The was a short-lived

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The party was the first of the proletarian parties that emerged in the country after the enactment of the Universal Manhood Suffrage Act of 1925. The party was banned by the Japanese government just a few hours after its foundation.

Preparations

The process to found such a proletarian party had been initiated by the Japan Peasant Union. It sought to gather all parts of the labour movement in the country behind one political party. The preparatory process lasted for several months. In June 1925, the Japan Peasant Union sent out invitations to form the Proletarian Party Preparatory Council. Soon, around 1,000 persons had enlisted in the Preparatory Council. On August 16, 1925, sixteen left-wing groups met, and agreed to form a unified proletarian political party which would include every labour organization with a membership exceeding 100. The Preparatory Council included the rival trade union centres '' Sodomei'' and '' Hyōgikai''. The Platform and Bylaws Research Committee of the Proletarian Party Preparatory Council held its first meeting in September 1925. At the meeting, three draft proposals for party platform were discussed. Two drafts had been authored by rightwing moderates whilst the third (presented by Sano Fumio) represented the communist line. Sano's draft, which emphasized that the party should be built on

class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

and not

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, was adopted by the Committee. ''Hyōgikai'' also submitted their draft for party platform, which listed various political and economical demands. ''Sodomei'' protested against both the Sano and the ''Hyōgikai'' proposals. On November 29, 1925, ''Sodomei'' withdrew from the Preparatory Council, citing that the party-to-be would be in the hands of the far left. The following day ''Hyōgikai'' declared their withdrawal from the Preparatory Council.

Founding

The founding conference of the party was held on December 1, 1925, at the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

Hall in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

International Labour Office The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and ol ...

.
Industrial Labour in Japan
'. Japanese economic history, 1930–1960, v. 5. New York: Routledge, 2000. p. 113 Thirty-three labour organizations took part in the founding of the party. Sugiyama Motojiro was elected party chairman, and

Asanuma Inejirō Asanuma ( 浅沼, "shallow swamp") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: *, Japanese politician and assassinated head of the Japan Socialist Party * Santy Asanuma, Palauan senator *, Japanese voice actor *, Japanese foot ...

general secretary. In the party platform the party adopted at its founding meeting demands such as tenants' rights protection, recognition of trade unions, social insurance, and downsizing of the armed forces were included.

Ban

However, just two hours after the founding meeting had concluded the leadership elected at the party conference were summoned at the Metropolitan Police Board. The Police claimed that the newly founded party had a secret

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

platform in addition to the official party platform.Beckmann, George M., and Genji Okubo.
The Japanese Communist Party 1922-1945
'. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1969. pp. 96–100 The Farmer-Labour Party leaders were presented a writ from the Home Minister to immediately disband the party. The party was prohibited under the Section 8, Clause 2 of the Public Peace Police Act, a law that allowed the Home Minister to ban any association seen as threatening public order and safety.

References

{{Japanese Empire political parties 1925 disestablishments in Japan 1925 establishments in Japan Agrarian socialism Banned socialist parties Defunct agrarian political parties Defunct political parties in Japan Labour parties Political parties disestablished in 1925 Political parties established in 1925 Socialist parties in Japan