-581: The idea that Japan, as an Asian country, must not allow its relationship with the United States and the G8 to define its foreign relations and should put its East Asian neighbors at the center of its diplomatic efforts. It supports establishing an "independent foreign policy in the interests of the Japanese people" and rejects "uncritically following any foreign power". The JCP advocates that Japan issue further apologies for its actions during World War II and has condemned prime ministerial visits to Yasukuni Shrine . In

10248-461: The imperial regime's expansionist policy in Asia . Following the outbreak of the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria , the Japanese Communist Party had infiltrated the military, including in Tokyo, and Osaka. They would distribute leaflets, and newspapers opposing the war. On 4 October 1945, all political prisoners, including communists that had been imprisoned for decades, were ordered to be released by

10370-435: The importance of structure versus lyricism in stories. Akutagawa argued that structure (how the story was told) was more important than the content or plot of the story, whereas Tanizaki argued the opposite. Akutagawa's final works include Kappa (1927), a satire based on the eponymous creature from Japanese folklore , Haguruma ("Spinning Gears" or "Cogwheels", 1927), Aru ahō no isshō ("A Fool's Life" or "The Life of

10492-694: The literary magazine Teikoku Mongaku . In early 1916 he published "Hana" ("The Nose", 1916), which received a letter of praise from Sōseki and secured Akutagawa his first taste of fame. It was also at this time that Akutagawa started writing haiku under the haigo ( pen name ) Gaki . Akutagawa followed with a series of short stories set in Heian period , Edo period or early Meiji period Japan. These stories reinterpreted classical works and historical incidents. Examples of these stories include: Gesaku zanmai ("Absorbed in Letters", 1917) and Kareno-shō ("Gleanings from

10614-505: The long term, international situation permitting. The JCP opposes the possession of nuclear weapons by any country, military blocs, and attempts to revise Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution , which says that "never again   ... [will Japan] be visited with the horrors of war through the action of government". Regarding the resolution of disputes, it argues that priority must be given to peaceful means through negotiations, not to military solutions. The JCP says that Japan must adhere to

10736-519: The majority of his allowance on clothes, alcohol, and prostitutes. He also dabbled with Marxism , which at the time was heavily suppressed by the government. On the night of December 10, 1929, Dazai made his first suicide attempt, but survived and was able to graduate the following year. In 1930, Dazai enrolled in the French Literature Department of Tokyo Imperial University and promptly stopped studying again. In October, he ran away with

10858-426: 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. This thesis was a combination of late Stalinist and Maoist thought. The result was a campaign of violence in which JCP activists threw Molotov cocktails at police boxes and cadres were sent up into

10980-455: The most active opponents of anti-Korean racism and xenophobia in Japan. Contemporary JCP politicians criticize mainstream Japanese politicians for instigating contempt towards Korea, and oppose historical revisionism in regard to Korean history and Japanese war crimes. The JCP was one of the few Japanese parties which supported the Korean independence movement . In the latter half of the 1940s,

11102-459: The mountains with instructions to organize ostensibly oppressed farmers into " mountain guerrilla squads ". 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. Stunned,

11224-566: The northern tip of Tōhoku in Aomori Prefecture . He was the tenth of eleven children born to his parents. At the time of his birth, the huge, newly-completed Tsushima mansion , where he would spend his early years, was home to some thirty family members. The Tsushima family was of obscure peasant origins, with Dazai's great-grandfather building up the family's wealth as a moneylender, and his son increasing it further. They quickly rose in power and, after some time, became highly respected across

11346-424: 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

11468-405: The only ones to resist Japanese wartime militarism . This propaganda effort won the party thousands of new members and an even larger number of sympathizers, especially among artists and intellectuals. Party membership, which never exceeded 1,000 in the pre-war period, rose from 1,180 in December 1945, to 7,500 by February 1946, 70,000 by December 1947, and over 100,000 by April 1950. Sanbetsu ,

11590-637: The participation of more women in Japanese politics and political life. One of the JCP's main objectives is terminating the Japan–United States military alliance and the dismantling of all American military bases in Japan , with a goal to make Japan a non-aligned and neutral country , in accordance with its principles of self-determination and national sovereignty . There are about 130 American military bases and related facilities in Japan, with Okinawa Prefecture alone hosting more than half of United States Forces Japan personnel. The JCP adheres to

11712-482: The party due to the effect of the global financial crisis on Japanese workers. However, the party failed to increase its number of seats in the 2009 general election . Subsequently, the projected decline of the party was halted, with the JCP becoming the third-largest party in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly and making gains in the House of Councillors, going from six to 11 seats. The party surged in

11834-601: The party for voting in favor of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. Shiga and Suzuki were praised in Soviet publications, including Pravda . The publication of Shimbun Akahata faced restrictions in the Soviet Union while Shiga's Voice of Japan did not. The JCP supported China during the Sino-Indian War . Miyamoto announced the JCP's opposition to the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia . At

11956-546: The party was under the leadership of Shōjirō Kasuga . Kasuga's faction formed the Preparatory Commission for a Socialist Reform Movement on 9 October 1961. This group broke away on 3 May 1962, and formed the Unified Socialist League with 600 members. Relations between the Soviet Union and JCP soured as the Soviets attempted to court the JSP. Shiga and Ichizo Suzuki  [ jp ] were expelled from

12078-525: The region. Dazai's father, Gen'emon, was a younger son of the Matsuki family, which due to "its exceedingly 'feudal' tradition" had no use for sons other than the eldest son and heir. As a result, Gen'emon was adopted into the Tsushima family to marry the eldest daughter, Tane. He became involved in politics due to his position as one of the four wealthiest landowners in the prefecture, and was offered membership into

12200-489: The role for over 23 years. The JCP is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world; it is, however, politically moderate and advocates a peaceful transition to communism. Marxism–Leninism , which former party chairman Tetsuzo Fuwa had worked for years to make acceptable to the electorate, was abandoned in favor of scientific socialism in 1976. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica ,

12322-487: The same events from different points of view, with none "definitive") has entered into storytelling as an accepted trope. In 1930, Tatsuo Hori , a writer, who saw himself as a disciple of Akutagawa, published his short story " Sei kazoku " (literally "The Holy Family"), which was written under the impression of Akutagawa's death and even paid reference to the dead mentor in the shape of the deceased character Kuki. In 1935, Akutagawa's lifelong friend Kan Kikuchi established

12444-416: The same time, the party had distanced itself from Mao and Maoism, which allowed it to avoid being associated with China's Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution once they started coming more fully to light in the 1970s. In July 1969, the JCP declared that if it ever came to power, it would permit the free functioning of opposition parties, in an effort to distinguish itself from the one-party states in

12566-413: The same year. In his will he wrote that he felt a "vague insecurity" ( ぼんやりした不安 , bon'yari shita fuan ) about the future. He was 35 years old. During the course of his short life, Akutagawa wrote 150 short stories. A number of these have been adapted into other media. Akira Kurosawa 's famous 1950 film Rashōmon retells Akutagawa's In a Bamboo Grove , with the title and the frame scenes set in

12688-525: The stories which Dazai published during the war were retellings of stories by Ihara Saikaku (1642–1693). His wartime works included Udaijin Sanetomo (右大臣実朝, "Minister of the Right Sanetomo", 1943), Tsugaru (1944), Pandora no Hako (パンドラの匣, Pandora's Box , 1945–46), and Otogizōshi (お伽草紙, Fairy Tales , 1945) in which he retold a number of old Japanese fairy tales with "vividness and wit." Dazai's house

12810-406: The story with modern sensibilities or creates new stories using ideas from multiple sources. Culture and the formation of a cultural identity is also a major theme in several of his works. In these stories, he explores the formation of cultural identity during periods in history where Japan was most open to outside influences. An example of this is his story "Hōkyōnin no Shi" ("The Martyr", 1918) which

12932-515: The then liberal South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun , formal exchanges between the JCP and the South Korean government began. The JCP has traditionally championed pacifism . With regards to the Japan Self-Defense Forces (Japan's armed forces), the JCP's current policy is that it is not principally opposed to its existence (in 2000 the party stated that it would agree to its use should Japan ever be attacked), but that it will seek to abolish it in

13054-478: The town council elections doubled and their seats rose from 168 to 314. 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. Party membership continued to grow in the 1970s, albeit at a slower rate than in the 1960s, reaching approximately 500,000 members by 1980. After

13176-414: The turn of the century. From the former came Yamakawa Hitoshi , Sakai Toshihiko , and Kanson Arahata , who had all been supporters of Kōtoku Shūsui , an anarchist executed in 1911. Katayama, another early party leader, had been a Christian socialist for much of his political life. The three former anarchists were reluctant to found the JCP, with Yamakawa shortly after arguing that Japan was not ready for

13298-409: The wife of a poet who had abandoned her and her continuing will to live through hardships. In 1946, Osamu Dazai released a controversial literary piece titled Kuno no Nenkan (Almanac of Pain), a political memoir of Dazai himself. It describes the immediate aftermath of losing the second World War, and encapsulates how Japanese people felt following the country's defeat. Dazai reaffirmed his loyalty to

13420-572: Was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan . He is regarded as the "father of the Japanese short story ", and Japan's premier literary award, the Akutagawa Prize , is named after him. He took his own life at the age of 35 through an overdose of barbital . Ryūnosuke Akutagawa was born in Irifune , Kyōbashi , Tokyo City (present-day Akashi, Chūō , Tokyo ), the eldest son of businessman Toshizō Niihara and his wife Fuku. His family owned

13542-590: Was an organizer in the Kansai region . The JCP was formally reestablished on 4 December 1926. Fukumoto Kazuo , a rising figure in Japanese communism, was a member and his ideology, Fukumotoism, was a main part of the platform. The JCP was outlawed in 1925 with the passage of the Peace Preservation Law , the JCP was subjected to repression and persecution by the Special Higher Police ( Tokkō ), nicknamed

13664-445: Was arrested in May. Manabu Sano, Kazama, Tanaka, and other imprisoned Communist leaders denounced communism starting in May. The leadership of the party's central committee passed from Eitaro Noro to Kenji Miyamoto to Hakamada Satomi as a result of each person's arrests. The party lost its organization after Satomi's arrested in 1935. The JCP campaigned against the invasion of China and

13786-559: Was burned down twice in the American bombing of Tokyo , but his family escaped unscathed and gained a son, Masaki (正樹), who was born in 1944. His third child, daughter Satoko (里子), who later became a famous writer under the pseudonym Yūko Tsushima , was born in May 1947. In the immediate postwar period, Dazai reached the height of his popularity. He depicted a dissolute life in postwar Tokyo in Viyon no Tsuma (ヴィヨンの妻, "Villon's Wife", 1947), depicting

13908-507: Was founded in Tokyo on 15 July 1922, at a meeting where Kyuichi Tokuda discussed sessions held between the Japanese delegation and Comintern officials. Two delegates were sent to the 4th World Congress of the Communist International and a general meeting of the party was held in Ichikawa, Chiba , on 4 February 1923. The party's early leadership was drawn from the anarcho-syndicalist and Christian socialist movements that developed around

14030-587: Was further intensified in response to the outbreak of the Korean War . Douglas MacArthur considered banning the JCP on 3 May 1950. Twenty-four members of the party's central committee were removed from office on 6 June and its newspaper, Shimbun Akahata , was suspended on 27 June. A total of 11,000 workers and 1,200 government workers were fired from 1949 to 1950. Union divisions and attacks on communist influence in labor led to Sanbetsu's membership falling to 400,000 by 1949. Against this backdrop in January 1950,

14152-773: Was killed as a student draftee in Burma, and Yasushi Akutagawa (1925–1989) was a composer. Following graduation, Akutagawa taught briefly at the Naval Engineering School in Yokosuka, Kanagawa as an English language instructor, before deciding to devote his efforts to writing fulltime. In 1914, Akutagawa and his former high school friends revived the literary journal Shinshichō ("New Currents of Thought"), where they published translations of William Butler Yeats and Anatole France along with works they had written themselves. Akutagawa published his second short story " Rashōmon "

14274-416: Was marked by deteriorating physical and mental health . Much of his work during this period is distinctly autobiographical , some with text taken directly from his diaries. His works during this period include Daidōji Shinsuke no hansei ("The Early Life of Daidōji Shinsuke", 1925) and Tenkibo ("Death Register", 1926). At this time, Akutagawa had a highly publicized dispute with Jun'ichirō Tanizaki over

14396-466: Was meaningless. His aunt Fuki played the most prominent role in his upbringing, controlling much of Akutagawa's life as well as demanding much of his attention, especially as she grew older. The women who appear in Akutagawa's stories, much like his mother figures, were for the most part written as dominating, aggressive, deceitful, and selfish. Conversely, men were often represented as the victims of such women. The final phase of Akutagawa's literary career

14518-446: 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. 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% of

14640-633: Was reconstituted, with opposition from the Comintern-affiliated communists, into the Proletarian Masses Party with Mosaburō Suzuki as Secretary General. An attempt to reform Hyōgikai resulted in arrests so a new organization, the National Council of Japanese Labor Unions (Zenkyō), was formed as an underground group with 5,500 members on 25 December 1928. Police found a chart of the JCP's district organization in Tokyo after arresting

14762-518: Was sent from Moscow to rebuild the party in December 1930. He and Noboru Matsumura wrote the 1931 Draft Thesis, but the Comintern was displeased with it. A new document supported by the Comintern, the 1932 Draft Thesis, was written by Nosaka and served as the JCP's main document until 1946. This document stated that a bourgeois revolution to eliminate feudalism and the emperor must occur before the proletariat revolution. In 1932, Japanese authorities raided

14884-424: Was taken to a mental institution, locked in a room and forced to quit cold turkey . The treatment lasted over a month. During this time Dazai's wife Hatsuyo committed adultery with his best friend Zenshirō Kodate. This eventually came to light, and Dazai attempted to commit shinjū with his wife. They both took sleeping pills, but neither died. Soon after, Dazai divorced Hatsuyo. He quickly remarried, this time to

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