The was a major socialist, progressive, and left-wing political party in Japan. Established in 1945, the party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its existence.
The JSP was founded in 1945 by members of pre-war proletarian parties, including the Shakai Taishūtō. In the 1947 election, the JSP became the largest party in the National Diet and formed a government under Tetsu Katayama until 1948. From 1951 to 1955, the JSP was split into the Left Socialist Party and the Right Socialist Party, and in 1960 some of its members broke away to form the rival Democratic Socialist Party. In 1955, Japan's two major conservative parties merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has held power near-continuously since. The JSP was the largest opposition party for the next 40 years, but was incapable of forming a government. Nonetheless, it managed to hold about one third of the seats in the National Diet during this period, preventing the LDP from revising the Constitution of Japan.
Under the leadership of Takako Doi, the JSP achieved brief resurgence in the 1990 election before losing many of its seats in the 1993 election. In 1994, JSP leader Tomiichi Murayama became prime minister of a coalition government before the coalition collapsed in 1996. The JSP's period in the government alienated many of its traditional supporters, and it was reconstituted in 1996 as the Social Democratic Party, which became a minor party. The Democratic Party of Japan replaced the JSP as the main opposition to the LDP.
History
Foundation
The two major left-wing political parties in Japan in the 1930s were the Labour-Farmer Masses Party and Social Democratic Party. They merged into the Shakai Taishūtō in 1932, and were the third-largest party in the after the 1937 election. It was dissolved in 1940 due to the Imperial Rule Assistance Association.
Suehiro Nishio started talking about creating a new socialist party with Chōzaburō Mizutani and Komakichi Matsuoka shortly after Emperor Hirohito's surrender broadcast. Thirteen former members of the National Diet announced their intention to form a new party on 5 September 1945. This organization was officially formed on November 2. It was given the Japanese name Nihon Shakai-tō (Socialist Party of Japan), but given the official English name of Social Democratic Party of Japan. At the founding congress the party adopted the short three-point 1945 platform (accompanied by a detailed set of General Policies).
An inaugural committee of 25 members was formed. The founding convention was chaired by Tetsu Katayama and Nishio was elected General Secretary. Nishio, Mizutani, and other inaugural committee members were appointed to the party's executive committee.
Katayama government The Japanese Communist Party (JCP), unbanned and its leaders freed from prison in October 1945, asked the JSP to form a common political front of Japan's democratic parties. The JSP declined stating that neither had formally established their parties or policies yet. The JSP believed that the coalition would aid the party, but did not believe that the JSP was organized enough to maintain control over it. Morito Tatsuo proposed the creation of a Democratic League for National Salvation after the 1946 election so that the JSP could establish itself as the leader. The JSP's Central Executive Committee voted to end negotiations with the JCP on 14 July 1946.
The JSP initially selected a limited amount of candidates for the 1946 elections. However, the party drastically increased its candidate amount after the Purge Directive, issued on 4 January 1946, greatly reduced the membership of right-wing parties. Conservatives attempted to form a government with right-wing members of the JSP, but the Liberal Party and JSP were unable to.
The JSP rejected an offer from the JCP to work together in the 1947 election. The JSP became the largest party in the election with 143 seats. It formed a coalition government under Katayama with the Democratic Party and the Citizens' Cooperation Party. Katayama was the first socialist to lead Japan. Shortly after the full cabinet was appointed, Katayama delivered the radio address known as the Appeal to the Nation (2 June 1947) and, on 1 July, his first administrative policy speech to the Diet under the new Constitution; these statements outlined the coalition's centrist orientation, commitment to the Constitution, and response to the postwar economic crisis. Despite its short life the government enacted a series of progressive reforms: the National Public Service Act, dissolution of the Home Ministry, police reorganisation, establishment of the Construction Board and the Ministry of Labour, introduction of unemployment insurance, thorough revision of the Civil Code that abolished the feudal family system, and revision of the Criminal Code. It also pursued nationalisation and state-control policies, creating numerous public corporations and expanding public lending on sometimes dubious fiscal grounds. The Temporary Coal Mining Control Law in particular proved highly controversial and required five months of revision before passage, accelerating the erosion of support within the ruling parties. A further crisis over the dismissal of Agriculture Minister Rikizō Hirano and the subsequent appointment of his successor led to open factional strife; the cabinet resigned after only eight months without waiting for the budget to pass.アメリカ占領下の日本 第4巻 アメリカン・デモクラシー NPO法人科学映像館 Katayama's coalition fell in February 1948, in large part due to inexperience and subsequent poor performance in leading the government. A new cabinet was formed under the leadership of Hitoshi Ashida, a member of the Democrats. Ashida's tenure was marked by labor disputes and he resigned after eight months due to a corruption scandal. A caretaker government was formed under the leadership of Shigeru Yoshida. Nishio, who was involved in the corruption scandal and arrested, was expelled from the JSP, but later readmitted into the right-wing JSP in 1952.
Members of Hisao Kuroda's JSP faction in the Diet were expelled after voting against the budget during Ashida's tenure. Kuroda and his supporters broke away and formed the Labourers and Farmers Party. The JSP attempted to delay the 1949 election as it feared massive losses. The JSP's seat total fell from 148 to 48. The JSP rejected efforts by the Sanbetsu to form a united opposition of the JSP, JCP, and Labourers and Farmers against Yoshida's government. JSP members who left to form the Labourers and Farmers Party were readmitted in 1957.
In the period immediately following the end of World War II, the JSP had played a key role in the drafting of the new Japanese constitution, adding progressive articles related to issues such as health, welfare and working conditions. Unfortunately for the JSP and the broader Japanese left in the immediate postwar era, their time in power coincided with a change in U.S. policy towards Japan commonly known as the Reverse Course. Beginning around 1947, and intensifying with the victory of the Communists over the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the U.S. occupation government headed by Douglas MacArthur felt the need to revise its previously conciliatory stance towards the kinds of policies pursued by Japanese leftists, from the breakup of Zaibatsu, the country's business conglomerates, to land reform, to the ousting of nationalist figures in government. Apart from reversing early steps taken towards implementing these policies, the U.S. occupation government oversaw and assisted in the purging of almost 30,000 workers deemed to be "red" between 1948 and 1950, frustrating leftist attempts to hold on to state power.
Early factional conflict over the nature of the party (national party versus class party) crystallised in the Morito–Inamura dispute of 1949–50.
Fracture and reunification
The party's 1949 convention was postponed until after the year's election. The party leadership, including multiple members of the Central Executive Committee, resigned following the party's defeat. The party's right-wing wanted to rename the organization to the Social Democratic Party while the left-wing wanted to retain its name, which was approved. The left-wing wanted the entire right-wing leadership to resign, Katayama retained as chairman, and Mosaburō Suzuki appointed as Secretary General. Inejirō Asanuma was the right-wing candidate for Secretary General. Asanuma defeated Suzuki in the nominating committee's vote with 31 to 30, but lost the convention vote 390 to 261. Katayama was reelected as chairman.
By the time of the 1950 convention the party's factions formed two youth leagues. The left-wing controlled the official Youth Department while the right-wing formed the Independent Youth League. The Youth Department, which held its convention before the party's, demanded the expulsion of all members of the Independent Youth League and prepared a motion of no confidence against Katayama. The left-wing held greater control over the convention than in the previous year, holding almost all of the committee chairmanships. Katayama declined to run for reelection and the right-wing walked out of the convention.
Members of the Diet who were not aligned with either faction formed the Unification Discussion Group. The two factions held separate conventions, but worked together in the Diet due to spring labor disputes and threats from the National Railway Workers' Union to pull its support for the party. The three groups reunited on 3 April, after three months of negation. The position of chairman was left vacant, but Asanuma was made Secretary General. The Central Executive Committee was divided between fifteen left-wingers, nine right-wingers, and six centrists.
In the 1950 elections the JSP won the governorship of Kyoto Prefecture and became the second-largest party in the House of Councillors while the JCP declined in strength. The party's factions were heavily divided over the Treaty of San Francisco and Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan. The party's convention was held on 23 October 1951, and divided into the Right Socialist Party of Japan and Left Socialist Party of Japan after seventeen hours. In the Diet the left-wing voted against both treaties while the right-wing supported the peace treaty and opposed the security treaty. The party remained united at the prefecture level until the final prefecture division in 1953.
The Left Socialists selected Suzuki as chairman and Masaru Nomizo as Secretary General while the Right Socialists selected Asanuma as Secretary General and initially left the position of chairman vacant. Jōtarō Kawakami was later elected Chairman of the Right Socialists. At the time of the schism the JSP's House of Representatives membership was divided into 30 Right Socialists and 16 Left Socialists. Their seat totals rose to 57 for the Right Socialists and 54 for the Left Socialists after the 1952 election. Despite this divided membership the two groups worked together in the Diet with Kaishintō and disaffected Liberals to pass motions of no confidence against Minister of Finance Hayato Ikeda.