Beliefs and Attitudes of the Japanese Left during the Early 1970s

Abstract

THE JAPANESE ELITE political culture has been known for its sharp ideological division between the conservative ruling and the progressive opposition camps. Some students of Japanese politics relate this situation to the persistent influence of Marxism within the opposition forces, specifically the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) and the Japan Communist Party (JCP), and argue that the lack of consensus on the rules of the game between the conservatives and the leftist parties has been seriously undermining the viability of Japanese democracy. According to this view, Marxism still constitutes the basic driving force of the JSP and the JCP and their leaders are still committed, even if gradually at first, to total transformation of the capitalist system. The resurgence of the radical Shakaishugi Kyokai (Socialism Society-Kyokai hereafter) influence within the JSP since the early 1970s and the party's unchanging confrontationist posture are regarded as evidence of its leadership's deep-seated dogmatism. Even greater suspicion is expressed in regard to the JCP's democratic credibility by those critics who maintain that its intraparty practices reveal the party's unchanging nature as a Stalinist party. Opposing this view, others, including the New Left radicals, contend that the leaders of the JSP and the JCP are merely utilizing radical rhetoric in order to consolidate their support base and/or to combat internal factional struggle. The JSP is viewed as a vehicle for the labor unions concerned mainly with electoral contests, and the JCP now as an electoral party that seeks power largely through the parliamentary process.' Their leaders are concerned for organizational survival and