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(1) The Japanese Communist Party, inheriting the progressive and revolutionary traditions of the nation, was founded on July 15, 1922 as a party with scientific socialism as its theoretical basis in the midst of an upsurge in the struggle of the Japanese people and the liberation struggles of the world's people, which included the Russian October Socialist Revolution.
At that time Japan was already one of the world's major monopoly capitalist countries, but its rural areas were still under the rule of a semi-feudal landlord system, based on which the absolute Tenno (Emperor) system, as the mainstay of the Japan's reactionary ruling forces, exercised despotic power through the military and the police, depriving the people of their rights and freedom and moving along the road of aggression and war against the Asian countries.
On the basis of these specific conditions in the regime, the party pursued a policy of working, in the first instance, for a democratic revolution aimed at achieving a peaceful and democratic Japan, which could then be developed into a socialist revolution and the building of a socialist Japan.
Defying frequent severe ordeals which were inflicted on it, the party adhered to the correct policy of working to achieve a democratic revolution first and fought against the despotic rule of the Tenno system, which had deprived the Japanese people of all their rights, and for overthrowing the Tenno system to win people's sovereignty, freedom and human rights.
The party waged a struggle to abolish the semi-feudal landlord system and free the land for the peasants.
The party took up the struggle to radically improve the living conditions of the working class suffering from exploitation by monopoly capitalism, and for the rights and a better life for all working people, the intellectuals, the women and the youth.
The party worked to develop and disseminate progressive and revolutionary culture.
The party fought against the interventionist wars of Japanese imperialism against the Russian and Chinese revolutions, and opposed the war of aggression against China, a forerunner of World War II, in defense of peace in Asia and elsewhere in the world.
The party took up the cause for the liberation of Korea and Taiwan, which were at the time colonies of Japanese imperialism, and worked for the complete independence of the colonial and semi-colonial nations in Asia.
As a result of the imperialist war and the brutality of Tennoist power, the people were forced to suffer great hardships with many people losing their lives and the country being devastated. The war of aggression caused the death of more than 20 million people in the countries of Asia.
Under the brutal repression of Tennoist power, there were very great difficulties and setbacks for the party activity, but many JCP members fought dauntlessly, in spite of persecution and imprisonment, in defense of the party's banner, and fought various betrayals. In this struggle, not a few party members were deprived of their lives as a result of the oppression.
When all the other parties joined the current of promoting reaction, aggression and war, it is of everlasting significance in the cause for democratic change in Japan that the Japanese Communist Party did not yield and continued to struggle by hoisting the banner for peace and democracy.
Japanese imperialism was defeated and the Japanese government accepted the Potsdam Declaration. This declaration of the anti-fascist Allied Powers had the basic content of aiming to end militarism and to establish democracy, and showed that the only way out for the Japanese nation was to realize a peaceful and democratic Japan. This proved that the policy the party had advocated so dauntlessly was fundamentally correct. In addition, the outcome of World War II as a whole makes clear how groundless are such attacks that hold the Japanese Communist Party responsible for the war on the grounds that it could not prevent the war of aggression.
(2) The defeat of the aggressive bloc, Japan, Germany and Italy, and the victory of the anti-fascist Allied Powers and the world's democratic forces in World War II radically changed the internal and external conditions for the liberation of the Japanese people and opened the way for the people to rise up from the agony they had suffered under the Tenno regime.
Openly resuming its activities after the war, the Japanese Communist Party demanded a thorough implementation of the Potsdam Declaration with complete democratic transformation, and struggled in the van of the democratic forces for abolition of the Tenno system, the liquidation of militarism and the reconstruction of the country in the people's interests. Based on this position the party published the "Draft Constitution of People's Republic."
That the core of the Allied Forces which occupied our country was the United States of America, which, armed with atomic bombs, was aiming at world domination with plans for war against the Soviet Union, was the first step to lead the Japanese people's destiny to the unprecedented situation of subordination to a foreign imperialist power. From pressure by world democratic forces and the Japanese people, a series of "democratization" measures were introduced, but the United States kept them within limits necessary for their domination over Japan and tried to abort the democratic revolution. In such circumstances the Japan's existing Constitution was adopted, containing provisions on peace and democracy based on people's sovereignty while at the same time including clauses on Tenno and other reactionary provisions. Although the Tenno system lost its absolute character, it was retained as a kind of bourgeois monarchy and has been used by U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital as a tool of theirolitical and ideological domination and the revival of militarism.
Aiming to achieve its ambition of world domination, U.S. imperialism violated the Potsdam Declaration, brought Japan virtually under its exclusive control, implemented a policy of reviving Japanese monopoly capital as its junior ally, while consolidating Japan as a military base, and suppressed the liberation struggles of the Japanese people. As the agrarian reform basically liquidated the semi-feudal land ownership and landlord system as far as farmland is concerned, now Japanese monopoly capital became the core of the reactionary forces. In order to thwart the democratic revolution and to maintain its rule, Japanese monopoly capital betrayed the nation's interests and faithfully swung into line with U.S. imperialism.
The Japanese Communist Party opposed the occupation rule of the United States and the policy of national betrayal, reaction and plunder by Japanese monopoly capital, and demanded the immediate signing of an overall peace treaty and worked for the formation of a united front standing for national independence, democracy, peace and a better life.
Faced with the changing situation in Asia and the world, which included the victorious Chinese revolution, U.S. imperialism resorted to new means to achieve its ends. In 1951 the San Francisco Peace Treaty was concluded, without the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was signed at the same time. While recognizing Japan's independence in such a form as to help suppress the Japanese people's struggle for national independence, the aim of these treaties was actually to free themselves from their obligations under the Potsdam Declaration, to consolidate Japan as a vital U.S. stronghold for its world domination, to bring Japan's ruling forces into further active cooperation with U.S. imperialism, and to revive and strengthen Japanese militarism.
The San Francisco system, legalized by the two treaties, was a framework of Japan's subservient alliance with the United States, and at the same time a system established jointly by U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital for war preparations and the plunder of the people, a system for oppressing the Japanese nation. Although overall U.S. imperialist occupation rule has been replaced by semi-occupation and the Japanese government's sovereign power is more than it was before, with Japan at least formally being a sovereign state, national sovereignty has been greatly impaired and genuine independence has not yet been restored.
The provision in the San Francisco Peace Treaty for renunciation of the Chishima (Kurile) Islands was an unjust measure contrary to the principle of territorial non-expansion which was a promise made by the Allied Powers during World War II.
The Japan-U.S. Security Treaty was revised in 1960, with new clauses added on Japan-U.S. combined operations and economic cooperation, by which the military alliance's characteristic of subservience to the United States, which could involve Japan in a U.S. war, was fully developed and the actual degree of Japan's sovereignty and independence being infringed was rather increased.
(3) Fundamentally, Japan today is controlled by U.S. imperialism and its subordinate ally, Japanese monopoly capital. Although Japan is a highly developed capitalist country, it is virtually a dependent country, with an important part of its land, military matters and other affairs of state being controlled by U.S. imperialism.
A great number of U.S. military bases exist in Japan with Okinawa being made the biggest U.S. military base in Asia. U.S. imperialism at its will infringes on Japan's territorial waters and air space and has even brought nuclear weapons into Japan, the country whose people have suffered three times from nuclear weapons in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Bikini Atoll.
Japan's Self-Defense Forces, which are virtually under the control and command of the U.S. armed forces, are a tool for maintaining Japanese monopoly capitalist rule. At the same time they have been assigned a role in U.S. world strategy, with a scheme to send them abroad and then to increase the scale.
U.S. imperialism still maintains its dominant power over Japan's military and diplomatic affairs. Time and again in the United Nations and at other international political arenas, Japanese government representatives play the role of spokespersons for the U.S. government.
Japanese monopoly capitalism, which is the center of Japan's reactionary regime, has been reorganized and strengthened under the new conditions of U.S. rule; while it has the characteristics of state-monopoly capitalism subordinate to the United States, it has now become the world's second biggest economic power which is mainly based on the exploitation and plunder of the Japanese working class and working people. Economic subordination to and dependence on the United States, coupled with the marked backwardness of agriculture compared to industry and the contradictions between the widespread small- and medium-sized enterprises and the big enterprises, is making the contradictions in Japanese monopoly capitalism more complex and sharper. This has made the livelihood of the workers, farmers, working citizens and other sections of the people, the overwhelming majority of the population, more and more difficult and insecure.
The workers are distressed by the backward forms of exploitation inherited from the prewar period and new postwar types of exploitation existing in parallel, the resultant poor working conditions, including the system of low wages, long working hours and intense work with frequent labor accidents, and insecure employment plus unemployment. As for the farmers, policies of imposing the import of U.S. agricultural products in the name of the "liberalization of trade" and of cutting family-based farms are pressurizing them, depriving them of the conditions for managing their farms. Especially the Japanese government's acceptance of the 1993 GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) "agreement" on the liberalization of rice imports has driven Japan's farmers and its agriculture into a more serious position. This "agreement" tramples on the principle of respecting the economic sovereignty of member countries, which is a basic element of GATT. This has exposed the nature of U.S. ecomic hegemonism. The livelihood of working citizens is always faced with difficulties arising from heavy taxation and pressure from the big enterprises. The small- and medium-sized enterprises are dominated and plundered by the big enterprises and are forced to be subcontractors, or go bankrupt. The existence of vast numbers of poor people has also become a constant phenomenon.
By contrast, a small number of the big enterprises are constantly and avariciously accumulating wealth on an ever-increasing scale, and growing into giants and multinational companies. Their development policies which give priority to profit have caused the nationwide destruction of the natural and living environment. To maximize their profits, the big enterprises use the state machinery to exploit wider sections of the people, strengthen their corrupt ties with reactionary politicians and the top bureaucrats, and spread corruption, bribery and rot, thus hastening the decay of Japanese monopoly capitalism. Their rule is growing more and more incompatible with the nation's interests.
To expand the export of commodities and capital, Japanese monopoly capital is binding our country to U.S. world strategy and taking the road of reviving and consolidating militarism and imperialism. Japanese monopoly capital, based on its colossal capital accumulation, now occupies a powerful international position on the export of both manufactured goods and capital. In the world imperialist camp, it is playing an active and aggressive role in all military, diplomatic and economic fields as a junior ally of U.S. imperialism. At the same time the advance of Japanese monopoly capital in the world market, by using the power of its international competitiveness based on low wages, has created serious trade friction between Japan and the United States and other capitalist countries, which is one of the important focal points of world capitalist contradiction.
U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital have legalized the fait accompli of rearmament in violation of the peace and democratic provisions of Japan's Constitution, and are reinforcing the Self-Defense Forces and strengthening the setup for sending the SDF abroad and for Japan-U.S. combined operations, which integrates the SDF into U.S. military strategy. They are conspiring to revise the Constitution to achieve their aims on this, thus strengthening political reaction and the revival of militarism. The forcible introduction of the single-seat constituency system in 1994, which aims to enable reactionary parties to monopolize the overwhelming majority of Diet seats by two major parties competing for a majority, marked a significant step in the direction of reviving militarism and political reaction. The single-seat constituency system is an undemocratic system and is behind the times, which runs counter to the main trend in the world. It is now an important task for Japanese democracy to abolish it at t earliest possible time.
On the whole the commercial mass media in Japan are playing the role as the key supporter of reactionary rule. They expressed a certain reflection on their war cooperation during World War II, but coupled with retaining their attitude of absolute admiration for the Tenno, this was not attended with any substantial self-examination of their role in misleading the public opinion. Even after the war, they have made it a principle to carry reports taking sides with reactionary forces at critical moments of politics, including the conclusion and revision of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and the introduction of the single-seat constituency system.
But the reactionary rule by U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital embodies many irreconcilable contradictions. In the last 50 years the Japanese people's movements and organizations, exercising their democratic rights, have advanced through their historical struggle against the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and others. The reactionary ruling circles, with the anticommunist propaganda as their greatest means, even by making use of the Soviet Union's demise and other events, are trying to split, undermine and emasculate the people's movement. But the contradictions between reactionary rule and the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people will inevitably intensify.
(4) With the advent of the 20th century, world capitalism entered the stage of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. In almost the century that has followed, the undertaking for world peace, national self-determination and social progress has certainly made advances, in spite of many turbulences and twists and turns.
The socialist revolution which took place in Russia during World War I contributed to world progress in the period of Lenin's leadership, with achievements showing the real value of scientific socialism, in spite of the historical limitations of having to start from backward social and economic conditions coupled with many trials and errors. In particular this was shown by the fact that the new government declared its support for, and put into practice, the principles of national self-determination, peace, equal rights between men and women, an eight-hour working day, paid holidays and a social security system, which encouraged the world's working masses and the oppressed peoples, and greatly influenced the capitalist countries. Its significance in human history will not be lost even after the accumulated mistakes by Stalin and the subsequent Soviet leaders and resultant collapse of the Soviet Union.
The victory of the Soviet Union over Hitlerite German aggression in World War II, with the loss of some 20 million people's lives, was a great contribution to the overall victory of the anti-fascist Allied Powers. The historic significance of this fact, in spite of the many serious mistakes made by the Soviet leadership in its domestic and international policy, which have come to light later on, needs to be justly appraised.
After World War II, a number of countries in Europe and Asia took steps on the road toward socialism, and the colonial system headed for collapse worldwide. This was a new heavy blow to imperialist world rule. These changes immediately after World War II were followed by advances in a number of countries in the struggle against imperialist domination and aggression, which included the Vietnamese people's victory over U.S. imperialist aggression, and all this made a great contribution to social progress.
In the imperialist camp, moves were made to form military blocs centered on the United States in response to the changing situation. U.S. imperialism has violated the sovereignty of many countries, including developed capitalist countries, by means of military blocs, and the monopoly capitalist bourgeoisie in those countries have sought the support of U.S. imperialism and sacrificed the sovereignty of their country to maintain their rule and for other purposes. The uneven development of capitalism has sharpened the contradictions in the imperialist camp, but the international forces of imperialism and reaction continue to mobilize through military and political alliances under U.S. imperialism to suppress movements for peace, national independence and social progress, and for maintaining their domination over the world's people. The policy of military blocs is inseparable from the U.S. economic hegemonism of establishing its economic hegemony and protecting its interests.
To effectively carry out its policy of aggression, U.S. imperialism employed cunning tactics by which it sometimes adopted a policy of "rapprochement" and "cooperation" with the Soviet Union and China on the one hand, and on the other concentrated on attacking countries which were not very big and were taking the path of national liberation and socialism. A typical example of this was the Nixon administration which pursued its war of aggression against Vietnam, and at the same time paid visits to the Soviet Union and China and expressed "friendly relations" with them. From early on the Japanese Communist Party saw through these maneuvers and characterized them as a policy of trying to defeat enemies one by one, and struggled to break them.
Even today imperialism's aggressive nature remains unchanged. Following the collapse of Soviet hegemonism, U.S. imperialism, as the world's only superpower, continues to maintain powerful armed forces which include nuclear forces, to carry out its hegemonist "world police" strategy for maintaining imperialist "order" by interfering in disputes all over the world. In Asia and the Pacific region, there have been marked U.S. moves, treating Japan as its junior ally, to establish and expand its dominant influence by a combination of a policy of military intervention and economic hegemonism, as seen in such maneuvers as setting up the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC). U.S. imperialism continues to be the main bulwark of aggression and reaction in the world.
After the end of World War II, would-be socialist countries came into existence in many parts of the world. In the Soviet Union, the first country to take steps on the road toward socialism, however, the Stalin leadership, following Lenin's death, discarded the principles of scientific socialism and took the wrong path internationally of hegemonism, and internally adopted policies of bureaucratism and despotism. These mistakes were inherited by subsequent leaderships, and sometimes became even more worse. Hegemonism originally meant imperialism's foreign policy of hegemony and aggression. Therefore for a country which called itself socialist to carry out such a policy meant degenerating into social imperialism. Hegemonist mistakes were also made by some of the other would-be socialist countries. The negative realities born of these deviations conflicted with historical developments, and saddened people concerned in the world. It was especially serious that the hegemonism of the Soviet Union and others was manest in interfering in the parties of other countries and furthermore in military invasions of other countries, which included the 1968 aggression against Czechoslovakia and the 1979 aggression against Afghanistan. These actions of interference and aggression were factors in creating international tension and harmed the ideas of scientific socialism which inherently has nothing to do with external intervention and aggression, and created difficulties and obstacles in the struggle and solidarity for national independence, peace and social progress. In this situation, the revolutionary movement in capitalist countries was in need of principled efforts more than ever for the movement's independent development. Defending the independence of revolutionary and democratic movements in every country and the principled position of scientific socialism, the Japanese Communist Party has resolutely struggled against hegemonist interference by any powers in the Japanese movement. Internationally, as regards U.S. imperialisggression and past interference by the Soviet Union and others, the party has described hegemonism as an enormous evil obstructing developments in world history, and made consistent efforts to quickly overcome it.
The collapse of the regime in the Soviet Union and its followers in the Eastern European countries does not mean that scientific socialism has failed, but means the bankruptcy of hegemonism, bureaucratism and despotism, which deviated from scientific socialism. At the outset of the revolution these countries had socialism as their goal, but resulting from the leadership's wrong course, they collapsed before reaching a substantive socialist society. Taking a broad view, the demise of the historic evil of Soviet hegemonism has opened up new possibilities for a sound development of the world revolutionary movement.
The demise of the Soviet Union and other countries does not signify the superiority of capitalism. The contradiction within capitalism that it cannot control the gigantically grown productive forces of its own is sharply manifest on an unprecedented scale, both in today's Japan and the rest of the world, by worsening conditions for wide sections of the people, by recurring recession, increasing unemployment and environmental destruction. The danger of nuclear war continues to threaten the human race and the earth. The policies and actions of the U.S.-led imperialist camp for world domination are incurring struggles in wider areas of the world for political and economic independence as the pressing task of the people of respective countries, and are thus destabilizing the foundations of imperialist domination. The movement of the non-aligned countries against the strengthening of military blocs and against old and new forms of colonialism is playing an important part in world politics. In some developed capitast countries, subservience to Soviet hegemonism caused considerable political and moral decline in some parts of the people's movements, and the negative effects from this are serious. In spite of this, various movements for a better life, rights, and peace and democracy are developing, including working class struggles.
It is important for the anti-imperialist forces and those seeking peace and progress to overcome the negative effects of the hegemonism of the Soviet Union and others, to demand peace against nuclear weapons, national self-determination, democracy and social progress, and to achieve solidarity and the correct way ahead internationally and in respective countries. Developments in world history are accompanied by many vicissitudes, zigzags, and reverses which are sometimes just temporary, or which spread over a long period. But taking the broad view, it is inevitable that history develops in the direction of overcoming imperialism and capitalism and advancing to socialism.
Enormous nuclear arsenals which were amassed during the arms race of the past 40 years still exist and amount to some tens of thousands of bombs, and represent a very serious continuous menace to the human race. It is the duty of communists before anything else to persistently fight to eradicate this menace. To end the menace of nuclear war, there is no alternative but to eliminate nuclear weapons. Perpetuation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) system, which the United States and others want, means institutionalizing nuclear weapons monopoly for the existing nuclear weapons possessing powers, and aims to impose on the world the hegemonism of U.S. imperialism armed with nuclear weapons. To establish world peace, it is just such a scheme by the forces clinging to nuclear weapons that must be defeated.
Today the call by the World Conference against A and H Bombs of "No more Hiroshimas, No more Nagasakis!" is being spread in various parts of the world. Even in the United States, the biggest nuclear weapons possessing power, a majority of the voters in its capital Washington, D.C. supported a 1993 voter initiative to amend the U.S. Constitution, which included the elimination of nuclear weapons. If the government of a country which calls itself a "civilized country" continues to permanently cling to nuclear weapons, the contradiction between it and the people will inevitably deepen. If all the forces which agree with the goal of non-nuclear weapons unite on a wide basis, irrespective of thought, political creed and religious belief, it is really possible to isolate the forces clinging to nuclear weapons and to establish a non-nuclear weapons government for realizing the aim of eliminating nuclear weapons. Only by strengthening the non-nuclear weapons movement and public opinion and by isoling the forces clinging to nuclear weapons, is it possible to open the road to the conclusion of an international agreement for a total ban on nuclear weapons. In the situation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the argument is being made by some sections of the peace movements in the world that the enemy of peace has gone; but this is fundamentally wrong, because it fails to recognize world realities, and leads to denying the role of the people's movement in the struggle for peace.
For world peace, it is also of decisive importance that the right of nations to self-determination is thoroughly respected and not to allow this to be violated in any way.
In today's world situation, Japan has become the most important foothold in Asia for U.S. imperialist policies of aggression and reaction. The United States attaches importance to the establishment of a hegemonist system in Asia and the Pacific region. The aggressive Japan-U.S. military alliance not only hampers the independent and peaceful development of Japan but also threatens peace in Asia and the rest of the world. Major advances in the struggles of the Japanese people, the only A-bomb victim nation, against nuclear weapons and for peace, and for their own liberation in their country, will be an important contribution to peace and social progress in Asia and the rest of the world. It is also certain that advances by the revolutionary movement in Japan, a developed capitalist country, will be extremely significant for the process of social progress in world history. To promote the Japanese people's liberation struggle and win a victory is both the responsibility of the party and the working class to the Janese people and their international duty.
(5) From all these facts taken as a whole the future prospect is that the revolution which Japan now faces is a new democratic revolution, a democratic revolution of the people against the rule of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital.
To accomplish such a revolution means overthrowing the anti-national, anti-popular rule of the forces centered on U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital. It also means achieving genuine independence and the democratic transformation of politics, the economy and society. Only in this way can the hardships the people now face be settled and the fundamental interests of the vast majority of people be defended. Only by such a revolution can we, with certainty, open the road to socialism, the historic mission of the working class.
The immediate central tasks of the party are to fight against the policy of war, national oppression, the revival of militarism and imperialism, political reaction, and exploitation and plunder by U.S. imperialism and Japanese reactionary forces led by Japanese monopoly capital, and to develop the demands and struggle of all people for national independence, democracy, peace, neutrality and a better life. In the course of these struggles, we must build a powerful and broad united front of the people against the rule of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital, that is, a National Democratic United Front on which to establish a government of the people, embodying the democratic power of the people to build an independent, democratic, peaceful, non-aligned and neutral Japan with better living conditions for the people.
The key points of the party's immediate action program are as follows:
The party fights for abrogation of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty and all other treaties and agreements which undermine national sovereignty, and for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Japan and the complete removal of U.S. military bases. The party demands and fights for a policy to ensure a peaceful and neutral Japan, which will abrogate Japan's military alliance with the United States and take part in no military alliances but establish friendly relations with all countries. The party fights for the genuine independence of Japan, including abrogation of the articles of the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which undermine Japan's sovereignty. The party makes peaceful diplomatic efforts to get the reversion of Habomai, Shikotan and all the Chishima Islands to Japan.
The party calls for the prevention of nuclear war and the elimination of nuclear weapons, an urgent and vitally important task for humankind, and struggles to achieve the conclusion of an international agreement for a total ban on nuclear weapons and their elimination, in solidarity with other peoples. The party demands state compensation for the Hibakusha, victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The party strives for general disarmament, the dissolution of all military blocs and the removal of foreign military bases, and for the establishment of a genuine collective security system and peaceful coexistence between countries with different social systems.
The party defends the right of nations to self-determination, that every people independently decides the course and destiny of their own country, and opposes any violation of this right by imperialism and hegemonism.
The party opposes the neo-colonialist international economic order and aims to establish economic sovereignty for all countries and an international economic order based on equality and justice.
The party opposes the irresponsible profit-first operations of multinational enterprises and others which destroy the environment and natural resources on a global scale, and strives for them to be internationally controlled and for the earth's environment to be preserved.
In the spirit of "Workers and Oppressed Peoples of All Lands, Unite!" the party supports struggles for human progress, in solidarity with the working class and all other peoples in the world who are struggling for independence, peace, democracy and social progress.
The party opposes any attempt to change Japan's Constitution for the worse, and demands and fights for complete implementation of the Constitution's peace and democratic provisions. The party opposes all reactionary attempts to deprive the Japanese people of their democratic rights and demands abolition of the single-seat constituency system. The party opposes any detrimental revision of the parliamentary system, the local government system, the education system and the judicial system and demands their democratic reform based on the spirit of sovereignty being vested in the people. The party opposes the revival and strengthening of militarism, including the reinforcement and nuclearization of the Self-Defense Forces and sending them abroad, and demands their dissolution. The party fights to overcome Tennoist-militarist ideology and prevent its revival. The party demands that reactionary gangster groups and militarist organizations, and political terrorism be eliminated. The party fights for extension of the ople's democratic rights, and demands the abolition of repressive laws and regulations and repressive machinery, such as the Anti-Subversive Activities Law and the Public Security Investigation Agency, which violate the people's rights, and opposes legislation for militarism and for suppressing human rights.
The party defends the freedom of religion and strives for complete application of the principle of the separation of religion and politics.
The party strives to eliminate all the semi-feudal remnants in all aspects of Japanese society. On the so-called Buraku question, it continues to strive for the integration of the people.
The party opposes the exploitation and plunder of the workers, farmers and other working citizens by Japanese and U.S. ruling circles, and strives to abolish the low-wage system, to ensure work for the unemployed and semi-unemployed and to radically improve the living conditions of all the people.
The party demands that all workers should have the right to organize, to strike and to engage in collective bargaining, and works to establish freedom and democracy in the workshop. The party opposes capitalist rationalization, dismissals, low wages and the intensification of labor and demands wage increases and equal pay for equal work. The party works for legislation to guarantee the life and rights of the workers, including a minimum wage system, drastic cuts of working hours and controls on inhumane intensified labor.
The party opposes the agricultural policies, including the liberalization of rice imports and the forced reduction of rice cultivation, as being submissive to the United States and in the interests of monopoly capital, which sacrifice the independent development of Japanese agriculture and farm management and endanger the food supply. The party struggles for democratic agricultural policies that would make agriculture a key sector of national production and guarantee the development of Japanese agriculture and farm management. The party stands for defending the life and rights of farmers, for cutting the monopoly prices of agricultural materials and equipment, for reducing heavy taxes, for affordable prices for agricultural products and more agricultural funds to guarantee reproduction, and works for the democratic development of agricultural cooperatives. It demands better wages, working conditions and secure jobs for agricultural and rural workers. It fights for the preservation of forest resources and the dependent development of forestry, for democratization of the management of State- and publicly-owned forests and fields and for the defense of farming, life and the rights of farmers in mountain areas plus those of forestry workers.
The party demands agricultural land reclamation and improvements at State expense, the freeing of arable land in forests and fields owned by the State, public or big mountain and forest owners to be made available to farmers, and the return to farmers of the land expropriated by the U.S. forces and the Self-Defense Forces. It opposes the buying-out of land and the jacking-up of land prices by monopoly capital, to ensure that land is available for the people's life such as for housing, and promotes the transferring of unused land owned by monopoly capital to the State and local governments.
To improve the living and fishing conditions for Japanese fishers, the party opposes maritime exercises by U.S. forces and the Self-Defense Forces and the restrictions on fishing areas imposed by them, and demands the end of oppression and plunder by monopoly capital and effective use of the 200-nautical-mile fishing zone. It struggles for securing funds and equipment and strives for democratic development of fishing cooperatives. It demands more jobs, safety measures and better wages for fishing workers.
The party strives to improve the business and living conditions of such working citizens as self-employed producers and traders, and professional people.
The party demands that the life and rights of the Ainu people, who can be called an ethnic minority in Japan, be guaranteed and that their culture be defended.
The party fights for protection of the life of intellectuals and for ending any circumstances in which freedom for research and cultural activity is restricted and suppressed.
The party opposes all inequalities imposed on the work and social life of women and fights for the extension of their democratic rights, equality between men and women and the raising of women's social status, and for the guarantee of the care and protection of motherhood by the State.
The party works for the freedom of the democratic organizations and activities of the youth and students, both male and female, for an extensive improvement of the facilities and conditions for their study, sports, cultural activities and recreation, and for them to have higher positions in work and social life, and especially for achieving the right to vote at 18.
The party demands complete implementation of the Children's Charter and the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the establishment of social facilities for children's health and welfare and measures for such ends.
The party works for the full extension of a social security system and its establishment that will allay anxiety and hardship caused by social poverty, unemployment, sickness, mental and physical disabilities and old age among workers, farmers, fishers, working citizens and other sections of the people, to enable them to enjoy a healthy and cultural life. Especially, to ensure old people's life, the party works for improving and extending the pension, medical care, welfare and primary care systems.
The party supports the demands of small- and medium-sized enterprisers who oppose the plunder and rule of Japanese monopoly capital and the oppression of U.S. imperialism.
The party opposes environmental destruction and pollution caused by the activities of monopoly capital, military bases and others, and defends nature and the environment.
The party opposes the use of nuclear energy for military purposes, and demands a fundamental change in nuclear energy development policy and establishment of democratic control over nuclear energy, based on strict observance of the Three Principles--independence, democracy and openness, with priority for safety.
The party works for the elimination of calamities and accidents and strives to change the politics of giving priority to the military and monopoly capital in disregard of human life, which is a source of calamities and accidents. Especially, to prevent accidents in mass transportation means, particularly aircraft, in which many human lives can be lost at one time, strict controls are called for on neglect of safety in pursuit of profits by respective companies.
The party inherits and popularizes the valuable national tradition of Japanese culture, and struggles for the democratic development and improvement of education, science, technology, the arts and sports, and for the freedom of thought and expression.
The party opposes financial and economic policies which give priority to the interests of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital, and fights for the independent peaceful development of Japan's economy. It seeks to abolish the trade restrictions imposed by U.S. imperialism, opposes Japanese monopoly capital expanding overseas in an imperialist way, and promotes equal and mutually beneficial trade relations with all countries. It struggles to end the domination and privileged position of U.S. capital over Japan's economy. It demands the enactment of a Taxpayers Charter, democratic reform of the taxation system to one which abolishes the privileged treatment for the big companies and reduces the taxes imposed on the working people, and drastic curtailment of military expenditure and appropriation of the savings from it for people's welfare. It demands democratic control over monopoly capital including financial institutions, based on the position of defending the people's interests.
(6) In the course of working to achieve these demands, and fighting for national independence, democracy, peace, neutrality and a better life, the Japanese Communist Party will help to establish, expand and strengthen trade unions, farmers' unions and other mass organizations among all strata and sections of the people, and as fighting against reactionary parties and groups, it will work to consolidate cooperation and unity between democratic parties, groups and people, and build up a National Democratic United Front. The National Democratic United Front will work to unite around itself workers, farmers, fishers, working citizens, intellectuals, women, youth, students and small- and medium-sized enterprisers and all those who love peace and their homeland and defend democracy.
The party regards all democratic parties and groups, and non-partisan working people as class brothers, and sincerely calls on them to unite and makes every effort to achieve this aim. This calls for us to fight every wrong tendency that would oppose or destroy such unity. If cooperation and unity between the democratic forces and a wide range of people on the basis of immediate pressing tasks is rejected or obstructed by reason of differences in world outlook and views about history, this will seriously damage the fundamental interests of the cause of liberating our homeland and the people.
In this struggle for unity of the people on a broad basis, the party must be closely united with the mass of the people and exercise its role as a dynamic force in the forefront of the struggle. In particular, it must inspire the working class with the ideology of scientific socialism and the spirit of international solidarity for anti-nuclear peace and the defense of national sovereignty, convince them of the democratic revolution and the cause of socialism in Japan, and strengthen their class militancy and political leadership. Simultaneously, it must spread influence of the party among farmers, fishers and working citizens, and establish class cooperation between the workers, farmers, fishers and working citizens. A condition of decisive importance for the development of the National Democratic United Front is the expansion and consolidation of the Japanese Communist Party, the strengthening of its political capacity, and building the party into a powerful mass vanguard party. It is important throughout thwhole process of this undertaking to fight against repression, subversion and divisive maneuvers, and against anticommunism and other ideological attacks by the Japanese and U.S. ruling circles.
It is important for the forces of the National Democratic United Front to actively win seats in the Diet and to develop struggle closely linked with mass struggles outside the Diet. If the forces of the National Democratic United Front can win a stable majority, the Diet will be converted from an institution of reactionary rule into one serving the people, thus providing further favorable conditions for the revolution.
The party strives to gather the majority of the people into the National Democratic United Front, and on this basis to form a government. In the process of the formation of such a government the party will pay adequate attention to and make necessary efforts on the question of a government that can help to overthrow the rule of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital. In certain circumstances, the party will endeavor to establish a united front government even with limited aims, on which all democratic forces can reach temporary agreement.
To establish a government based on the National Democratic United Front is a battle to be fought against all obstacles that the Japanese and U.S. ruling circles will try to place in the way. The basis for strengthening this government into a revolutionary government, a revolutionary power, is the broad unity of the democratic forces and the advance of mass struggles toward the goals and tasks of the coming democratic revolution. If a powerful National Democratic United Front against U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital can be developed, and the antinational and antipopular ruling forces can be defeated, then the government based on such a united front will become a revolutionary government, which will end the rule centered on Japanese monopoly capital, and sever Japan's subservient relationship with U.S. imperialism, restore Japan's national sovereignty and put power firmly into the people's hands.
Such power, which by its very nature means a democratic coalition of the people based on the workers, farmers and working citizens, will achieve the tasks of national independence and democracy, in solidarity with the forces of peace and progress throughout the world, and will prevent the revival of political and economic rule of monopoly capital; it will abolish the monarchy, radically transform the reactionary state machine to build a democratic republic, and establish a people's democratic state system with the Diet as the supreme state organ both in name and reality.
The building of an independent, democratic and peaceful Japan will fundamentally change the course of history of the Japanese people. They will be liberated from the rule, oppression and plunder of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital, and become for the first time the masters of their own country. The gains on freedom and democracy won by the Japanese people will be carried forward historically, enriched and developed in three respects: Civil-political freedom, freedom of existence and freedom of the nation. The sovereignty and prestige of the nation will be restored, and Japan will cease to be a hotbed for wars of aggression, and will become one of the solid cornerstones for peace in Asia and the world.
The democratic revolution in this country which is at the stage of monopoly capitalism will objectively provide the groundwork for transition to socialist transformation. In keeping with the demands of the situation and the people, and based on support by the majority of the people, the party will strive to develop this revolution into a socialist transformation aiming at total abolition of the capitalist system.
(7) By the building of socialism, freedom and the well-being of the Japanese people will be extensively developed. The aim of socialism is to liberate the people from all forms of exploitation under the capitalist system and to finally end poverty. For this, it is necessary to establish working-class power with the task of building socialism, to socialize the means of production by transferring its key parts from the hands of big business into the hands of society, and to institute socialist planning of the economy for the effective use of productive forces without waste to ensure abundance and prosperity for the people's life and the Japanese economy. In promoting this, consistent importance must be given to respecting the private initiatives of the farmers, fishers and small- and medium-sized traders and producers, to flexible and effective economic management by a combination of a planned economy and a market economy and other relevant means, to bringing socialist democracy into full bloom, and to making a positive contribution to world peace by defending the right to national self-determination and working for the elimination of nuclear weapons. These must be firmly maintained. A so-called "controlled economy," which regulates and makes uniform the consumer life of the people, has nothing in common with what is projected as economic life in a socialist Japan.
The party will maintain the united front policy for cooperating with all parties, groups and people who support the approach toward building socialism. With regard to working farmers, working citizens in cities and small- and medium-sized enterprisers, the party will respect their interests and endeavor to guide them with their consent to a socialist society.
Socialist society is the first stage of communist society. At this stage, all exploitation of man by man will be eliminated, and the division of society into classes will be ended. In this socialist Japan, the principle "From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her work" will become a reality, and material prosperity, spiritual blossoming and democracy for the broad range of people will be ensured at a level higher than ever before.
In the higher stage of communist society, with very great developments of productive forces and the creation of new substance to social life, society will reach the stage of "From each according to his or her ability, to each according to his or her needs." Organized and systematic violence and in general all violence against people will be abolished. In this way a communist society will come into being, which, in principle, does not need coercion and in which state power itself will become superfluous, a society of truly equal and free relations between people.
Thus, humankind will establish conditions that really guarantee existence and a life worthy of human beings, and will take steps into a new stage of development in human history.
Striving to build such a society, the Japanese Communist Party persists with its present struggle against the rule of U.S. imperialism and Japanese monopoly capital until victory is won for the people's revolution for genuine independence and democracy.
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