is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who has served as the Chairman of the

Japanese 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 democr ...

(JCP) since 24 November 2000.

Early life

Shii was born in

Yotsukaidō is a city located in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 95,266 in 43,191 households and a population density of 2800 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Located inland on the Shimosa Plat ...

Chiba Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Chiba Prefecture has a population of 6,278,060 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Chiba Prefecture borders Ibaraki Prefecture to the north, Saitama Prefecture to the ...

, the son of two schoolteachers. He graduated with the

Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...

degree in

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. He joined the JCP during his first year at the University and became an active participant in the party's student wing. After graduation, he got a job in the JCP-Tokyo Committee to lead

Waseda University , abbreviated as , is a private university, private research university in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as the ''Tōkyō Senmon Gakkō'' by Ōkuma Shigenobu, the school was formally renamed Waseda University in 1902. The university has numerou ...

's youth

student movement Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...

. He worked in the Central Committee of the JCP from 1982.

Political career

In 1990, Shii became the head of the party's Secretariat. In 1993, he was elected as a member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for the first time for

Chiba 1st district Chiba 1st district (千葉県第1区, ''Chiba-ken dai-ikku'' or simply 千葉1区, ''Chiba-ikku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national Diet of Japan located in the city of Chiba, Chiba Prefecture ...

, then a multi-member electoral district with five slots, narrowly coming in last at 5th place with just 1,020 votes over sixth-place LDP candidate Kazuo Eguchi. Shii became the party's leader in 2000. In 2006, Shii became the first JCP chairman to visit

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, where he traveled to an international conference of Asian political parties. He visited the site of

Seodaemun Prison Seodaemun Prison History Hall is a museum and former prison in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was constructed beginning in 1907. The prison was opened on October 21, 1908, under the name Gyeongseong Gamok. During the early part of the Japa ...

and paid tribute to the memory of Korean anti-colonial activists who were imprisoned during the period of Japanese colonialism. Shii also met the speaker of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

, the chairman of the

Uri Party The Yeollin Uri Party (), generally abbreviated to Uri Party (), was the ruling political party in South Korea from 2003–2007. It had a liberal political ideology in order to support then President Roh Moo-hyun. Chung Sye Kyun was the last le ...

, and the floor leader of the

Grand National Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Hanna ...

. He also became the first JCP leader to visit the United States, doing so in April 2010. In 2020, under Shii's leadership, the Japanese Communist Party denounced the Chinese government for its activities in the East China Sea, in the South China Sea, and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region. A position paper issued by the party said that China's "great-power chauvinism and hegemonism" were "an adverse current to world peace and progress." At the party's conference in

Atami is a city located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 36,865 in 21,593 households and a population density of 600 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Atami is located in the far ea ...

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the northea ...

, Shii said that "the Chinese leadership’s mistake is extremely serious. That action does not deserve the name of the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

." The Japanese and Chinese communist parties had previously been diverging for decades.

Personal life

Shii plays the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

; he has said music is "a part of life" and seriously considered becoming a musician. When he was about to begin university, he considered majoring in

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

, and chose physics in the end.公式プロフィール
/ref> Shii says his favorite composers are

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

and

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

. Despite being on starkly opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, Shii took part in a dialogue with former Prime Minister

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

in 2020, where they discussed their mutual love for

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...

. He has been sanctioned by Russia over his support for Ukraine.

Works

* *

References

External links

* *
Interview with C. B. Liddell in ''Metropolis'' magazine.
Published 15 January 2009.
Kazuo Shii: Comments from the Japanese Communist Party on the upcoming election.
YouTube video (in English) of Kazuo Shii discussing the

2014 Japanese general election General elections were held in Japan on 14 December 2014. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks to elect the members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet o ...

. Uploaded 8 December 2014. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shii, Kazuo 1954 births Living people Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Japanese Communist Party politicians Politicians from Chiba Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni 21st-century Japanese politicians