C. B. Liddell: Hammer (and Sickle) Time for Japan?

The high-point of Communism as an ideology was the early 1930s, before the worst excesses of Stalinism. At this time not only did Communism control the vast territory of the Soviet Union, but powerful Communist movements could be found in many of the major industrial states, sometimes provoking its antithesis in Fascism. Even in countries like Britain and America, where mass support was lacking, Communism held powerful sway among intellectuals and some members of the elite, providing a ready source of spies in later years. The fact that Capitalism was going through a major economic crisis at this time was hardly coincidental.

Now, with the world facing another significant period of economic distress, what chance is there for a resurgence of Communism? In most developed countries, the answer is none at all. State-sponsored buy outs and economic stimulation packages designed to get consumerist capitalism up and running again hardly qualify. But in one vast and extremely important segment of the world, namely East Asia, Communism is still very much alive, at least in name. China and North Korea both claim to be Communist regimes, although with its policies of Sino-centric national aggrandizement, encouragement of big business, and growing social inequality, China increasingly looks more like a traditional Fascist state, while with its brutality, Fuhrer worship, and concentration camps, North Korea strikes a remarkably similar chord to Nazi Germany.

Against such a background, the other major East Asian country, Japan, surprisingly comes closest to the idealized ethos of Communism, a movement supposedly egalitarian and humanitarian in nature, but which, in practice, has been behind some of the worst atrocities in history. While technically a capitalist country, where the very name"Communist" remains anathema, postwar Japan has consistently stressed economic planning, full employment, social cohesion, and avoiding extremes of wealth and poverty, at least until recently. In addition to this, it has also maintained the largest Communist party in the developed World with over 400,000 members and about 7% of the vote in elections. Moves towards a more liberalized economy by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since the 1990s combined with the pressures of the economic downturn now mean that Japanese Communist Party (JCP) is set to do well in the forthcoming general election to be held this month. But to Westerners with preconceptions of what a Communist party should be like, the JCP may offer a few surprises, as this interview with the party leader Kazuo Shii reveals.

In recent months, Japan has been badly hit by the credit crunch and recession. What is the party’s attitude to the current economic crisis? What are the solutions?

In the face of the present financial crisis and the economic downturn, the JCP has made urgent economic proposals. There are three pillars to our proposals. The first pillar is that we are seeing casino capitalism, and ordinary people should be protected from the negative effects of this. In Japan, the cost of this crisis is being paid by the small and medium-sized enterprises, and also the workers are suffering as employment is being destroyed. The second pillar of our position is that we have to change the character of the Japanese economy from one that is dependent on foreign demand to one that is based on internal domestic demand. In order to do this we are calling for a shift of the economic focus away from one that is big-business-oriented to one that is people-oriented. In order to realize this aspiration, we need to do three things: ensure the stability of employment, improve social welfare, and improve the agricultural sector. The third pillar is that the financial crisis we are currently witnessing, which started in the United States, has been the result of excessive deregulation. This started in the 1980s and continued through the 1990s. One of the examples was the repeal of the Glass Steagall Law. Speculative money has expanded and lots of very strange derivatives have been prevalent. So in order to overcome this situation we have to move towards stronger regulation of the financial market.

From what you’ve just said, it sounds like the main problem is the global nature of the economy. You emphasized that instead of Japan being an exporting country supplying America, Japanese companies should supply domestic demand more. Also you’ve pointed out the problems that arise from this kind of global capitalism. With Subprime, one problem was that bad debt could easily be repackaged and sold around the World. So, would it be true to say that the approach of the JCP is towards a kind of localism versus globalism, with the emphasis on local production and local consumption, rather than global exports and the kind of global market where some countries, like America act as consumer nations, while others like Japan fulfil the role of producer nation?

We don’t see globalization and localization in terms of an opposition or confrontation. As regards globalization, it is inevitable in the capitalist system. For example, Marx wrote in the 19th century, in the Communist Manifesto that the economy would be globalized. So we don’t endorse anti-globalization. What we are calling for is democratic or orderly globalization. This means that the economic sovereignty of each nation should be respected and that equal and mutually beneficial relations should be maintained....