The Japan Socialist Association (社会主義協会, Shakai Shugi Kyōkai) was a theoretical research group of the Japan Socialist Party established on 13 April 1951, with roots in the prewar Rōnōha. Unlike the Japanese Communist Party, which advocated the transformation of Japan into a socialist state through violent revolution, the Japan Socialist Party aimed for the peaceful realization of a socialist state (peaceful socialist revolution) and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Association was a major reason why the Japan Socialist Party remained a socialist party and did not become a Western European social-democratic party, like the main left-wing opposition parties in other Western countries (see The Road to Socialism in Japan).
The Association took Marxism–Leninism as its guiding theory. It sought to disseminate this theory and defined itself as, “a thought group that aims to realize socialism peacefully through the class-based strengthening of the Japan Socialist Party.” At its 8th Congress in June 1967, a split occurred between the Ōta faction (right wing) and the Sakisaka faction (left wing). Within former Socialist Party circles, the simple term “the Association” usually refers to this Socialist Association.
History
Prehistory and early period after founding The predecessor of the Association was the Rōnōha (労農派), which before the Second World War engaged in debates with the Kōzaha (lineage of the present-day Japanese Communist Party) over the application of Marxism to Japan and the nature of Japanese capitalism (the debate on Japanese capitalism). It took its name from the magazine Rōnō (労農; Labor-Farmer), founded in 1927. The group was scattered by repression on the eve of the Pacific War (the Popular Front Incident), but after Japan’s defeat, it regrouped around Yamakawa Hitoshi and in 1947 launched the theoretical journal Zenshin (前進; Advance). Zenshin ceased publication in November 1950 because of the publisher’s financial difficulties and internal conflicts among the contributors. A year earlier, on 13 July 1949, the contributors of Zenshin had formed the Socialist Study Group (社会主義研究会).
On 13 April 1951, the Socialist Association was founded as a development of this Socialist Study Group. It was also decided to publish a new organ in place of Zenshin, and the journal Shakai Shugi (社会主義; Socialism) was launched. The name was chosen by Ōuchi Hyōei. At the outset the Association included people such as Ōuchi Hyōei, Yamakawa, Sakisaka Itsurō, and Takahashi Masao, as well as many politicians of the Japan Socialist Party (including Suzuki Mosaburō and Eda Saburō) and trade-union leaders of the Sōhyō (General Council of Trade Unions of Japan) lineage. Because the launch of Shakai Shugi relied on the assistance of Sōhyō’s Takano Minoru, Takano’s influence was strong in the early editorial policy of the journal. Ōuchi and Yamakawa served as representatives of the contributors. At the time of its founding, Shakai Shugi had a circulation of about 3,500 copies.
Before long, conflicts between Yamakawa and Takanor over the draft of the Left Socialist Party Program, the handling of the Shimizu counter-draft and the day-to-day running of the Association became prevalent. In December 1953 Takano, Shimizu Shinzō and others left the Association. Thereafter the Association linked Yamakawa’s group with the anti-Takano faction inside Sōhyō led by Ōta Kaoru, and developed as the theoretical mainstay of the Left Socialist Party. Some people have called this left-wing dominance within the Socialist Party “Japanese-style social democracy.” In the 1950s the Association still contained people of various ideological tendencies. It was also skeptical toward the existing socialist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe; it expressed sympathy for the people who rose in the East German uprising of 1953, the Poznań uprising, Hungarian Revolution of 1956, and sharply criticized Soviet occupation policies.For example, Itō Yoshimichi, “East Germany and the Construction of Socialism,” Shakai Shugi No. 27 (September 1953); Yamakawa Kikue, “Trends in the Western European Socialist Movement,” Shakai Shugi No. 65 (January 1957).
From the reunification of the Socialist Party to the Anpo and Miike struggles Because the Association opposed the reunification of the Socialist Party in 1955, its relations with the Suzuki faction—the central faction of the Left Socialist Party—cooled, and it drew closer to the Wada faction, which was at odds with the Suzuki faction. Its influence within the party rapidly declined. Yamakawa, while opposing reunification, showed flexibility after reunification by calling on activists to cooperate with the leadership; he died in 1958. Sakisaka, who succeeded him as Association representative, called for the Socialist Party to return to the spirit of the Left Socialist Party Program and allied himself with Sōhyō strongmen Ōta and Iwai Akira, who were close to the Wada faction.
In 1960 the Miike struggle broke out, centered on activists trained by Sakisaka. Sakisaka himself went to the site to encourage the activists, and the Association supported the struggle, which ended in defeat. The ideas of the Association that had led the Miike struggle spread within the Japan Socialist Youth League (Shaseidō), which had been born out of the Anpo and Miike struggles on the basis of the Socialist Party’s youth section. At its 3rd General Meeting in 1961 the Association itself declared its intention to grow into an organization capable of responding to practical tasks; a nationwide organizer system was introduced, and efforts were concentrated on recruiting activists from the party, the trade unions, and Shaseidō. From around this time people such as Takahashi, whose views differed from Sakisaka’s, gradually left the Association.
Orientation toward a practical organization and the adoption of Marxism–Leninism From around 1960, when the theory of structural reform—aiming at the gradual realization of socialism through reforms—gained ground inside the Socialist Party, Sasaki Kōzō, who was in conflict with Eda (the standard-bearer of structural reform), sought to strengthen his position by supporting the Association. While Socialist Party leaders ignored activists and concentrated on factional struggles, the Association, with Sakisaka himself opening his home to lecture on Das Kapital, devoted itself to the education of activists and won their hearts. The Association deepened its relationship with the Labor University (which had been the Left Socialist Party School and became an independent body after the reunification of the two socialist parties) and used it as an educational institution for activists; it further strengthened its organization by launching the activist-oriented magazine Manabu (まなぶ; Learn). At the 4th Congress of Shaseidō in 1964 a “basic line of blocking constitutional revision and opposing rationalization” based on Association theory was adopted, Association-linked activists took control of the Shaseidō executive, and this laid the foundation for subsequent expansion of influence.
The Association gradually became a practical organization; its general meetings were renamed congresses and it began to adopt movement policies. At the 7th Congress in 1966 it was decided that Marxism–Leninism (which followed the Soviet Union and was therefore critical of Stalin) would be the Association’s basic theory. This Marxism–Leninization is said to have resulted from the influence of both Sakisaka, who visited the Soviet Union twice (in 1961 and 1965), and the group around Mizuhara Teruo that later became the core of the Ōta faction and aimed to turn the Association into a practical organization. The Association’s basic theory, centered on the theory of peaceful revolution, was set out in detail in the “Socialist Association Theses” (社会主義協会テーゼ), which were decided once immediately before the 1967 split and formally adopted in 1968; these theses explicitly affirmed the dictatorship of the proletariat. Association members also played a major role in the 1964 decision on the Socialist Party’s programmatic document “The Road to Socialism in Japan” and in the 1966 revision that affirmed the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Split of the Socialist Association – the Sakisaka and Ōta factions The 8th Regular National Congress was held on 26–27 June 1967. Over the issue of revising the Association’s rules, the Socialist Association split into the Sakisaka faction and the Ōta faction.Shakai Shugi, September 1967 issue, Socialist Association. Whereas the Sakisaka faction emphasized theoretical study, the Ōta faction was not satisfied with that and devoted more energy to workplace and local activity; the split was therefore rooted in differences of movement form. Because the majority of congress delegates belonged to the Ōta faction, Sakisaka, together with Ōuchi, “rebuilt” a new Association and launched a separate Shakai Shugi.According to p. 59 of “Testimony: Postwar Socialist Party and Sōhyō History – Aiming at the Establishment of a Socialist Party – Interview with Ueno Ken’ichi” in the December 2016 issue of the Ōhara Institute for Social Research Journal, Ueno claimed that the Sakisaka faction gathered two-thirds of the membership. At the time of the split the Sakisaka faction was the minority, but it participated more actively in the Socialist Party’s organizational work and produced several members of the National Diet. By contrast the Ōta faction suffered a large-scale split and secession at the end of 1970, leading to the formation of the Japan Working-Class Liberation Struggle League (later “People’s Power”) and the Communist Study Group (later the “Young Communist League (provisional)” and then the Internationalism Editorial Conference), and its strength declined. The Ōta faction also had Diet members, but after the mass secession of its left wing the Sakisaka faction gained an advantage among rank-and-file activists. Thereafter the term “Socialist Association” came to refer to the Sakisaka Association.
Shaseidō, which was strongly influenced by the Association, fell into a state of division in the late 1960s among the Sakisaka faction, the Ōta faction, and the Anti-War faction (including New Left entryist groups). At the 10th Congress of Shaseidō in 1971 Sakisaka-linked activists monopolized the executive and expelled the Anti-War faction. Ōta-linked members did not participate in the 10th Congress and soon formed a separate organization, the Shaseidō National Council, but the Socialist Party recognized only the Sakisaka-led Shaseidō as its sole cooperative youth organization. Thereafter Shaseidō became an organization under strong Sakisaka Association influence and expanded rapidly.
As a faction inside the Socialist Party The Sakisaka Socialist Association expanded its strength inside the Socialist Party on the basis of support from party and Shaseidō activists and effectively became a faction of the party. In 1968, when the Soviet army intervened in Czechoslovakia during the democratization movement known as the Prague Spring, Sakisaka sided with the Soviet Union. The Association advocated joint struggle among all opposition parties including the Japanese Communist Party and came into fierce conflict with Eda Saburō, who oriented toward Western European-style social democracy and the exclusion of the Communist Party, as well as with the pro-China faction. On the other hand it debated with the Communist Party over issues such as the attitude of local-government workers toward residents and the working-class character of teachers. Contemporary journalism called the Association the farthest left wing of the Socialist Party. Sakisaka himself, however, who was also a scholar of Marxist economics, criticized the far left as not being socialist.