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Sen Katayama

Politics

Present-Day Japan

(9 December 1921)

From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 1 No. 15, 9 December 1921, pp. 122–123.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive

Modern Japan dates from the revolution of 1868, which destroyed feudalism. The growth and development of Japan has been a source of astonishment and wonder to the Occident. Feudal Japan preserved the strictest isolation for three centuries – not until the 1868 revolution did it begin to have intercourse with the West. An idea of Japan’s development can be obtained from the appended statistics:

(Units in millions unless otherwise stated.)

The above figures are taken from the Year Book of the Oriental Economist, Tokyo. They demonstrate how Japan has progressed in various fields of industry and finance. Fifty years ago Japan was in a semi-barbarous condition–there were no factories, railways or even industries in the modern sense. Japan had to catch up with the Occident in order to be able to do business with it.

Japan has dedicated everything to the altar of capitalism. The laws, the constitution, the government, and the social and political structure were all so constructed that they were specially beneficial to the capitalist class and especially to the employers. The workers were exploited without any restrictions.

The politics as well as the Parliament were controlled by a select few, as is shown by the franchise system. The number of electors for the Imperial Parliament were in 1902 – 987,193; in 1904 – 757,788; in 1908 – 1,582,676; in 1919 – 1,422,118; in 1920 – 3,085,628. The periodical increase of the electorate is due to the extension of the franchise. At first the elector qualification was the payment of 15 yen in direct taxes (land, income and business). In 1904, it was reduced to 10 yen, and in 1920, to 5 yen. The ratio of electorate to population has been about the same for the last 20 years, namely, 20.91 per 1,000 in 1913; 25.75 in 1917; but 46.33 in 1920. However, one member of Parliament represented in 1903 – 121,069 people; in 1920 – 121,235. Thus Japanese politics are monopolized by the property-owners – the bourgeois classes. The workers have been excluded from the very beginning of parliamentary history.

The Japanese workers have been struggling for the past fifty years under the most autocratic and arbitrary exploiters and inimical police laws and barbarities. Under these oppressive conditions, our workers have had to learn entirely new methods of production, all imported from the West. There are today some 1,500,000 factory workers are all trained during the past forty or fifty years. They have been busy with technical training in the use of Western tools and engines. Consequently our workers have until very recently not had time to attempt to break the oppressive yoke of the government and of the greedy capitalists.

Recently, however, especially since the Russian and German revolutions, our workers have rather thoroughly learned to utilize skilfully every point of vantage and to gain and hold their ground. By strikes and sabotage they gained in many cases the right to organize unions and to establish factory committees. The street demonstrations and mass-meetings are successfully held in spite of police opposition and often military interference. Sometimes strikers occupy a factory, not to work but to make it a meeting-place during the strike!

It is true that during the war (1914–1918), the Japanese industries thrived and millionaires sprang up like mushrooms after a rain. But all of them were swept away by the financial and subsequent industrial crisis of 1920. The crisis began on the stock exchanges on March 15, 1920. Tokyo Stock Exchange shares, which are considered a barometer of Japan’s financial

condition, showed great fluctuations, as is shown by the following table:

A month ago it was somewhere between 130 and 150 at the best. It shows that Japanese financial conditions are very weak if not worse than last year. Wealth has been amassed in the hands of a few very rich men and they are far richer than before the crisis. Before the war, Japan had a gold reserve of 250,000,000 yen; today it has more than 2,000,000,000 yen, and, in spite of industrial and trade depression, it has been increasing for more than 20 months.

As already stated. Japan is a capitalist country and everything is built and based upon the capitalists’ needs; but they are not at ease. Their days are numbered and they realize it. A great wave of dissatisfaction is making itself felt among the Japanese people. The workers and peasants are complaining about their present condition and are manifesting their demands for an improvement by strikes, sabotage and riots. Economically speaking, Japan is ruled in the most reckless manner. It spends more than half its national budget for armament. It is to spend more than 450,000,000 yen for the navy alone in the coming year. The people are heavily taxed and industries are severely depressed; the employers are trying to exploit the workers still more by cutting wages and maintaining the high level of prices. For instance, today rice costs 42 yen per koku, higher than any previously recorded price. Cleaned rice costs 50 to 60 yen or more. Foodstuffs, in general, are higher than all other products. Raw material is cheaper, so that with cheap labor the employers are making more money than in the times of prosperity and are exploiting the workers more than ever before.

One of the very good signs for the proletarian movement is the awakening of Japanese youth. The revolution of 1868 was started, carried on and successfully concluded by the youths of that period. They will be a powerful aid to the workers and peasants, already awakened and struggling for power. The history of Japan furnishes sanctioning precedents for revolution and all the revolutions of the past have been the work of the youth.

The imperialists of Japan are stubbornly attempting to maintain their position in spite of the failure of their policies during the past few years. They will not admit their mistakes both at home and in their colonial policies. The Japanese people are loudly protesting against the failures of militarism. They realize that militarism and imperialism will, in the long run, not benefit Japan. This clear understanding of the situation on the part of the people together with the awakening of the workers, peasants and the youth of Japan makes us very hopeful as to the immediate future.

As for Japan’s foreign relations, Japan stands today in the worst possible light before the world. The brutal, yes, bloody policy of Japanese military rule in Korea and its miserable policy toward China have made Japan the Prussia of the Far East. The Japanese people have, as a result of the war, lost faith in bureaucratic rule and military autocracy. Unrest and dissatisfaction are increasing. Thus, from every standpoint Japan is ripe for the Social Revolution.

 
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Last updated on 13 February 2019