Leftist Socialist Party of Japan
The Leftist Socialist Party of Japan was a Japanese political party that existed between 1948 and 1955. It was an extreme left political party, which adopted Marxist-Leninism.
History
Following the defeat of the Japan Socialist Party in 1948 at the hands of Japan's two main conservative parties, the Liberal Party and the Democrat Party, the Japan Socialist Party dissolved into chaos and internal bickering, between moderates and Marxist-Leninists. So, that year, the party split in two. Some of the party members formed a moderate and almost centrist social-democratic party, the Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, while some formed a more extreme, socialist, and Marxist-Leninist Leftist Socialist Party of Japan.
The left-wing was in chaos between 1948 and 1955, and finally, in early 1955, the Rightist Socialists and the Leftist Socialists reconciled and merged back into the Japan Socialist Party, months before the formation of the Liberal Democrat Party, a merger of the Liberal and Democrat parties. The Leftist Socialists always had the upper hand, and even though the party was dissolved, the old leftists held firm control of the Japan Socialist Party (causing a few rightists to leave the party in 1960 and create the Democratic Socialist Party). A recently formed organisation Young Socialists, which retains a full membership of International Union of Socialist Youth), is said to be inherited from the political tradition of Rightist Socialists.
On domestic policy, the party was extreme socialist, Marxist-Leninist and left-wing. It is now defunct.
See Also
Categories: Communist parties | Political parties in Japan