 |
|
Adopted on July 30, 1976 at the 13th Extraordinary Congress of the Japanese Communist Party.
Revised on August 12, 1989 at the 6th CC Plenum of the 18th JCP Congress, and endorsed on July 13, 1990 at the 19th JCP Congress.
Partially amended on July 13, 1996 at the 5th CC Plenum of the 20th JCP Congress.
Part 1: The Worsening Crisis of Freedom and Democracy
Infringement of Freedom of Existence
Suppression of Civil-Political Freedom
Abandonment of Freedom of the Nation
Part 2: Japanese Democracy, Past and Present
Part 3: The Question of Scientific Socialism and Freedom
Part 4: For Established, Developed and Flourishing Freedom and Democracy
At present in Japan, under the politics of successive reactionary governments in subordination to U.S. imperialism and in the service of big business, the crisis of freedom and democracy is becoming much worse.
The people have the right to enjoy Three Freedoms, namely, Freedom of Existence, Civil-Political Freedom and Freedom of the Nation, the integrity of which must be completely guaranteed; however, in today's Japan serious suppression of and infringement on each of these three freedoms is going on.
back to contents
Infringement of Freedom of Existence
The freedom to live, the social guarantee of the people's Freedom of Existence, is the most important prerequisite for the people's livelihood and rights. This is one of the basic problems of our national political life. Article 25 of the Japanese Constitution stipulates the right to life and the social mission of the State in the following terms: "All people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living" and "In all spheres of life, the State shall use its endeavors for the promotion and extension of social welfare and security, and of public health."
Nevertheless, although the economic power of Japan has risen to second in the world, and sufficient conditions actually exist for guaranteeing the people's Freedom of Existence, this freedom has been oppressed in various ways by reactionary politics operating in subordination to the United States and in the interests of big business. Our abnormal dependence on other countries for food and energy such as oil and atomic power, and the serious drop in our self-sufficiency rate have cast a pall of gloom over the future existence of the Japanese people. In addition, increasing military spending at the cost of welfare and education, combined with tax increases, is threatening the life and living standards of the people.
In Japan, only a very small number of people, monopoly capital and big capitalists, have free control over tremendous wealth. In contrast, there are 10 million families in the low-income strata (with an annual income of not more than 3 million yen), and many are left to subsist at a low-income level. Social welfare benefits for the handicapped, the sick, fatherless families, and the elderly are being reduced one after another, and there are endless tragic cases of suicides, including double or whole-family suicides, death by starvation, and family disruption, due to hardships in living. Aid measures provided by the government for war victims, including the Hibakusha (atomic bomb victims), are far from sufficient. Long working hours and excessively intensified labor, price hikes, economic depression and unemployment, in addition to the low standard of wages characteristic of Japan, have forced many people to reduce their living standards. The crisis of agricultural management, due to the liberalization of imports of agricultural products, has sharpened, and difficulties in the management of small- and medium-sized enterprises are constantly increasing. This is in turn increasing the people's uneasiness about the future.
The environment of life is showing a gross worsening:
Abnormally high land prices continue to confront the working people, making it difficult for them to purchase their own homes. Although the government ended its official recognition of air-pollution affected patients in 1988, the number of patients hitherto recognized by the State and municipalities totals well over 100,000, and the annual death toll is around 2,000. Traffic accidents are quite frequent due to the profit-oriented mass production and sale of automobiles and the backward traffic infrastructure, with some 10,000 deaths and 700,000 to 800,000 injuries annually. The problem of the large number of AIDS infections caused by contaminated blood products has brought to light the criminality of reactionary government that has given priority to the interests of pharmaceutical companies. Labor accidents occur incessantly because of operations that disregard work safety, with around 2,000 deaths and about 200,000 injuries annually. Food safety has also become a serious social problem. In addition, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake has brought to light the poor countermeasures against such disasters.
We have to say that the reactionary politics is no longer capable of fulfilling its responsibility of safeguarding the life of the people and their Freedom of Existence.
back to contents
Suppression of Civil-Political Freedom
Civil-Political Freedom is essential to fully realize human dignity and ability, and for the fecund development of society. The Constitution of Japan stipulates in Chapter 3, "Rights and Duties of the People," that the Civil-Political Freedom of the people, including freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, association and speech, and academic freedom, is to be strictly guaranteed.
But the reactionary forces, who fear the mounting criticism of the people against their misgovernment, seek to overcome the failure and deadlock of their reactionary politics in an authoritarian way, and has set out to oppress freedom of speech, thought, creed and political activities of the people.
One typical example is the suppression of speech marked by the deleting of speeches unfavorable to the reactionary parties from the minutes of the Diet, the "seat of political speech," in addition to restriction on freedom of speech and political activities resulting from the revision of the Public Office Election Law for the worse. Persistent spying, shadowing and stealthy photographing by the security police and the Public Security Investigation Agency, premised on the unconstitutional Subversive Activities Prevention Law, are being used against the Japanese Communist Party and others, at great cost to the State budget. Wiretaps have frequently been detected at the offices and meeting places of the party and the houses of party leaders. Moreover, as seen in the fact that public service workers are denied their right to strike, they are even deprived of their freedom of association and freedom of collective action, which are recognized by the Constitution of Japan.
Special attention must be given to the fact that in many workplaces, particularly in the major private corporations, the suppression of workers' freedom in violation of the Constitution is spreading as a daily practice, which finds expression in the phrase, "The Constitution doesn't go into the workplace." What has been termed "company prison" has been created in many places: JCP members and trade-union activists are kept under surveillance and constantly watched by company agents, sometimes isolated in the workshop, pressured to "defect," and they suffer discrimination in promotions, wages and wage increases and in eligibility to assume certain posts. An activist in a pharmaceutical company was refused proper work, and forced to just sit at her desk for some 20 years. There are companies that have deprived workers of the freedom to read Akahata, the JCP organ paper, and even to receive handbills. There are also companies which form a second union under their patronage as an attack on the workers' freedom of association, and which prohibit or restrict activities of the Communist Party and the Democratic Youth League of Japan in workshops, company dormitories and housing, or which establish despotic control by calling in gangster organizations. In these
ways freedom is being suppressed in violation of the Constitution, and alarming disregard of human rights is prevailing in the form of a combination of premodern employment practices with new, postwar labor management. Violence by anticommunist rightists and pseudo-"leftist" groups is still continuing. All these are what the reactionary ruling forces actually mean by freedom.
Thought discrimination used against JCP members in companies has been ruled illegal and unconstitutional in a series of judgments by courts. In particular, the Supreme Court judgment in 1995 was of epochmaking significance by pointing out that thought discrimination infringes on freedom of thought and creed, and "freedom to form free human relations" in the workplace, and that therefore it is illegal.
It is widely observed even in trade unions, which by their very nature are supposed to be promoters of freedom and democracy, that unionists are obliged to follow the decision of executive bodies to support one particular political party, and are being forced to conform by unjustifiable punitive measures, so that even freedom of political activities and voting is violated. In some agricultural, mountain and fishery villages, even freedom to support the political party of one's choice, and of voting, are violated by a combination of semi-feudal remnants and control by the reactionary parties.
The most serious problem in the suppression of political freedom is that a single-seat constituency system was forcibly introduced by the reactionary parties to monopolize an overwhelming majority in the Diet. The single-seat constituency system, coupled with a planned Political Party Law and a State Secrets Protection Law, constitutes a new and serious step toward political reaction, and is connected directly with attempts to revise the Constitution for the worse, on which to build Japanese-style fascism. The system of the government subsidies to political parties, which was introduced at the same time with the single-seat constituency system, means that a certain amount of political donations is levied from people and granted to parties which they do not necessarily support. This fundamentally infringes on freedom of thought and creed.
The malrevision of the Constitution is a strategic agenda item of the reactionary forces, which is linked to maneuvers to reinforce the aggressive character of the Japan-U.S. military alliance. This would deny the Five Principles of the Constitution, namely: (1) people's sovereignty and state sovereignty, (2) lasting peace, (3) fundamental human rights, (4) parliamentary democracy, and (5) local autonomy. It would take the Constitutional system of Japan back to prewar days and totally suppress the people's freedom and democracy. Worship of the Tenno (Emperor) system and the indoctrination of Tennoist thought is being intensified year after year, infringing on the Constitutional principle of people's sovereignty.
Under the reactionary government, collusion and bribery prevail in political, business and bureaucratic circles; i.e., a plutocracy that influences politics with money. The "freedom" and "democracy" which the reactionary forces claim to defend are all false, being synonymous with freedom of dictatorship by the reactionary parties, freedom of bribery-oriented government and freedom of suppression and exploitation by big capital. It is a sheer deception, aimed to conceal from the eyes of the people the true colors of the reactionary politics subordinated to the United States and serving big capital.
back to contents
Abandonment of Freedom of the Nation
The right of national self-determination, i.e. Freedom of the Nation, is also an essential factor in the people's freedom.
What is at stake for the Japanese people is that, under the Japan-U.S. military alliance based on the San Francisco Treaty and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, the sovereignty of Japan has been infringed, and that U.S. imperialism continues to exert significant control over Japan's military and diplomatic affairs. Contrary to the will of the people, Japan was made into a base for the United States to wage wars in Korea and Vietnam. Okinawa was cut off from Japan and kept under harsh U.S. military rule for 27 years. Even today, after the 1972 reversion of the administrative rights over Okinawa to Japan, the United States keeps many military bases there, and the U.S. forces, having "extraterritorial rights," reign over the people, hurting the nation's dignity with a repetition of cruel rapes and other acts of violence. A large-scale arms buildup is being forced on Japan, the combined Japan-U.S. operation system is being intensified with the aim of warfare in the Asia-Pacific region, and there is the continuing serious danger that Japan is being turned into a U.S. nuclear base. Thus the Japan-U.S. military alliance is an apparatus for mobilizing the military bases in Japan and the military and economic power of Japan for U.S. hegemonism's "world gendarme" strategy.
There is no other developed capitalist country in the world so deprived of its freedom as a nation. At the same time Japan is being made to play the role of adjutant to U.S. imperialism as its ally in oppressing other Asian nations, and we must take a serious view of it.
U.S. imperialism has further suppressed the freedom of Japan through many treaties, agreements and arrangements, with the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty as the basis.
On the pretext of "protecting secrets," the Secret Protection Law pursuant to the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement Between Japan and the United States and the Act to Provide for the Special Criminal Law Pertaining to the Enforcement of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, restrict the right of the Japanese people to information. The Lockheed bribery case has brought to light the grave fact that U.S. multinational corporations and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have unjustifiably intervened in Japanese political affairs. On the grounds of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty's clauses on "economic cooperation" and others, the United States is strengthening its economic hegemonism in compelling Japan to give the United States benefits and privileges. Typical examples are their demand for an increase in military expenditures and strategic aid to foreign countries, imposition of liberalization of import of agricultural products and the "structural reform" of the Japanese economy to fit U.S. standards.
Nevertheless, the reactionary forces and their government still stick to the humiliating policy of subservience to the United States, and are antagonistic toward the people's movement which calls for the independence and neutrality of Japan by abrogating the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. The politics of subservience to the United States is the biggest obstacle to the recovery of Japan's Freedom of the Nation.
At the same time, strengthened Japanese monopoly capital is advancing its neocolonialist invasion abroad and in every way positively playing the role of a subordinate ally to U.S. imperialism, strengthening its exploitation and suppression of other nations.
Therefore, if we do not fight suppression and infringement of the Three Freedoms by big capital, U.S. imperialism and reactionary politics, we cannot defend and extend the freedom and democracy of the Japanese people.
back to contents
(A) Having followed a complicated course, different in many points from that of the capitalist countries in Europe, since the Meiji Era (1868-1912) the question of freedom and democracy in Japan has taken on its own peculiar features and character.
First: Unlike Western European countries, the Japanese ruling bourgeoisie did not become a vehicle of democratic demands, but promoted the suppression of freedom and democracy since its early days under the absolutist Tenno (Emperor) system.
The Meiji Restoration (1868) overthrew the feudal Tokugawa Shogunate and initiated the country's rapid capitalist development from above. A series of bourgeois freedoms such as freedom of business, of the buying and selling of land, and choice of one's occupation began to be introduced. At the same time, the established absolutist Tenno system proceeded to strengthen its barbarous military police rule to suffocate the freedom and democracy of the people. "The Constitution of the Empire of Japan" (1889) laid down in Article 1, "The Empire of Japan shall be reigned over and governed by a line of Emperors unbroken for ages eternal," and in Article 3, "The Emperor is sacred and inviolable." Sovereignty rested with the Tenno, and the Diet, though it existed, acted as a rubber stamp to give "consent" to the governing acts of the Tenno. The people were stipulated to be "subjects" of the Tenno. In particular, women were held in servile subjection, banned for a long time from participation in political meetings, and completely deprived of voting rights.
"Freedom of speech, writing, publication, public meetings, and association" was limited to being what was "within the limits of law" (Constitution of the Empire, Art. 29); the Security Police Law and other suppressive laws, and particularly from the 1920s, the Public Order Maintenance Law ruthlessly suppressed freedom of thought and religion, as well as speech, assembly, association, etc.
The Zaibatsu, great industrial and financial combinations of Japan representing the big bourgeoisie, who were making frantic efforts to intensively exploit and plunder the workers, banded together with the parasitic landowner system to collude with the absolutist Tenno system, and became the promoters of militarism and wars of aggression under the slogan, "Make the State richer, make the military stronger," and the suppressors of freedom and democracy.
Second: In this historical situation, the struggle of the Japanese people to win freedom and democracy was carried from the earliest days upon the shoulders of progressives and revolutionaries, in particular, the working class and the party representing the class.
Hand in hand with the struggle of the peasants against heavy taxes and conscription, the Movement for Freedom and People's Rights developed from about 1877, demanding the establishment of a parliament, the enactment of a Constitution by the people, guarantee of freedom of thought, assembly and association for the people, and so on. This Movement had great historic significance as a bourgeois democratic movement, but was broken by the Tenno government's savage suppression and persecution.
The new main flag-bearers of freedom and democracy were socialist movements, as well as class-based trade unions and peasant movements. In 1898, the Society for the Study of Socialism was formed by Sen Katayama and other people, and in 1901 the Social Democratic Party was formed as the first socialist party in Japan. The socialist movement advocated realization of the principles of equality, the abolition of the Security Police Law, the Newspaper Ordinance and other suppressive laws, for the sake of freedom of the press and speech, assembly and association, freedom of workers to organize, universal suffrage and abolition of the House of Peers, realization of the eight-hour day for workers, protection of tenant farmers, etc., and thus further elaborated and developed the demands for freedom and democracy that had been advocated in the preceding Movement for Freedom and People's Rights. The democratic movement, which had been maintained principally by progressive intellectuals since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), then developed into what was called "Democracy of the Taisho Era" (1912-1926).
(B) The Japanese Communist Party was formed in 1922 to succeed the tradition of freedom and democracy in modern Japan. The JCP, from a position of people's sovereignty, boldly upheld the abolition of the monarchy and the House of Peers, made demands for the first time for equality between men and women, and universal suffrage for men and women aged 18 and over, and called for the right of workers to organize, freedom of publication and assembly and the right to strike, and for an eight-hour day for workers, and the transfer of farmland to tenant farmers.
The clear position of the JCP for the people's sovereignty was in direct contrast to the "national polity" of the day in which sovereignty was vested in the monarch. The JCP's stand against wars of aggression, for freedom and equality of nations and against colonial domination was also in frontal opposition to the bellicose militarism of the State.
For these reasons, the Japanese Communist Party was deprived entirely of freedom of open activities, was denounced as an "enemy of the nation" and was the most ruthlessly suppressed anywhere in the world under the Public Order Maintenance Law and by the Special Political Police (Tokko). Sudden arrest, torture which often led to slaughter, threats, long detention, Tokko-masterminded preliminary hearings and dark-age style trials were routine practices applied to JCP members. D¸ring the 15 years of the war of aggression which began in the northeast region of China, and especially as the war developed into the Pacific War with an anticommunist military pact between Japan, Germany and Italy, Tennoist power extended the dark fascist system to such an extreme as to suppress even staunch liberals and religionists. Victims of the Public Order Maintenance Law recorded at least 1,682 deaths, 75,681 who were sent to the prosecutor after arrest, and hundreds of thousands who were arrested but not sent to the prosecutor.
The extinction of the last breath of freedom and the rights of the people meant precisely that the peoples of Asia and Japan had to suffer indescribable distress and sacrifice. During the 15-year war, as it is called, the number of deaths in combat or from illness at the front reached 2,300,000; over 500,000 died in Japan itself, 300,000 civilians died abroad, and the number of civilians who sustained injuries or loss of property in the war totaled some 8,800,000. People of all strata suffered from immeasurable damage and hardships. The war cost the lives of over 20 million people in China and other Asian countries. These facts still now sharply tell us how important it is to win and defend, even piece by piece, every freedom and democratic right of the people.
(C) The result of World War II brought about a major turn in this dark history and entirely changed the situation as regards freedom and democracy. In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Japanese ruling circles, which were defeated by the antifascist Allied Forces, had to agree to "democratization." The Potsdam Proclamation, which laid down the conditions for Japan's surrender, demanded, among other things, the elimination of all obstacles that would hamper the revival and strengthening of democracy, the establishment of freedom of speech, thought and religion, and fundamental human rights, the eradication of militarism, and the building of a peaceful, democratic Japan.
The people, who had to regard the Tenno as a divine being, and accept his absolutist rule as "national polity" before and during the War, and who suffered from the tyranny under which they were deprived of their rights for so long, now were able to take part in movements demanding democratization and freedom. The JCP, which for the first time gained the right to conduct open activities, took the lead in this movement.
The reactionary ruling circles of Japan tried various forms of resistance to democracy, which was still considerably restricted under the U.S. occupation. But in spite of this, the new Constitution was promulgated in 1947, stipulating that sovereignty rests with the people. This Constitution of Japan, undergoing particular processes before enactment and reflecting the complicated situation of that time, still keeps such provisions like the Tenno as a "symbol," which is contradictory to a democracy where full sovereignty rests with the people; yet it does have positive peace and democratic clauses. Its spirit can be expressed by the earlier mentioned Five Principles of the Constitution.
Article 97 of the Constitution expressly states that "The fundamental human rights by this Constitution guaranteed to the people of Japan are fruits of the age-old struggle of man to be free." Hard struggles fought for freedom and democracy by progressive people, such as by the Movement for Freedom and People's Rights and by the Japanese Communist Party, constitute an important part of the "struggle of man to be free."
(D) Today confrontation on freedom and democracy in Japan is developing in new ways different from in prewar days.
First: As regards the suppressors of freedom and democracy of the Japanese people, the prewar absolutist Tenno system was replaced after the war by U.S. imperialism and its subordinate ally, Japanese monopoly capital.
U.S. imperialism, the major force of the Allied Forces that occupied postwar Japan, in order to make Japan its main bulwark for aggression in Asia, violated the Potsdam Proclamation and built the San Francisco Treaty system to make Japan a de facto dependent country. U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital are the very sources of infringement and suppression of freedom and democracy of the Japanese people.
Second: As regards the substance of the tasks for freedom and democracy, the major task of the prewar days was to win Freedom of Existence and Civil-Political Freedom by resisting feudal and premodern suppression; multi-faceted new tasks have been added to this, to win Freedom of Existence and Civil-Political Freedom by resisting the outrages and suppression of monopoly capital, and to win the Freedom of the Nation by completely ending Japan's subordination to the United States.
During the postwar period of half a century, the movements of the people for freedom and democracy have been different streams converging to form a single titanic current. The peace and democratic clauses of the postwar Constitution have found a firm place in the hearts of the people, and the struggles carried on by the Japanese democratic forces have more than once frustrated the plan of the reactionary forces to revise the Constitution for the worse. People's movements in defense of their lives and living standards have made a solid development, and areas where progressive local governments have been established to achieve full local autonomy covered 40 percent of the total population of Japan in the 1970s. Through the great national experiences, including the nearly 80 years of despotic rule since the Meiji Era (1868-1912), the many years of wars of aggression, the postwar U.S. occupation and the Japan-U.S. military alliance, and the effects of the big-business-oriented "high rate growth" policy, the energy of the people, who are striving for Freedom of Existence, Civil-Political Freedom and Freedom of the Nation, has now developed a great potential. Not only does this struggle inherit the tradition of modern democracy, but it also combines with the most contemporary antimonopoly democratic demands for social control over the outrage of monopoly capital, and further with the anti-imperialist national demand for independence of the nation; it has the possibility and perspective for powerful development. Women's social and political awakening and their rise to action in the movement has been remarkable enough to develop into a great force for social progress.
Having consistently fought an indomitable struggle for freedom and democracy since its foundation in 1922, the Japanese Communist Party is determined to make maximum efforts at the head of the people's movement.
This position of the party is an independent and creative development of the original position of scientific socialism as regards the question of freedom and democracy. It is not a mere temporary tactic but the consistent character of the policies and activities of the Japanese Communist Party at present and in the future.
back to contents
(A) The fundamental objective of the theory and movement of scientific socialism, founded by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is to build a communist society, a society free from all exploitation, and built on genuinely equal and free human relations. Scientific socialism is the legitimate successor to the whole valuable legacy created by humanity, and on the question of freedom and democracy, it came onto the stage of history as the most developed inheritor of modern democracy, as the total and outright defender of people's sovereignty and freedom.
The first document in world history setting out the principles of modern democracy was the "Declaration of Independence" of the United States of America (1776), issued at the time of the War of Independence. Marx evaluated highly its democratic significance, and in 1864, in his congratulatory message addressed to President Abraham Lincoln on behalf of the Central Council of the International Working Men's Association, he characterized the United States of America at the time as "the very spot where hardly a century ago the idea of one great Democratic Republic had first sprung up, whence the first declaration of the rights of man was issued and the first impulse given to the European revolution of the eighteenth century."
For Marx and Engels, founders of both the theory and movement of scientific socialism, the principles of modern democracy embodied in the declaration of people's sovereignty and freedom as fundamental elements, are a precious legacy of human society that the working class whose mission is to realize socialism, should defend and pass on to future generations. From the days when universal suffrage and the resultant democratic republican system were exceptions known only in the United States and a few other countries, Marx and Engels took the lead in promoting movements for universal suffrage in Europe, always upheld the banner of the democratic republic and people's sovereignty, and resolutely rebuffed reactionary attacks attempting to destroy these democratic gains. They defended the democratic republican system as the most democratic form of a capitalist state, and often pointed out that this political form should be inherited by socialist states.
On the question of freedom, they consistently stressed the importance of struggle for freedom of the press, association and assembly as major political tasks of the labor movement. Though these demands for freedom had been brought out in connection with the development of capitalist society, Engels stressed their significance as being most acute and vital demands of the working class, and he even said that they are for the workers' party "the environment necessary for its existence, (...) the air it needs to breathe." ("The Prussian Military Question and the German Workers' Party," 1865)
(B) Of course, on the question of freedom and democracy, the cause of scientific socialism goes further than being merely the successor to modern democracy. This cause, both its theory and movement, has historic significance for humanity in that, while attaching importance to the thoroughgoing political liberation of the people based on modern democracy, it is not confined to this but goes further to show the way to genuine human liberation, by advancing as far as the economic and social emancipation of the people through the abolition of the system of exploitation. Its advanced features in this respect are, above all, the following four points:
One: Scientific socialism points out clearly that the people's political liberation alone, namely, the establishment of Civil-Political Freedom cannot solve the problem of poverty and deprivation of the working class and the people. As the fundamental goal of the liberation movement, it brings forward the emancipation of the overwhelming majority of the people, including the working class, from social poverty, in other words, to guarantee Freedom of Existence for all the people.
This goal can be attained, by fully using the productive forces that human society has so far developed, and by abolishing capitalist exploitation and building a socialist and communist society free from class discrimination or antagonism. The major bourgeois limit placed on modern democracy is that it makes absolute the "freedom of exploitation." One great merit of scientific socialism is its discovery that curbing and abolishing this "freedom of exploitation" is the way to recover and develop human freedoms, including guaranteeing the right to existence. To put into practice the socialist principle "from each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her work," and at the stage of communism "from each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her needs" is the full flowering of the principle, Freedom of Existence.
Two: Scientific socialism also takes the most thoroughgoing and consistent position in relation to the defense and extension of Civil-Political Freedom.
Born from the political demands of capitalism during its growing period, from the outset modern democracy had many bourgeois restrictions and limits. Although the "Declaration of Independence" of the United States of America (1776) and the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen" of France (1789) declared the people's sovereignty, it took the peoples of different countries, even in the main capitalist countries, as shown by just one example of voting rights, another one hundred and scores of years of effort to establish universal suffrage guaranteeing equal rights to all the nation, including women, to take part in political life. On the question of freedom and the human rights of the people, the revolutionary government during the French Revolution banned and suppressed unions and strikes of workers as a crime infringing on "freedom and the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.'" Before the right of workers to organize and strike came to be generally recognized as a natural democratic right in modern states, long tenacious struggles had to be waged by the working class against the tyrannical suppression by the government and the bourgeoisie. This struggle is still being continued even in Japan today.
Marx and Engels, who began their activities as scientific socialists in the 1840s, opposed all feudal or bourgeois restrictions on the freedom and democracy of the people, and insisted that the fundamental task of democracy should be to realize in the most thorough way a State in which sovereignty rests with the people, with universal suffrage, freedom of the press, association and assembly. Even if the bourgeoisie, in fear of the people's strength, threw away the banner of freedom and democracy, the working class should take over the banner as its own, and rise to fight to defend and extend freedom and democracy; this was their consistent advice to socialist movements in different countries.
Present institutions of Civil-Political Freedom and political democracy that have been realized in different forms and substance in modern society, cannot be attributed simply to bourgeois revolutions in the past. They are the result of the people's struggle over a long period, as mentioned before, having developed into what we have today. In this respect also, the cause of scientific socialism that has consistently upheld the banner of people's sovereignty and freedom has made the most important and pioneering contribution.
Three: The course and destiny of each country should be determined by the people of that country, and no other State or nation has the right to interfere in it. This right of nations to self-determination, or Freedom of the Nation, is indispensable for the development of a society, and a thorough defense of this freedom has, from the beginning, been the principled position of scientific socialism.
In the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848), Marx and Engels already pointed out that a socialist revolution would first be carried out as a national undertaking of the people of each country. They repeatedly stressed that to secure national sovereignty and independence is an indispensable precondition for the social progress of the peoples of different countries, and for international cooperation among the countries. They opposed all suppression of nations. Engels stressed that without "the free development of all nations and of each respective nation," it would be impossible either to think of a social revolution in respective countries, or to achieve one by mutual assistance (Letter from Engels to Ion Nadejde, January 4, 1888). Also, in envisaging the socialist future of humanity, he strongly opposed the infringement of Freedom of the Nation in the name of the interest of "socialism." He severely warned that, if countries which had stepped forward on the road to socialism earlier than others should try to force socialism on other nations from outside, this would undermine the whole international cause of socialism. He wrote, "The victorious proletariat can force no blessings of any kind upon any foreign nation without undermining its own victory by so doing." (Letter from Engels to Karl Kautsky, September 12, 1882)
Four: Communist society envisaged by scientific socialism is a community intrinsically characterized by the full realization of human freedom.
Communist society is a society which will end all class divisions that have characterized human society since the collapse of the primitive-communal system, and which will achieve a magnificent development of productive forces and establish new substance in social life. It will mean: (1) A society in which class antagonism and suppression will be replaced by a new-born society of genuinely equal and free human relations in which "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all," (2) a society in which organized and systematic violence and all violence against humanity will be abolished and wars will disappear, a society in which there will be in principle no compulsion and state power itself will become unnecessary, and (3) finally, people will put under their rule and control the natural and social conditions of life, which have hitherto ruled them, to become conscious lords of nature and society; human freedom will be realized in these aspects to such an overall extent and supreme forms as have never been thought feasible in the class societies.
Marx characterized communist society as "a higher form of society in which the full and free development of every individual forms the ruling principle" ("Capital"), and Engels defined formation of this society as "humanity's leap from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom" ("Anti-D¸hring"). It is a genuinely free society, the prospect of which has been given for the first time in human history on scientific grounds and on the grand scale of world history.
(C) Lenin basically inherited the spirit of scientific socialism which Marx and Engels developed, made an overall analysis of the political and economic conditions of world capitalism, which had reached the stage of imperialism, and sharply denounced imperialism's dominant tendency to political reaction and negation of democracy, the annexation and suppression of other nations, militarism and wars of aggression, among other things. He insisted that the working class and people in their struggles to reach the final goal of socialism should hoist higher the banners of democracy, political freedom and national self-determination. According to Lenin, the working class not only had to attach importance to its fight for democracy in the struggle for emancipation, but also had to aim at the complete realization of democracy and national self-determination even after winning the socialist revolution. He wrote:
"In the same way as there can be no victorious socialism that does not practice full democracy, so the proletariat cannot prepare for its victory over the bourgeoisie without an all-round, consistent and revolutionary struggle for democracy." ("The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination (Theses)," 1916)
In fact, as seen in the situation on the eve of and during World War II, when freedom and democracy of the world were in grave peril, it was the communists and their parties that maintained the banners of democracy and freedom, and of independence and peace at the head of the peoples' struggles, including the Japanese Communist Party which fought against the despotic rule and wars of aggression by Tennoist militarism. In the struggles of the anti-fascist people's fronts and the anti-Nazi resistance in Europe, as well as in the anti-Japanese struggles by the Chinese and other peoples in Asia, a great number of communists gave their lives to the cause of democracy and national liberation. These struggles demonstrated, through the worldwide experiences of the struggles against fascism and militarism, that the parties of scientific socialism were indeed the pioneer fighters for democracy and freedom.
After World War II the Vietnamese people demonstrated it anew by defeating the war of aggression by U.S. imperialism and winning national independence and unification in their victorious struggle for national salvation against the United States.
(D) With the advent of the 20th century, world capitalism reached the stage of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. In the century since then the world people's struggles for freedom and democracy have gone through much turmoil with twists and turns but have achieved significant advances in world history.
At the beginning of the 20th century the number of substantially independent countries on our planet was only about 20, and the overwhelming majority of nations in Asia, Africa and Latin America were colonies, semi-colonies or dependencies suffering from national suppression. Today almost all of these nations have won their independence. In the 1960s United Nations General Assembly resolutions and others began to denounce the very possession of colonies as an illegal act in violation of international law. At present (as of July 1996) 185 countries are UN members, most of which are former colonies or dependencies.
As regards political systems, early in the 20th century, monarchy was prevalent and the republican system with the principle of people's sovereignty was fully realized only in a few countries. Today a great majority of the world's countries adopts the republican system, and the monarchy remains only in 29 countries. During the 20th century, the main current of the world politics has completely changed from monarchy in which the sovereignty rests with the ruler to the republican system in which the sovereignty rests with the people.
As for the question of guaranteeing human rights, guarantee of the people's right to existence--guarantee of the right to live and other social rights, has become an important component of constitutional human rights provisions, which represents important progress achieved during the 20th century. It is also clearly stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenants on Human Rights (1966) and other international treaties.
It is a clear historical fact which nobody can deny that the cause of scientific socialism has made a great contribution to the progress and achievements of freedom and democracy. The socialist revolution which took place in Russia in 1917 contributed to world progress in the period of Lenin's leadership with its achievements demonstrating the true value of scientific socialism, despite historical restrictions stemming from its start in a socially and economically backward situation as well as not a few trials and errors. In particular the new regime declared self-determination for all nations including colonies as a world principle and actually put into practice self-determination of the nations within the territory of the former Russian Empire; it proclaimed and put into practice the principles of equal rights between men and women, an eight-hour working day, paid holidays and a social security system, and thus pushed people's Freedom of Existence to the fore as the fundamental human right; all these encouraged the world's working people and the oppressed nations and greatly influenced the capitalist countries. Its significance in human history is never lost even after the accumulated errors by Stalin and the subsequent leaders and the resultant collapse of the Soviet Union.
The violations of freedom and democracy including the right to national self-determination, perpetrated by the Soviet Union since Stalin, meant to throw away the principles of scientific socialism and overturn the course of the transitional period toward socialism laid out during Lenin's era; they decisively degenerated and degraded Soviet society into a system suppressing the people, which is totally alien to socialism. The collapse from 1989 to 1991 of the Soviet Union and its subordinate regimes in the Eastern European countries was the result of this system's degeneration and degradation.
Facing the aggravation of hegemonism of the Soviet Union and others, the Japanese Communist Party made clear early on its resolute position of fighting any expression of hegemonism, and it defended the independence of the revolutionary and democratic movements in each country and the principled position of scientific socialism, defeated interventions in the Japanese movement, and struggled against the invasion of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. The JCP has made clear its course and policy of never taking any foreign experience as a model, and that it will defend and develop Three Freedoms in the context of Japanese society, a highly developed capitalist country.
The Japanese Communist Party will take over and develop into the future the true position of scientific socialism as the consistent defender of freedom and democracy, and will continue working together with the people, along the independent road toward an independent and democratic Japan, and a socialist Japan.
back to contents
In Japan, a highly developed capitalist country and yet subordinated to U.S. imperialism, the Japanese Communist Party has set out, for the future course of social progress, the immediate aim of achieving a democratic change of Japan through a democratic coalition government. It further envisages the building of an independent, democratic Japan through an anti-imperialist, antimonopoly democratic revolution, advancing to a socialist Japan through a socialist revolution and developing into a communist society. All these are to constitute specific advanced stages of social development by which the livelihood and well-being of the Japanese people will be improved and their rights and freedoms extended. However, the route taken for social progress, as well as when and how far along this route we should move, are questions to be determined by the will of the people, the sovereign, and by the choice the people express in elections.
In Japan, postwar reform established in the Constitution the political institution of people's sovereignty and parliamentary democracy, and certain civil-political freedoms. Though subjected to different kinds of reactionary attacks, they have become important gains of the Japanese people in their struggle for democracy. In seeking a future way for social progress under conditions existing in Japan, great importance should be attached to solving problems such as the people's livelihood and complete restoration of the nation's sovereignty and other national tasks, while defending the democratic gains by fighting the attacks by reactionary forces trying to violate the people's freedom and undermine democracy; the democratic rights and freedom of the people and the institution of political democracy should be extended and developed further, by breaking down various unjustifiable regulations.
The Japanese Communist Party, since 1961 when the 8th Congress adopted the Party Program, has consistently advocated this course of Japan's social progress with the defense and development of freedom and democracy as its supreme characteristic, and has actively elaborated and proposed specific policies to realize this.
Specifically as to the question of freedom, the party has specified "Three Freedoms" which the Japanese people must defend and enhance: Freedom of Existence, Civil-Political Freedom, and Freedom of the Nation. The party has relentlessly denounced the present state of Japan in which these three freedoms are violated. The party has made it clear that the course of social progress envisaged by the party is the very way to establish, defend, enrich and extend these Three Freedoms, the way to get the freedom of the people to flourish in a further developed form.
With the question of freedom and democracy becoming increasingly one of the major focal points of the confrontation on the future course of Japan and national administration, the Japanese Communist Party again makes clear, for each of the three spheres of the freedom of the people, the course of development of freedom and democracy at present and in the future, and the JCP's policies and views on them, and calls on the people for joint efforts to attain them.
back to contents
Today, under successive reactionary governments, and more fundamentally as a result of the economic domination of big business and subordination to the United States, the life and living conditions of the people have been depressed and destroyed in many ways. These include the sharp tax increase resulting from the introduction of the consumption tax to provide revenue for the arms buildup, rising prices, low wages, long working hours and excessively intense labor, accidents on the job, environmental pollution, housing difficulties, poor social security, etc. To get rid of such infringements on the people's living conditions so as to secure the proper conditions for all people to enjoy a healthy and cultural life worthy of humans, i.e., to actually guarantee Freedom of Existence, is one of the most important features of the freedom we are seeking.
A change in the national administration to be brought about by a democratic coalition government will replace the big-business-oriented economic policy with people-oriented economic democracy, which will constitute the basis of national economic policy, and curb the outrageous economic activities of big business by exercising democratic control over big business. Even within the framework of the capitalist economy, this will mean a big step toward the guarantee of Freedom of Existence for the people.
In an independent and democratic Japan, such economic democracy will be further extended, and a further great development will be gained in making effective use of the world's second largest economic power for the livelihood and well-being of the people.
In a socialist Japan, major means of production in the hands of big business will be transferred to the ownership of the whole society, and the principle of economic activities, that is, production not for the sake of private profits, but for society and the people, will come to govern. Workers will play an active role through participation in the control and management of enterprises. In this way, a socialist planned economy that makes effective use of the productive forces without any waste will guarantee unprecedentedly high material prosperity and spiritual blossoming for everyone.
(A) Inflation and rising prices, economic depression and unemployment, and the disruption of the environment by pollution are phenomena inherent in capitalism, and in particular, the products of economic domination by big business. To bring about change and progress in economic policy in the direction of economic democracy will restrict such damage to the minimum, and the people's lives can be stabilized and improved. Especially in a socialist Japan, conditions will be created not only to stabilize prices but also to reduce them in line with the development of productive forces; and it will be possible to eliminate economic depressions and unemployment and to create a society without unemployment but with freedom to choose occupations matching the talent or abilities of individuals. On the question of pollution and the environment, a socialist Japan will ensure the implementation of preventive measures nationwide to eliminate pollution at its roots, and protect and improve the living and natural environments. It will make a positive contribution to the ecological preservation of the earth.
In the course of establishing and extending economic democracy and in the march forward to socialism in Japan, the highest priority of State policy will be given to the establishment of a comprehensive social security system, based on respect for human life and dignity, to free the people from anxiety about old age and illness. In a socialist Japan, medical care will be free for all and be funded by the State, pensions will be sufficient to fully secure one's livelihood in old age, and all education will be free through university.
Houses, schools, hospitals and other public facilities necessary for the people's health and cultural life will be built systematically on the responsibility of the State and local autonomies, so that difficulties in this aspect of the people's lives may be rapidly eliminated.
(B) In an independent, democratic Japan, of course, and even at the stage after transition to a socialist Japan, the private property of working people will be guaranteed. In socializing the economy, even if nationalization becomes necessary, it will be applied only to the major means of production in the hands of big business. The property of working individuals, namely, their private ownership of the means of living, far from being denied, will be guaranteed, which includes houses and land necessary for living. The more society develops, the richer the means of living to be enjoyed by the people will be.
In a highly developed capitalist country like Japan, socialization of the major means of production in the hands of big business will be a decisive step toward a socialist economy. In the fields of small- and medium-sized business and industry, agriculture, small- and medium-scale fisheries, etc., private ownership and private management will be broadly retained, and their positive roles in the national economy will be respected. The foreseeable main form of socialization in these fields will be to form cooperatives, but even in such a case collectivization will not be hurriedly carried out. Neither will it be forced on anyone but will be carried out in strict observance of the principle of voluntary participation and only when those concerned have come to feel that it will be more in their interests and themselves opt for it.
(C) Both an independent and democratic Japan and a socialist Japan, by making the best use of Japan's high level of productive forces and the people's high educational level and strong motivation for work, and by achieving a well-balanced economic development without environmental pollution, will produce a rich variety of goods to meet the needs of the people and enrich the people's living in all fields of food, clothing and housing. Goods will be abundant and of better quality, courtesy to customers will be improved, and freedom to choose goods according to one's own taste will be widely guaranteed.
In a socialist Japan, private initiatives of agriculture and fisheries, small- and medium-sized business and industry will be respected, and through a combination of a planned economy and market economy, a flexible and efficient management of the economy will be attained.
A socialist planned economy will be the means to ensure the people's abundant prosperity and that of the Japanese economy by effectively utilizing the productive forces without waste. A so-called "controlled economy," in which consumer life is subjected to control and uniformity, is totally alien to both economic democracy and the economic life of a socialist Japan.
(D) In the transition stage from a socialist society to a communist society, radical improvement in the overall intellectual level of the people and the magnificent development of productive forces will create conditions that will enable a substantial reduction of working hours needed for maintaining a good social life. All working people will be able to have sufficient free time to fully develop their mental and physical abilities in aspects besides material production.
In this way, the development of productive forces and the reduction of working hours in a communist society will constitute the material basis for supporting the cultural-spiritual flowering and the genuinely free development of humanity. Only on this basis can "the true realm of freedom" (Marx) come to blossom.
back to contents
People's sovereignty, the freedom of the people to participate fully and widely in political life as the sovereigns of the State, freedom of thought and conscience, freedom of speech, the press, assembly, association and expression, freedom of religion, and freedom of the working people to unite in collective action must be fully defended throughout all stages of social development in Japan.
From this basic viewpoint, the Japanese Communist Party will never accept any acts of oppression that infringe on the Civil-Political Freedom of the people, and will resolutely struggle to establish and develop these freedoms. Under a democratic coalition government in the immediate future, then in an independent and democratic Japan, and after a socialist Japan is realized, all Civil-Political Freedoms will be guaranteed so that human dignity will be established. At the higher stage of communism, what humankind has always sought as Civil-Political Freedom will come to full bloom in its brightest form.
back to contents
Development of Political Democracy
(A) From the position of people's sovereignty, both in an independent and democratic Japan and in a socialist Japan, a democratic State system will be established and firmly maintained, with a Diet elected by universal suffrage as the supreme organ in name and in reality. A multi-party system that includes opposition parties will be adopted, in which freedom of activities will be guaranteed for all parties. The party or coalition of parties winning the support of the majority of the people in an election will hold the reins of government. Based on the system in which the majority in the Diet is responsible for setting up the cabinet, a change-of-government system will naturally be maintained.
The Diet will extend its power to be consistent with its status as the supreme organ of the State and the only legislative organ. Its right to investigate government affairs will be extended and actively used, on the premise that judicial power is independent. The Diet will operate under democratic rules, which include a guarantee for the right of the members to deliberation and inquiry, with minority opinions fully respected. To ensure the widest-possible reflection of the people's will in government, the right of petition will be further guaranteed, and complete democracy in the electoral system will be exercised, including voting rights for all men and women 18 years and over.
The State will bear the responsibility of defending the security of life, the person, property, residence and travel for all people. Actions that would break down fundamental human rights, destroy life or social institutions by violence will be controlled.
Public servants will be required to act in conformity with the principle of sovereignty resting with the people, and all acts of corruption or of abuse of power will be strictly prohibited.
(B) The Constitution of Japan embodies Five Principles, which are the major pillars of its peace and democratic provisions: (1) The people's sovereignty and the State sovereignty, (2) lasting peace, (3) fundamental human rights, (4) parliamentary democracy and (5) local autonomy. These Five Principles of the Constitution will be defended and further enriched and developed in the future. The principle of the so-called separation of three powers will be carried on in a more developed form. On the premise of the people's sovereignty, this principle establishes the relations of relative independence and mutual control among the legislative, executive and judicial powers, and is useful as one of the democratic guarantees for preventing the abuse of power and infringement of human rights.
Under the system of the separation of three powers, the courts must exercise judicial power that is independent from unjustifiable intervention by other State organs, and the appointment of judges and the security of their status must be democratically established.
Local autonomy will be defended and developed to extend the participation of the people in local government.
back to contents
Guarantee of Freedom and Human Rights
The Japanese Communist Party considers that the defense and development of civil freedom is essential to guaranteeing inviolable fundamental human rights and people's sovereignty.
(A) Freedom of speech, publication and other forms of expression will be defended, with free access to paper and means of printing guaranteed. Censorship will be eliminated, and freedom of information will be established. The news media such as newspapers, TV, radio and others will also be given a guarantee of freedom of the press, including the right to criticize the government. For those who do not have easy access to means of expression, there will be a material guarantee that enables them to express their own thoughts and opinions. Such material guarantee is necessarily preconditioned by the inviolability of freedom of expression, and this guarantee must not be used as a means of censorship or control.
Freedom of assembly and to engage in demonstrations, freedom of association, workers' rights to organize, to strike, of collective bargaining and other collective actions, will be fully defended. Meeting places and other facilities necessary for exercising these rights will be expanded and enriched.
Freedom of thought and creed and the freedom of individual conscience will be completely guaranteed. Intervention by any public authority in the spiritual life of the people will be stopped, and discrimination due to differences in thought and creed will be eliminated. No world outlook will be made a "State philosophy," and freedom to hold different thoughts and philosophies will be guaranteed.
Also inside enterprises, fundamental human rights and freedom will be defended, and freedom of political activity and to support any political party will be guaranteed. Discrimination against membership of or support for any party will be eliminated, and workers unions will not be able to oblige their members to support a particular political party.
Freedom of religion, with freedom of propagation and missionary work included, will be unconditionally guaranteed. All religious observances will be regarded by the State as private affairs and will be secure from intervention by public authorities. The principle of separation of religion from politics will be maintained, and the State will not grant special rights or privileges to any religion, nor will it discriminate against any religion. No religious organizations will be permitted to participate in exercising political power, and no apparatus of public authorities or schools run by the State or local governments will be permitted to conduct religious education or any other religious activities. No ideological coercion, either to compel or prohibit a particular type of thought or faith, will be allowed.
(B) Freedom of academic research, and freedom of cultural and artistic activities, including creation, criticism, presentation and appreciation, will be guaranteed.
Any administrative control over academic research or creative art will be removed, and free democratic criticism and discussion will be respected. The autonomy of universities and colleges, and the independence of education will be defended and guaranteed. Education in support of or opposition to any particular political party or parties will not be allowed in schools. The working conditions of teachers and other staff members of schools as well as teaching and research conditions will be improved; and, at the same time, teachers and researchers will bear responsibility to the people for education of youth and the development of science and technology.
As for sports and recreation, more public facilities available for the people will be constructed to guarantee sports and recreation as a right of the people.
Bullying, corporal punishment and other infringements of human rights of children will not be allowed; children will be protected from the trend of decadence and delinquency; and an appropriate environment will be prepared for children's sound growth and personality formation. Attaching importance to the responsibility of society for the sound growth of youth and to the respect for women as individuals, human dignity will be defended from the commercialization of sex and a debased view of humanity as being at animal level.
(C) The principle of equality and equal rights for men and women will be defended in all fields and its guarantee will be provided. The independence of women will be respected, their social and legal positions will be improved, and obstacles that hinder their participation in social activity and their making an active contribution to society will be eliminated. Marriage and divorce is, of course, at the discretion of the persons concerned, but special consideration should be taken not to place women under disadvantageous conditions. Semi-feudal remnants in various fields of society will be eliminated. As for the so-called Buraku problem, for example, efforts will be made to attain the integration of the people. For the Ainu people, who could be called an ethnic minority in Japan, their livelihood and human rights will be guaranteed, and their culture protected.
(D) The freedom of each individual must be defended to the maximum, and privacy protected from unjustifiable intervention. Confidentiality of correspondence and communication will be strictly protected, and any form of eavesdropping and stealthy photographing will be prohibited. Freedom to travel and move, and freedom to choose one's own place of residence and one's occupation will naturally be fully guaranteed, and so will be freedom to travel abroad, emigrate and choose one's own nationality.
It goes without saying that hobbies, taste, fashions and so on will be left to the individual. Any control over or intervention in the citizens' lives will be removed.
(E) Personal liberty will be defended and guaranteed. Trade in human beings, physical violence, and inhumane treatment or punishment will be stopped; those who commit such ill treatment will be punished in the name of respect for humanity. No one will be arrested without a warrant except in the case of a flagrant offense, and no criminal punishment will be imposed without statutory procedures. No one will be arrested or expelled by reason of holding an opinion or political view that differs from that of the government. The accused in criminal cases will be guaranteed the right of a fair, speedy and open trial.
back to contents
Every nation is free to independently select social and political institutions of its own, and is free to exercise national sovereignty in all diplomatic, military and economic affairs. This is the inherent right of every nation, an indispensable condition for the free development of a nation. It is the most important task for the Japanese people as a nation to firmly restore the right of self-determination, and fight against all who infringe this right, and to make every effort to defend the freedom of the Japanese nation.
To defend one's own nation's right of self-determination and to defend equally this right of other nations are inseparable. No nation has the right to oppress any other nation in military, political, economic or other fields. The people of each country must defend their right to national self-determination, the right to independently determine their own course and destiny, and oppose any form of imperialist or hegemonist infringement. For the Japanese people, to oppose any intervention in, suppression of, and aggression against other nations is the way to establish equal and mutually beneficial relations with all nations.
In this way, Japan will develop as a genuinely independent, peaceful country, and the freedom of the Japanese nation will be guaranteed and will come to full flowering.
(A) Japan will disengage from the Japan-U.S. military alliance, and the Japanese people will gain the right to independently determine the future course of their country.
Under the Japan-U.S. military alliance, even Japan's right to decide whether it participates in a war or not is actually controlled by the United States, and it has been made a U.S. base for aggression and intervention to infringe the right of world's peoples to self-determination. By disengaging from this Japan-U.S. military alliance and breaking the status quo in which Japan's sovereignty is being infringed by the United States, the Japanese people will, on their own will, freely set a course for the nation in the future. A democratic coalition government will, with approval of the Diet, give notice to the U.S. administration of the abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, to get rid of the yoke of the Japan-U.S. military alliance. This will be the first important step for Japan to restore its sovereignty. After getting free from the Japan-U.S. military alliance, Japan will never join any miliary alliance and will adhere to the position of nuclear-weapons-free nonalignment and neutrality.
Territorial problems are another fundamental question related to national sovereignty, and Japan will seek, based on the principles of international law, a just solution to the Chishima (Kurile) Islands question. For immediate reversion of the Habomai and Shikotan Islands on conclusion of an interim treaty, and for reversion of the entire Chishima Islands on conclusion of a Japan-Russia Peace Treaty, Japan will promote negotiations with Russia.
Japan will enact the "three nonnuclear principles," not to possess, produce or allow nuclear weapons to be brought into Japan; and with a view to achieving an urgent and vitally important task for humankind, prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, Japan will work for the conclusion of an international agreement on a total ban on and elimination of nuclear weapons. At the same time, Japan will work for the dissolution of all military alliances to achieve a world free of such alliances.
(B) Respect for the sovereignty of other nations, i.e., Freedom of the Nation, will be the basis of Japan's foreign policy.
Through the Japan-U.S. military alliance, Japan has been integrated into the U.S. hegemonist world strategy. Withdrawal from the military alliance and realization of neutrality will contribute to peace in the world and Asia and the national self-determination of the peoples. This will, at the same time, block the revival and strengthening of Japanese militarism in subordination to the United States, and will fundamentally change the neocolonialist inroads abroad by Japanese monopoly capital, and substantially alter the present situation that threatens the peoples of neighboring countries.
(C) We will oppose all forms of interventionism, hegemonism and new- or old-colonialism, which infringe the rights and freedom of other nations. In current international relations, aggression, suppression and intervention against other nations is still prevalent. U.S. imperialism has not abandoned its policy of military aggression against other nations even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and still maintains the attitude of glorifying its war of aggression against Vietnam as a war of justice and makes it one of the common "values" to be imposed on allied countries. The U.S. military-political leadership, on the pretext of "deterring" or "settling" "regional conflicts," has openly adopted the "world gendarme" strategy devoted to intervening in other countries' internal affairs, including overthrowing of any progressive governments not to their liking, and insists that the only super-power in the world, the United States of America, naturally has the right to do so. Such interventionism and hegemonism intends to reverse from outside the independent choice freely expressed by the peoples concerned in exercising national sovereignty, and should therefore never be permitted in the interest of world peace and the principle of national self-determination. The CIA has carried out intrigue in many places in the world, and in Japan the CIA and others have been engaged in unjustifiable interventions in Japanese politics through covert operations in clandestine form. Irrespective of social systems or the size of countries and nations, the right of self-determination of every nation must be respected. To reject all kinds of intervention by any foreign country or in any form and to defend independent choice by nations, is essential for the establishment of genuine friendly relations among nations.
(D) In international economic life also, sovereignty and the independent will of each nation will be respected, and efforts made to establish equal and mutually beneficial economic relations, and a new international economic order.
It is a task of specific importance for the contemporary world to oppose neocolonialist policies of imperialism, establish equal and mutually beneficial international economic relations, including the developing countries, and fundamentally resolve the so-called "north-south problem." These developing countries, which represent the overwhelming majority of the total world population, have only a small share in world production, and hundreds of millions are suffering from a low cultural level, unable to read and write, and malnutrition or starvation, and are deprived of Freedom of Existence. This is the result of imperialism's policy of colonialist plunder of the developing countries. To leave this as it is, is impermissible for human dignity and Freedom of Existence of the whole humanity. Respect not only for political sovereignty of the developing countries, but also for national sovereignty over their natural resources, as well as establishment of equal and mutually beneficial economic relations, is quite important for free and unrestricted development of relations among nations in the contemporary world.
To attain global preservation of the environment and resources, it is today an urgent task for humankind to restrict irresponsible profit-first behavior of multinational and other big corporations.
(E) At the stage when Japan moves onto the path of socialism, the policy of defending the freedom of our own nation and respecting the freedom of other nations will continue to be firmly maintained. The worldwide victory of socialism and communism will bring about new possibilities for good relations and rapprochement between nations, such as has not been conceivable in the years of capitalism and imperialism. But this new prospect of good relations, rapprochement and cooperation among nations, free from war or aggression, can come about only by fully defending and achieving Freedom of the Nation.
In this way, the Japanese Communist Party, from now through a future socialist Japan, will defend the Freedom of Existence of the people and work for an ever more prosperous life, defending and bringing to fruition Civil-Political Freedom, and will strive to defend and develop Freedom of the Nation. The full defense and development of freedom and democracy is the clear perspective of the Japanese Communist Party which is responsible on its own for the future of our people. The Japanese Communist Party declares that it will advance with the Japanese people to realize this great cause.
(Akahata, July 16, 1996)
back to contents
|
The Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party |
