Socialist thought in Imperial Japan

The Society for the Study of Socialism (社会主義研究会, Shakai Shugi Kenkyukai) was founded in October 1896, members included Isoo Abe, Kōtoku Shūsui and Sen Katayama.

The various factions went on to create small, short-lived political parties, many of which came under police scrutiny and were suppressed under the increasingly restrictive Peace Preservation Laws.

Other early socialist parties included: Moderates who favoured mild reforms followed thinkers like Minobe Tatsukichi and Sakuzō Yoshino, both professors at Tokyo Imperial University.

[3] The Japanese Communist Party (日本共産党, Nippon Kyōsantō) (JCP) was founded on 15 July 1922, as an underground branch of Comintern by a group of socialist activists, including Hitoshi Yamakawa, Kanson Arahata, Toshihiko Sakai, Kyuichi Tokuda and Sanzō Nosaka.

Also in 1924, Kazuo Fukumoto returned to Japan after studying Marxism in Germany and France, and scathingly attacked Yamakawa's approach, citing a need for the formation of a vanguard party on the Leninist model.

On 15 July 1927, the Comintern issued a thesis attacking both Yamakawa and Fukumoto and demanding that the party strive for an immediate two-stage revolution to overthrow the Japanese government, and especially the Emperor system and Diet of Japan, redistribution of wealth and favorable policy with the Soviet Union.

Overseas aid from Comintern not being forthcoming (the JCP was suspected of being infected with Trotskyism by its Soviet counterparts), the Japanese communist movement virtually ceased to exist after 1935 with the arrest of its leadership and dissolution of supporting organizations.