The is the highest position within the Japanese Communist Party. The current chairperson is Tomoko Tamura, who took office on 18 January 2024.
Elections The chairperson is elected by the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party, which also elects other members of the executive committee including the vice-chairpersons, and the head of the secretariat.
History The Japanese Communist party was founded on 15 July 1922. The original leadership position of the party was the General Affairs Chief Secretary. The first General Affairs Chief Secretary was Arakawa Katsuzō.
The party was outlawed by the Japanese government in 1923, and was not refounded until 1945 after the end of World War II, and political reforms under the American Occupation rule. When the party was reformed, the leadership title was changed to General Secretary.
In 1970 the leadership title was changed once again, this time to Chairperson, which is the currently used title.
List of leaders No.PhotoName Constituency / titleTerm of office Took officeLeft officeGeneral Affairs Chief Secretary (1922–1923)1Arahata KatsuzōNone5 July 19221923Katō To. Yamamoto 2Sakai ToshihikoNone19231923Party outlawed by the GovernmentGeneral Secretary (1945–1970)1Kyuichi TokudaRep for Tokyo 2nd (1946) Tokyo 3rd (1947–1950)3 December 194514 October 1953Shidehara Yoshida Katayama Ashida Yoshida 2Sanzō NosakaCou for Tokyo at-large (1956–1977)14 October 19531 August 1958Hatoyama I. Ishibashi Kishi 3Kenji MiyamotoNone1 August 19587 July 1970Ikeda Satō Chairperson (1970–present)1Kenji MiyamotoCou for National PR (1977–1989)7 July 197031 July 1982Satō Tanaka K. Miki Fukuda T. Ōhira Ito ActingSuzuki Z. 2 Tetsuzo FuwaRep for Tokyo 6th31 July 198229 November 1987Nakasone Takeshita 3Hiromu MurakamiRep for Osaka 3rd29 November 198729 May 19894 Tetsuzo FuwaRep for Tokyo 6th (1969–1996) Tokyo PR block (1996–2003)29 May 198924 November 2000Uno Kaifu Miyazawa Hosokawa Hata Murayama Hashimoto Obuchi Mori 5Kazuo ShiiRep for Southern Kanto PR block24 November 200018 January 2024Koizumi Abe S. Fukuda Y. Asō Hatoyama Y. Kan Noda Abe S. Suga Kishida 6Tomoko TamuraCou for National PR(26 July 2010 – 15 October 2024)Rep for Tokyo PR(since 1 November 2024)18 January 2024IncumbentIshiba Takaichi
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