Japan is suffering from ongoing and intertwined crises. The country’s demographic malaise has reached staggering proportions: 10 percent of its citizens are now over eighty years old, and the population is falling by roughly 800,000 people per year.

This is reflected in the nation’s politics. Japan is a gerontocracy. In 2021, multiple scandals in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympics laid bare the entrenched sexism of this political establishment. Last year, the assassination of former prime minister Shinzo Abe resulted in a wave of public anger directed not at his killer, but at Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party. Adding to this domestic turmoil, Japan’s alliance with the United States is dragging it closer to military confrontation with China.

The Japanese Communist Party (JCP), which last year celebrated its centenary, has been a consistent voice against this failing status quo. The JCP was repressed under the imperial system, then again during the “Red Purge” of the US occupation. It navigated an independent position during the Sino-Soviet split, and well and truly survived the fall of the Soviet Union. Today, the JCP has roughly 270,000 members, making it one of the largest nongoverning communist parties globally.