Rapture of the Oldest Party

The existing oldest party in Japan, established in 1922 when the Soviet Union embarked on, is struggling for its survival by new conceptualization that it is the time for a new bipartisan politics. In its twenty-sixth congress, Japanese Communist Party passed a resolution, which regarded it was the time for confrontation between Liberal Democratic Party and JCP. Incompetence of opposite parties causes unusual surge of this classic revolutionist party.

The resolution in its first part raises political strategy for confrontation against current leading party. “Japan is entering upon what we can characterize as a new phase where the JCP-LDP confrontation has started in full-scale,” determined the resolution. With a unique notion that various intermediate parties between JCP and LDP have ceased to exist, the resolution describes JCP as “the only reliable party that can counter the LDP.” According to its historiography, this is the third advance of the party, following those in late 1960s and the latter half of 1990s.

Based on its own contemplation, the party upheld bold ambitions to strengthen its party basis. Although it received 5.15 million votes, worth 9.7% of all, in last election of the House of Representatives last summer, JCP set a new goal of obtaining 6.5 million and occupy 10% of all the votes in next national election. To achieve it, the resolution encourages the party members to start positive action to include new members in offices, schools and local communities, to promote door-to-door campaign to appeal party policies, and to take advantage of cyber space to reach young and non-partisan people.

The Executive Committee elected a lawmaker in the House of Councillors, Yoshiki Yamashita, for new Head of the Secretariat, while Chairperson of Executive Committee, Kazuo Shii, 59, remained in the chair. The party chose Yamashita, 53, as a young leader to get rid of old image of the party, reducing eighteen years old from former head, Tadayoshi Ichida. However, one cannot say that leaders in their fifties are young enough for an organization to reach young generation.

All those strange political phenomena were caused by weakness of opposite parties, namely Democratic Party of Japan. The increased votes for JCP were a result of negative choices for the people who rejected LDP policies. As long as JCP keeps on seeking communist revolution, it is not likely for them to join a coalition with other parties. However, voters would not come back from JCP, if other opposite parties cannot find any breakthrough in the unilateral leadership of LDP.