New Soviet Approaches to the Japanese Left

Abstract

One of the numerous international political ramifications of the Sino-Soviet dispute has been its affects on Asian leftist movements. From the time the conflict between the two major communist powers emerged completely into the realm of public polemics with China's display of adamant opposition to the 1963 partial nuclear test-ban treaty, Sino-Soviet rivalry has directly influenced splits in the Indian, Ceylonese, and Japanese communist parties, and had led the once-powerful Indonesian communist party to adopt only a thinly-veiled strong pro-Peking stance. Generally, the splits in the Asian CPs have redounded to the benefit of Peking-the latter's militant phraseology and peasant-based revolutionary experience being perceived by most Asian communists as a more relevant model for their own ambitions than that presented by an industrialized, Caucasian, seemingly more status quo USSR.1 There are recent indications that Soviet leaders recognize their loss of influence within the revolutionary Asian left and, where feasible, are attempting to reorient their policies to appeal more broadly to the whole Asian leftist spectrum instead of exclusively to the Communists. Japan provides a case study of this new approach where rivalry between the dominant pro-Peking faction of the Japan Communist Party (JCP) and a small pro-Soviet minority led to the breakaway and formation of a rump JCP in December 1964, denoted as the JCP (Voice of Japan) the name of its new party newspaper. Soviet media have provided publicity for the JCP (VOJ), and one of its leaders-Yoshio Shiga-visited the USSR in November 1964, prior to the formal inauguration of the new party. Concurrent with the formation of the JCP (VOJ), a potentially more significant Soviet gambit occurred via a totally new approach to the noncommunist Japanese left, composed of the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) and its affiliates.2 This new approach signified a Soviet realization that its exacerbated relations with the pro-Peking JCP were unlikely to improve and that the small pro-Soviet JCP (VOJ) did not provide a viable alternative for influence in Japanese affairs. On the other hand, the JSP and its affiliated trade union federation, Sohyo, represent the dominant political opposition and major labor organization in the state. They offer a channel of influence to Japanese foreign policy which the JCP could not, as well as contact with JSP-sponsored public movements. These latter include the JSP rival anti-bomb conference-Gensuikin-to the JCP-controlled Gen-