FOCUS: Japanese Communist Party enjoying revival of interest

TOKYO, July 23 KYODO
July 23, 2008 13:34

The Japanese Communist Party, which holds only 16 seats in both houses of the Diet, is under the spotlight as it tries to highlight the nation's growing social disparities.

The JCP is attracting attention on the Internet, especially among young people having trouble finding jobs, while some JCP executives are making frequent appearances on TV and are regularly quoted in the print media.

At a Diet session in February, JCP chief Kazuo Shii pressed Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to help end disparities in employment, saying, ''Day temp staff workers are being discarded like disposable articles.''

The parliamentary session was uploaded to the Internet, triggering a boom for the JCP. On one Internet board, messages were posted such as ''C.G.J'' (Shii, good job) and ''The Communist Party is not too bad.'' When the party posted the exchange on the Internet, it logged around 150,000 hits.

The renewed interest in the party comes against the backdrop of the popularity among the young of ''Kanikosen'' (Crab-Canning Boat) by Takiji Kobayashi (1903-1933), the prewar proletarian bestseller about harsh working conditions.

Tadayoshi Ichida, chief of the JCP Secretariat, said, ''A fresh mood is emerging for the party to gain support.''

Party leaders are increasingly sought after for media appearances and have been interviewed for feature stories in weekly magazines. In May alone, former JCP leader Tetsuzo Fuwa and current party executives appeared on TV and radio programs about 20 times. They were asked fundamental questions such as, ''Is there a limit to capitalism?''

''This is a new situation for our party, the first such situation,'' Shii said.

In an election for the West fifth district of the Saitama prefectural assembly in April, the JCP defeated both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the major opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

While there is a widespread view that the era of socialism ended with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, political analysts believe the sun may be shining again on the JCP, which opposes market fundamentalism, blaming it for widening social disparities.

The JCP, which used to field candidates in all single-seat electoral districts, plans to field candidates in about 140 districts in the next House of Representatives election. This could work to the DPJ's advantage and if opposition parties win more than half of the lower house seats, the JCP could join an opposition-led government, political analysts said.

About 8,000 people joined the JCP between September, when the fifth general conference of its Central Committee was held, and the end of May, although circulation of the party newspaper Akahata has been decreasing.

The paper's daily circulation reached 3.55 million in 1980 but dropped to 1.64 million in 2006 and has been falling since.

Because the JCP does not receive political subsidies, subscription fees provide a vital source of income for its activities. The party's decision to limit the number of candidates it will field in single-seat electoral districts reflects its tight finances.

A 3 million yen deposit is required to field a candidate in a single-seat electoral district. The deposit is forfeited if the number of votes received is less than 10 percent of the total valid votes cast. In the 2005 lower house election, the JCP lost a total of 669 million yen.

==Kyodo