In this House of Representatives election, the Communist Party fell from 10 seats before the election to 8 seats. The party’s newspaper, Akahata, made its presence felt by reporting on major factors that led to the LDP’s significant loss of seats, such as the issue of secret funds within factions, but the party also saw a decrease in its proportional vote count. Why? Experts and former party officials agree that the problem lies in the party’s closed nature. [Kumamoto Yuta, Miyagi Yuya]
“Akahata” delivers a series of scoops On the night of October 27th, the day of the election, Chairperson Tamura Tomoko (59) emphasized that “Akahata” has uncovered suspicions of secret funds within the LDP, and appealed that “the facts uncovered by the Communist Party and Akahata are making a major contribution to the overall situation of the election.” In November 2022, Akahata broke the news that the five major factions of the Liberal Democratic Party had failed to report 25 million yen in income from political fundraising party tickets. He pointed out that this was an illegal cover-up, setting in motion the issue of slush funds. Towards the end of the election, a scoop revealed that the LDP branch headed by a candidate who had failed to gain the LDP’s official endorsement due to illicit funds had received 20 million yen from the party headquarters – the same amount as for an officially endorsed candidate. As Tamura says, the Communist Party’s raising of issues and pursuing them created a headwind that forced the LDP to lose its majority on its own. However, things did not go smoothly for the Communist Party. In the House of Representatives election, the party only won eight seats, and its proportional vote total was 3.36 million, a 19.3% decrease from the 4.16 million votes it received in the previous 2021 House of Representatives election. Professor Nakakita Koji (Political Science) of the Chuo University Faculty of Law, who is also the author of “The Japanese Communist Party: 100 Years of Dreaming of Revolution,” analyzes the situation as follows, while stating that there are several factors at play, including the weakening of the organization due to the aging of party members. “What is noteworthy is that Reiwa Shinsengumi has made great strides and overtaken the number of seats held by the Communist Party. The two parties have similar policies and are both considered radical leftists, but their organizational structures are in stark contrast.” Reiwa’s proportional representation votes increase by 71.7% Reiwa Shinsengumi won nine seats this time, three times the number it had before the election announcement. The number of proportional votes increased by 71.7% from the previous House of Representatives election in 2021 to 3.8 million. According to an exit poll conducted by Kyodo News on the day of the election, among young voters in their teens to 30s, the Communist Party received 2.8-3.3% of the vote, while Reiwa received 5.1-6.3%. “The mainstream of the radical left in Europe is now democratic socialist parties. For example, political parties such as Spain’s Podemos and Greece’s Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) are advocating anti-austerity policies and are attracting people with populist appeals that focus on immigration and other diversity. Reiwa Shinsengumi also falls into this category. People with disabilities are nominated as candidates, and people from a wide range of backgrounds gather at speeches and engage in dialogue. In contrast, the Communist Party is based on the principle of democratic centralism and is a uniform, closed organization.” The “closed nature” of the Communist Party The ongoing disciplinary issues that have been going on since last year are emblematic of the “closed nature” that Professor Nakakita cites. Nobuyuki Matsutake (69), a former Communist Party official from Kyoto Prefecture, is calling for party reform, including the introduction of a system for direct election of the party leader. He published a book that he claims provides a good insight into the inner workings of the Communist Party. The Communist Party expelled Shochiku, citing violations of the party’s rules that state “people should not publish opinions that go against the party’s decisions” and for “acts hostile to the party.” At the party convention in March, a Kanagawa prefectural assembly member who raised doubts about the punishment was denounced. In August, Takayuki Kamiya (54), a former party official from Fukuoka Prefecture, who wrote about the discussions in the Fukuoka Prefectural Committee calling for a review of Matsutake’s punishment in a blog, was also expelled. Withdrawal of expulsion and payment of compensation…(The following is a paid version, 903 characters remaining) Mainichi Shimbun 2024/11/27 05:30.
The reason why the Communist Party is not growing despite the scoop on the slush fund issue and the 20 million yen transfer ↓ The public is not paying any attention to them.
>>8 From the perspective of the younger generation who are dissatisfied with the world, the Communist Party is a vested interest that won’t accept them.
Activists should be aware of how out of touch they are with public sensibilities. They’re just being mobilized and used by the welfare aristocrats who fund themselves with public funds. They got totally defeated in Kobe, so they should just keep quiet.
At one time, left-wingers who believed that “in the end, the Democratic Party is the same as the LDP” took refuge in the Communist Party and gained popularity, but they soon drew back when they realized that the Communist Party is a society based on class differences.
Red Flag extension workers are treated as volunteers and are not even paid the current minimum hourly wage, so raising the pay to 1,500 yen is unlikely to have an impact.
I guess it’s hard to know what they’re aiming for. And if communism is aiming to be a country like the Soviet Union or Cuba, then of course it won’t be well received by young people.
A Communist member in my family says that if the Communist Party doesn’t take power, global warming will destroy humanity, and that if I get a My Number card, the Liberal Democratic Party will take all my savings. He seems happy about it, so I guess it’s fine.
Today’s young people are not stupid, unlike the baby boomers, so they’re not going to join some shitty anti-social organization that will kick you out if you criticize the party.
Japan has always been a capitalist country where hard work is rewarded, and there is a minimum level of social security, so the majority of the people are satisfied.
>>49 They want to be a country like China or Russia They hold elections, but they’re rigged If you say you want to hold serious elections, you’ll get kicked out.
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