The Japanese Communist Party

From November 19–24, 1985 the Japanese Communist party (JCP), the largest and most influential of Asia’s non-ruling Communist parties, held its Seventeenth Party Congress near Tokyo. The JCP’s real problem is that as it is isolated in domestic politics, so is it more or less isolated among its brother parties in Asia. The isolation of the JCP and the associated impotence of the opposition make up the principal reason for the permanent hegemony of the ruling Liberal Democrats. Since the end of the 1970s, however, the JCP has experienced electoral stagnation or reverses which have frustrated its strategy of using grass roots democracy, programmatic innovation, and extensive alliances to win national responsibilities. The JCP was founded in 1922, under the pressure of a Comintern which was then expanding in Asia. The JCP was able to recover from its 1952 low, raising its vote in Diet elections from 4.8% in 1967 to 10.9% in 1972 and 10.7% in 1976.