Japan Socialist Party
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The Japan Socialist Party (日本社会党) (in Japanese Nihon Shakai-to) was a former Japanese political party with a socialist, left-wing ideology, which functioned between 1945 and 1996.
[edit] History
The Japan Socialist Party was the first political party to form after the end of World War II. It began as an extreme revolutionary socialist party, but within a couple of years, it had become a more regular socialist party. Opposing parties also began to form, including the conservative Liberal Party and the Democratic Party, which had a more agrarian agenda. In 1947, Katayama Tetsu, a Socialist, was elected Prime Minister, and the JSP won a plurality in the Diet of Japan. The government collapsed in 1948 because of Marxist rebellion within the party, and in 1951 the JSP split into the Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, made up of moderate social-democrats, and the Leftist Socialist Party of Japan, made up of Marxist socialists. In 1955, the two sides reconciled and merged, and the Japan Socialist Party was reborn. The reunified JSP, even though in the opposition, briefly became the largest political party in the country, until the Liberals and Democrats merged to form the conservative Liberal Democratic Party later in 1955.
The JSP's electoral success peaked in 1958 when it received 32.9% of the vote. However, it was never able to break the "barrier of one-third" and began a long, slow decline in the 1960s. Until the 1990s, it functioned as the main opposition force to the Liberal Democrats, with many more seats in the Diet and more influence than the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and other small parties.
In 1959-1960, a breakaway group (formed around the most moderate faction of the old Rightist Socialist Party of Japan and led by Suehiro Nishio) formed the centrist Democratic Socialist Party. The JSP itself was preserved but saw its vote diminish as a result.
In 1986 Takako Doi became the chair of the JSP, and later became speaker of the House of Representatives, ushering in new popularity for the Party. This reached its peak in 1990, but even after suffering a severe electoral setback in 1993 the JSP was able to ally with newly-formed parties such as the liberal Japan Renewal Party (JRP) to form a government that did not include the LDP. The liberals in control of the coalition, such as the JRP and the Japan New Party, treated the radicals with disrespect. Thus, the New Party Sakigake and JSP left the coalition, while the Communists and Komeito remained in the coalition.
In 1994, the JSP formed a new coalition with the LDP and New Party Sakigake, and Tomiichi Murayama became the first Socialist Prime Minister since 1948. To form the coalition, however, the JSP discarded some of its most long-standing policies, including opposition to the existence of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. This angered many of staunchest supporters, who felt the JSP had abandoned its core principles in order to take power in a bizarre coalition with its conservative rival. In 1996 the JSP suffered an electoral disaster, winning only 15 of 500 seats in the House of Representatives. As a result, Doi resumed leadership of the Party (which she had resigned in 1991), changed its name to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and attempted to transform it into a more moderate social-democratic party.
These drastic actions resulted in a mild improvement in the Party's electoral performance, but it was unable to return to its former strength. When the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) formed in 1998, it supplanted the JSP's traditional role as chief opposition party. In the late nineties the SDP began to decline. Currently it has hardly any seats in the Diet and is one of the smallest Japanese political parties, smaller even than the JCP. There are talks going on regarding a merger between the SDP and the DPJ.
The party was left-wing, and socialist on domestic policy. It is now defunct.
