Democratic Socialist Party (Japan)

This article is about the Japanese political party that existed from 1960 to 1994. For other Japanese socialist parties, see Japan Socialist Party (disambiguation).

The Democratic Socialist Party (民主社会党, Minshu Shakai-tō, abbreviated 民社党, Minsha-tō) was a political party in Japan from 1960 to 1994.

Democratic Socialist Party 民主社会党 Minshu Shakai-tō
Founder	Suehiro Nishio
Founded	24 January 1960[1]
Dissolved	9 December 1994[1]
Split from	Japan Socialist Party[2]
Preceded by	Rightist Socialist Party of Japan (factions)
Merged into	New Frontier Party[1]
Youth wing	Minsha Youth
Ideology	Social democracy[2] National conservatism[3][A]
Political position	Centre[4][5][6] to centre-left[7][A]
International affiliation	Socialist International
Colors	Red
Party flag
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections ^ A: The Democratic Socialist Party was a national conservative party, due to its stances on social issues and national security, and was considered an "extremely conservative" party in Japan.[8] However, its economic policies were of social democracy.[2]

History

The party was established in January 1960 by a breakaway faction of the Japanese Socialist Party.^[9][10] Led by Suehiro Nishio, it was made up of members of the most moderate wing of the former Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, a moderate faction that had existed as an independent party between 1948 and 1955 before reluctantly merging back together with the Leftist Socialist Party of Japan.^[9] Although long-standing ideological differences and factional rivalries played a key role, the proximate cause of the split was internal disagreements over how to conduct the ongoing Anpo protests against revision of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, known as Anpo in Japanese, and whether or not to cooperate with the Communist Party of Japan in doing so.^[9]

Declassified United States government documents later revealed that covert CIA funding had also helped encourage the founding of this breakaway party.^[11] CIA support was aimed at moderating and subverting the political opposition to the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which was the main CIA funded party.^[12][13]

The DSP was dissolved in 1994 to join the New Frontier Party. In 1996, the Japan Socialist Party was transformed into the Social Democratic Party. Two years later, in 1998, the New Frontier Party dissolved and most former DSP members eventually joined the Democratic Party of Japan.^[10] Despite the dissolution of the DSP in 1994, its youth organisation (Minsha Youth) survived until 2003 and was a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). After Minsha Youth was dissolved, some of its former members and independent social democrats formed Young Socialists, a new youth organisation which retained full membership in IUSY; however, it was finally dissolved on 8 March 2008 without any successor organisation and abandoned its IUSY membership.^{[citation needed]}

The tradition of the DSP is carried on by the Minsha kyōkai (民社協会, Democratic Socialist Group) as a faction within the liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Democratic Party and now centre-right Democratic Party for the People.

Political position and foreign policy

The DSP was rated "moderate",^[14][15][16] "moderate social-democratic",^[17][2] "centrist"^[4][5][6] and "centre-left"^[7] by Japanese political standards at the time, but at the same time it was also regarded as a "conservative"^[3][8][18] political party. It derived much of its financial and organisational support from the Domei private-sector labour confederation, but unlike other social-democratic political parties in Japan, the party was not hostile to accepting neoliberal policies^[19] Due to the DSP's syncretic political position, the party's ideology is often referred to as right-wing social democracy (右派社会民主主義).^[20]

The DSP strongly backed the Japan–United States alliance.^[2] For this reason, the DSP was often called the "right-wing party" in Japan, but because the DSP had a belief in socialist ideals, it was classified as a political "centrist" along with the old Komeito at the time.^[21] In addition, the DSP was a member of left-wing Socialist International.^[20][22]

Leaders

No.	Photo	Name (Birth–death)	Constituency/title	Term of office
				Took office	Left office
1		Suehiro Nishio (1891–1981)	Rep for Osaka 4th district (1947–93) Osaka 1st district (1947–93) Osaka 2nd district (1947–93)	24 January 1960	June 1967
2		Eiichi Nishimura (1904–1971)	Rep for Osaka 2nd district (1947–93) Osaka 5th district (1947–93)	June 1967	27 April 1971
3		Ikkō Kasuga (1910–1989)	Rep for Aichi 1st district (1947–93)	27 April 1971	28 November 1977
4		Ryōsaku Sasaki (1915–2000)	Cou for National district Rep for Hyogo 5th district (1947–93)	28 November 1977	23 April 1985
5		Saburo Tsukamoto (1927–2020)	Rep for Aichi 2nd district (1947–93) Aichi 6th district (1947–93)	23 April 1985	25 February 1989
6		Eiichi Nagasue (1918–1994)	Cou for Kyoto Prefecture Rep for Kyoto 1st district (1947–93)	25 February 1989	April 1990
7		Keigo Ōuchi (1930–2016)	Rep for Tokyo 2nd district (1947–93)	April 1990	8 June 1994
8		Takashi Yonezawa (1940–2016)	Rep for Miyazaki 1st district (1947–93) Kyushu PR block (from Miyazaki)	8 June 1994	9 December 1994

Election results

House of Representatives

Election year	Candidates	No. of seats won	Change	Status
1960	105	17 / 467		Opposition
1963	59	23 / 467	6	Opposition
1967	60	30 / 486	7	Opposition
1969	68	31 / 486	1	Opposition
1972	65	19 / 491	12	Opposition
1976	51	29 / 511	10	Opposition
1979	53	35 / 511	6	Opposition
1980	50	32 / 511	3	Opposition
1983	54	38 / 511	6	Opposition
1986	56	26 / 512	12	Opposition
1990	44	14 / 512	12	Opposition
1993	28	15 / 511	1	Government

House of Councillors

Election year	Seats		Status
	Total	Contested
1962	12 / 250	5 / 125	Opposition
1965	7 / 250	3 / 125	Opposition
1968	10 / 250	7 / 125	Opposition
1971	13 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1974	10 / 252	5 / 126	Opposition
1977	11 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1980	12 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1983	12 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1986	12 / 252	5 / 126	Opposition
1989	8 / 252	3 / 126	Opposition
1992	9 / 252	4 / 126	Opposition

See also

• Blue Labour
• Democratic Socialists '70
• Italian Democratic Socialist Party
• New Italian Socialist Party
• Labor Right
• Seeheimer Kreis
• Social Democratic Party (UK)
• New Fraternity Party

References

1. ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 小項目事典の解説 [The Encyclopædia Britannica: Micropædia's explanation]. kotobank.jp (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun Company. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
2. Taguchi, Fukuji [in Japanese]. 日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)の解説 [The Nihon Dai Hyakka Zensho: Nipponica's explanation]. kotobank.jp (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun Company. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
3. John E. Endicott; William R. Heaton, eds. (1996). The Politics Of East Asia: China, Japan, Korea. Routledge. p. 137. ISBN 9781000304718. Continuing cooperation between the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the New Liberal Club (NLC), and the conservative Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), will probably assure conservative rule for some time to come.
4. James Brown; Guibourg Delamotte; Robert Dujarric, eds. (2021). The Abe Legacy: How Japan Has Been Shaped by Abe Shinzo. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 24. ISBN 9781793643315. A coalition of fragments of the old Japan Socialist Party, the former "centrist" Democratic Socialist Party, and disaffected refugees from the LDP, its mastermind was Ozawa Ichiro, the most formidable of Tanaka Kakuei's disciples.
5. Michael J Hogan; Michael J. Hogan, eds. (1996). Hiroshima in History and Memory. Cambridge University Press. p. 137. ISBN 9780521566827.
6. R. Taggart Murphy, ed. (2014). Japan and the Shackles of the Past. Oxford University Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780190213251.
7. Franklin Henry Hooper; Walter Yust, eds. (1982). Britannica Book of the Year. Encyclopaedia Britannica. p. 1950.
8. Jon Halliday, ed. (1975). A Political History of Japanese Capitalism. Pantheon Books. p. 238. ISBN 9780394483917. The JCP has rigorously excluded the militant Hansen Seinen linkai, although it has been prepared to collaborate with the Kōmeitō and even the extremely conservative Democratic Socialist Party ( DSP ) on certain issues in the Diet and ...
9. Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. pp. 109–113. ISBN 978-0-6749-8442-4.
10. Miranda Schreurs (2014). "Japan". In Jeffrey Kopstein; Mark Lichbach; Stephen E. Hanson (eds.). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order. Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-139-99138-4.
11. "U.S. admits CIA gave LDP money in 1950s, 1960s". Japan Times. Kyodo News. 20 July 2006. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
12. Hounshell, Blake (30 July 2007). "U.S. admits CIA gave LDP money in 1950s, 1960s". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 24 August 2018.
13. Weiner, Tim (9 October 1994). "C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 December 2007.
14. Robert E. Cole, ed. (2022). Japanese Blue Collar: The Changing Tradition. Univ of California Press. p. 18. ISBN 9780520310650.
15. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, ed. (1996). United States-Japan Relations: Hearings Before the Subcommittees on Asian and Pacific Affairs and on International Economic Policy and Trade of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session, May 2, 3, 23; June 12, 1984. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 444. This year the moderate Democratic Socialist Party has also called for abolition of the one percent ceiling and the setting of a new, more realistic limit.
16. William D. Hoover, ed. (2018). Historical Dictionary of Postwar Japan. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 160. ISBN 9781538111567. ... Dōmei was a supporter of the more moderate Democratic Socialist Party while Sōhyō members generally supported the Japan Socialist Party.
17. Jeffrey Kopstein; Mark Lichbach; Stephen E. Hanson, eds. (2014). Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order. Cambridge University Press. p. 192. ISBN 9780521135740.
18. Tomohito Shinoda, ed. (1994). Struggle to Lead: The Japanese Prime Minister's Power and His Conduct of Economic Policy. Johns Hopkins University. p. 228. The conservative Democratic Socialist Party agreed to further discuss the tax reform, while the Japan Socialist Party, the Japan Communist Party, and the Kômeitô demanded the dissolution of the lower house before the reform could be introduced.
19. 及川智洋 (March 2019). "第5章 第3節 民社党－－－社会党から分裂した社民主義政党が、反共の新自由主義政党へ". 戦後革新勢力の対立と分裂. 法政大学 博士論文(政治学) 32675甲第451号. 法政大学 (Hosei University). doi:10.15002/00021756.
20. Ian Neary, ed. (2005). War, Revolution and Japan. Routledge. p. 140. The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was a right-wing social democratic party, founded by the separation from the SP in I960, and a member of the Socialist International.
21. Albrecht Rothacher, ed. (2016). The Japanese Power Elite. Springer. p. 121. ISBN 9781349229932.
22. James C. Docherty; Peter Lamb (2006). Historical Dictionary of Socialism. Scarecrow Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-8108-6477-1. Retrieved 28 January 2013.