Japan today, for better or worse, exists as a shell of its former self—a nation largely stripped of a meaningful national identity after nearly eight decades (1868-1945) of brutal militarism and a desire for imperial expansion.

The Empire of Japan was not merely an enemy of the Allied powers that needed to be defeated; it represented a unique opportunity for the reemergence of a new imperial order in Asia. Following Japan's unconditional surrender on September 2, 1945, the U.S. occupation of Japan formally began. The Soviet Union was excluded from a united Allied occupation due to its refusal to consent to direct U.S. command over Soviet troops.

The Japanese Communist Party of Yesterday and Today

In response to this exclusion, in 1949, Soviet authorities, inspired by the success of the Chinese Communist Revolutionary Base Area in Jinggangshan, assisted the cadre of the Japanese Communist Party in conducting guerrilla operations against the Japanese government, known as the "Mountain Village Operation Units."

Unfortunately, the material and revolutionary conditions of occupied Japan in the 1950s differed significantly from those in Jinggangshan, resulting in a disaster for the Japanese Communist Party that is still evident today.

On January 1, 1955, during their sixth Party Congress, the Japanese Communists launched an internal reorganization campaign. New leadership, characterized by an anti-Soviet disposition, emerged, eager to capitalize on the death of Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in 1953.

The sixth Congress marked a complete reversal of the Party's previous revolutionary attitudes, going so far as to condemn all forms of revolutionary violence as "adventurism of the extreme left," fully committing the Japanese Communists to a "peaceful line of gradually pursuing socialist revolution through peaceful, democratic means." The attitudes established at the sixth Congress remain dominant within the Party today. The Party formally considers itself a "pacifist" entity and abandoned the label of Marxism-Leninism in 1976.

Genuine revolutionary socialism has either been purged from the Party or remains hidden. Alarmingly, the Party's current policy includes consistent attacks against existing socialist states. For instance, in 2020, the official Party platform was amended to describe the People's Republic of China's role in the world as "great-power chauvinism and hegemonism," presenting it as "an adverse current to world peace and progress."

Without massive internal reform, it seems evident that the Japanese Communist Party will be unable to bring about the meaningful political, economic, or cultural change that Japan desperately needs.

The Current Situation

The West has maintained a post-war fixation and fetishization of virtually all aspects of Japanese culture and life. From the massive popularity of anime to their automobiles, cuisine, and music, a widely accepted view in the West portrays Japan as a hyper-futuristic center of progress. Photos of Japan often highlight a blend of bright neon lights with traditionally beautiful architecture and scenery.

However, what is typically ignored is the widespread cultural decay that has accompanied the erosion of Japanese national identity during the Allied occupation. Today, we witness a façade of Japan painted over one of the globe's worst examples of individual materialism, a condition artificially and intentionally injected into Japanese society as part of the American occupation.

Rules Without Reason

One aspect that is accurately understood about Japan in the West is that it is a rigid, rules-based society. Oftentimes, these rules are arbitrary, unwritten, and enforced only through social shame and stigma. Simple matters, such as when one can speak, with whom one can interact, and where one can be served, are all informally regulated—not by the state, but by everyday interactions.

Japan has dialectically created one of the worst syntheses a society can muster: a rigidly controlled environment reminiscent of the unique fascist characteristics of the Empire of Japan, while simultaneously plagued by the detrimental elements of societal degradation found in modern liberal democracies.

The Japanese Sex Trade

Japan occupies an unfortunate position where prostitution exists openly in society with minimal legal intervention. In fact, visiting a prostitute is so common that many in relationships do not view it as wrong and tolerate their partners engaging in such activities.

This situation is exacerbated by the fact that Japan's age of consent was only recently raised from 13 to 16 years. In practice, this means that one can frequently encounter what are effectively children being prostituted in public—particularly in urban areas like Kabukicho—where such activities are considered socially acceptable by a significant portion of the population.

The Fall of the Japanese Family

Japan is well known for its aging population and rapidly declining birth rate. The reality is that the concept of the Japanese family unit has largely vanished since the modernization that began post-occupation.

According to the Japanese Health Ministry, only 727,277 babies were born in Japan in 2023—a decline of nearly 6% compared to 2022 and the lowest number since the nation began tracking these statistics in 1899.

The erosion of family bonds necessary for fostering a healthy, productive, and empathetic society has deepened. This decline is compounded by various factors, including poor job prospects, a high cost of living, and a "new normal" where individual desires have supplanted the greater sense of unity for which Japan was once known. As a result, many young people in Japan are discouraged from even contemplating starting families.

The Path Forward

As we have established, Japan is a nation of contradictions, a clashing of ideas and values contrasting in a way very rarely seen. The downsides of this have now been addressed extensively, although many went unacknowledged. There was no mention of the Toh-yoko kids, the ultra-nationalist elements that dominate Japanese politics, or the social contagion of Hikikomori.

However, what went entirely unaddressed was that Japan is consistently being given new paths to go down as their society crumbles. Every mistake made in Japan also grants them multiple avenues for change.

The Japanese Communist Party, despite its current ineffectiveness, holds a large number of elected offices within the Japanese government. Were the Japanese Communist movement to have an internal reorganization and truly work to address the problems and contradictions of Japanese society, they would have significant political capital to flex in their attempt to right the wrongs which have been enumerated and explained here.

Japan has undergone massive economic, political, and cultural changes in the last century. Japan's capacity for change is immeasurable. However, to establish this level of progressive revolutionary change, there must be a revolutionary program. What that looks like, how it manifests, and what it chooses to call itself can only be determined by the Japanese people after examining their own conditions.