ポラリス－ある日本共産党支部のブログ

志位和夫 ‏@shiikazuo 9月8日
「共産党のカムバック　ただし日本で」。米国の日刊紙「クリスチャン・サイエンス・モニター」。参議院選挙での日本共産党の結果に注目した記事です。
Communist Party makes a comeback ... in Japan http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2013/0805/Communist-Party-makes-a-comeback-in-Japan?cmpid=addthis_twitter#.UivzkDUrcOs.twitter …
　2013年9月8日 - 12:56

　A smiling, smartly attired 30-year-old woman sits at an expansive table in a meeting room decorated with simple elegance on the fourth floor of a modern office building in central Tokyo.

　Only the sunflower brooch – an antinuclear symbol – on the woman’s suit, and perhaps the large calligraphy scroll on the wall behind her that isn’t hung perfectly straight, betray the fact that this isn’t a scene from corporate Japan.
Yoshiko Kira doesn’t look as if she intends to dismantle capitalism, but this is the headquarters of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP), and she is one of its rising stars, and that’s her plan.　

“When I was a child there were a lot of books in my house with pictures of the war and the atomic bombing. I used to worry that planes flying overhead might be carrying bombs. Then one day my mother told me that Japan can’t have wars anymore because of the Constitution, and I thought I was lucky to be born in this country,” Kira says. “But now the Abe government wants to change the Constitution so that Japan can start wars again.”

“It’s not just about war. When I was looking for work I applied to a large number of companies, and was told during interviews that hiring a woman was a risk. I realized there were many things about Japanese society that need changing,” says Kira.　

　Online mascot characters

　Founded in 1922, the JCP is the oldest political party in Japan, and has enjoyed constant representation in parliament for longer than any other. But until recently, its image was one of older activists and it struggled to attract younger voters.

　July's elections were the first in Japan in which online campaigning was permitted, and it was the JCP that is widely seen as having made best use of it. As well as savvy leveraging of social networks and video streaming platforms, the party created a series of online mascot characters that addressed individual issues such as the planned consumption tax hike, shady business practices, the heavy US military presence on Okinawa, and constitutional change.

　Kazuo Shii has led the party since 2000, during which time Japan has seen nine different prime ministers. And while some politicians have turned antinuclear since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the JCP was always against nuclear power.　

　"If we did take power, the JCP wouldn’t try to implement a Communist economy immediately. It would require huge changes and we would seek the support of the people for each step,” Kira says. “And we would want to use the best parts of the current economic system, too.”