Japan Revolutionary Communist League, National Committee (革命的共産主義者同盟全国委員会 ''Kakumeiteki Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei, Zenkoku Iinkai''^?) is a Japanese

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective, to refer to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor. ...

group, often referred to as Chūkaku-ha (中核派 "Central Core Faction") in Japanese. Their main goal is to have Japan, and the entire world, adopt

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 ...

policies. Chūkaku-ha reject

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

and

Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

. The group is led by Takeo Shimizu, who became the chairman in 1997. The Japanese National Police Agency reports that as of 2020, 4,700 members are active in Chukaku-ha.

History

Prehistory of Chūkaku-ha

In 1957 a number of dissidents dissatisfied with the direction of the

Japan Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democra ...

(JCP), along with a number of student activists from the Nationwide

Zengakuren Zengakuren is a league of university student associations founded in 1948 in Japan. The word is an abridgement of which literally means "All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations." Notable for organizing protests and marches, ...

student federation, formed the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), usually abbreviated as Kakukyōdō in Japanese. This group was fervently anti-Stalinist, and soon fell under the sway of the charismatic half-blind Trotskyist philosopher

Kan'ichi Kuroda was a self-taught Japanese political philosopher and social theorist, associated with Trotskyism, who was deeply involved in far-left political movements. Nearly blind, Kuroda was affectionately nicknamed "The Blind Prophet" and "KuroKan" b ...

. The RCL believed the Stalinist form of communism, which they saw as predominant in Eastern Europe, China, the USSR, and North Korea, did not elevate the working class as true as Marxist communism intended. Their goals at this time were to overthrow the Japanese government, end U.S. occupation of

Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...

, and abolish the

U.S.-Japan Alliance The is a military alliance between Japan and the United States of America, as codified in the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, which was first signed in 1951, took effect in 1952, and was amended in ...

. The group evolved into its current form (Chūkaku-ha) after a series of schisms. In 1959, Kuroda Kan'ichi was expelled from the RCL in the wake of a scandal in which he tried to sell compromising information about the JCP to the

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The serves as the prefectural police department of Tokyo Metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a Superintendent-General, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission, and approved by the Prime Minister. The Tokyo Metro ...

(MPD). Therefore, Kuroda, along with his right-hand man

Nobuyoshi Honda Nobuyoshi (written: 信吉, 信芳, 信義, 信喜, 信由, 経惟) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer and artist *, Japanese chief executive *, Japanese sumo wrestler *, Japanese com ...

, founded their own version of the RCL, with the appellation "National Committee" added to the name, and took many of their followers with them to create the RCL-NC. In 1960, a youth branch of the RCL-NC was established for

student activists as the Marxist Student League (MSL), abbreviated Marugakudō in Japanese. This was followed in 1961 by the creation of another youth branch for young labor unionists, the Marxist Workers' Youth League (MWYL). Finally in 1963, the parent organization RCL-NC split in two as the result of a disagreement between Kuroda and Honda over whether to pursue socialist revolution in alliance with others, or to focus on strengthening and expanding a single revolutionary organization, with the resultant split of Marugakudō into the "Central Core Faction" (''Chūkaku-ha''), which was led by Honda and favored allying with others, and the " Revolutionary Marxist Faction" (abbreviated ''Kakumaru-ha'') Zengakuren, which staunchly adhered to Kuroda’s insistence on going it alone.

Chūkaku-ha era

Starting in the mid-1960s, Chūkaku-ha, became active in organizing protest activities. In 1966, Chūkaku-ha joined in alliance with two other radical student groups, the "Second Bund" (''Daini Bunto'') and the Liberation Faction of the Socialist Youth League (''

Kaihō-ha The , usually abbreviated Kaihо̄-ha ("Liberation Faction"), was a Japanese radical Marxist group active in the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Japanese New Left. Kaihо̄-ha had a young workers wing and a student wing. Their student wing was calle ...

'') to form the "Three-Faction" (''Sanpa'') Zengakuren. As part of the Sanpa Zengakuren, Chūkaku-ha participated in the October 8, 1967 protest at Haneda Airport which attempted to block Japanese Prime Minister

Eisaku Satō was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister from 1964 to 1972. He is the third-longest serving Prime Minister, and ranks second in longest uninterrupted service as Prime Minister. Satō entered the National Diet in 1949 as a membe ...

from visiting

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam ( vi, Việt Nam Cộng hòa), was a state in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of th ...

. In 1968, they protested the visit of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, , to

Sasebo is a core city located in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. It is also the second largest city in Nagasaki Prefecture, after its capital, Nagasaki. On 1 June 2019, the city had an estimated population of 247,739 and a population density of 581 persons p ...

. Later that same year Chūkaku-ha participated in another protest of the Shinjuku Rail Station's transportation of US forces fuel tanks, remembered as the " Shinjuku Riot." Beginning in 1968, Chūkaku-ha became involved in the

Sanrizuka Struggle The Sanrizuka Struggle (三里塚闘争, ''Sanrizuka tōsō'') refers to a civil conflict and riots involving the Japanese government and the agricultural community of Sanrizuka, comprising organised opposition by farmers, local residents, and ...

assisting farmers in violently opposing the construction of

Narita Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airport ...

outside of Tokyo. Some members of Chūkaku-ha remained deeply involved in this struggle well into the 1980s. In 1968 and 1969, the organization promoted several protests at campuses across Japan. Throughout this period and into the 1970s, Chūkaku-ha was engaged in violent conflict with their archrivals in

Kakumaru-ha The Japan Revolutionary Communist League (Revolutionary Marxist Faction) ( ja, 日本革命的共産主義者同盟革命的マルクス主義派, Nihon Kakumeiteki Kyōsanshugisha Dōmei, Kakumeiteki Marukusu Shugiha) is a Japanese Trotskyist r ...

. During the conflict, Kakumaru-ha assassinated several members of Chūkaku-ha, including its leader Nobuyoshi Honda in 1975. According to Chūkaku-ha, Kakumaru-ha was aided and protected by the police. Starting in the late 1970s, the group began committing armed assaults, bombings, and destruction of infrastructure in Japan. There were a fair number of casualties and injuries as a result of the dozens of attacks they conducted. Casualties included the chairperson of Chiba prefecture's Expropriation Committee, whose death delayed the area's development. In 1986, their covert weapons factory was raided by police after two suspects were arrested for carrying an explosive in their truck. Chūkaku-ha's attacks continued into the later part of the 20th century, with the last one occurring in 2001. Today, Chūkaku-ha still stages protests and is known to use a YouTube channel to draw attention to their activities. A memorial to a policeman who died during a riot in Shibuya. In 2017, the MPD announced the arrest of Masaaki Osaka, a known Chūkaku-ha leader accused of killing a police officer during a riot on November 14, 1971. On that day, a protest against the occupation of Okinawa by the United States turned violent, with students throwing Molotov cocktails at officers. Takeo Shimizu, one of Chukaku-ha's surviving leaders, appeared in public after going underground since 1971 on September 6, 2020 at Arakawa, Tokyo."半世紀の潜伏…姿現した過激派最高幹部　背景に世代間対立？　警察当局は注視," ''Sankei Shinbun'', October 7, 2020, https://www.sankei.com/smp/premium/news/201007/prm2010070009-s1.html, accessed June 6, 2021. During a news conference on January 27, 2021, he criticized Tokyo for its COVID-19 response and asserted that the crisis was an opportunity for a revolution.

References

External links

JRCL (Chūkaku-ha) English websiteOfficial website
Japanese)
official video YouTubeZengakuren
the

faction that is loyal to JRCL (Chūkaku-ha) {{Authority control 1957 establishments in Japan Anti-imperialism in Asia Anti-Stalinist left Communist militant groups Communism in Japan Far-left politics in Japan Left-wing militant groups in Japan Terrorism in Japan