Democratic Socialist Party (Japan)

The Democratic Socialist Party (originally 民主社会党, Minshu Shakai-tō, later simply 民社党 Minsha-tō) was a social-democratic[3] political party in Japan. It was an anti-communist and pro-American alliance which supported a reformist/revisionist social democracy as opposed to the JSP's orthodox Marxism.[2]

Democratic Socialist Party 民主社会党 or 民社党 Minshu Shakai-tō or Minsha-tō
Founded	24 January 1960[1]
Dissolved	9 December 1994[1]
Split from	Japan Socialist Party[2]
Merged into	New Frontier Party[1]
Youth wing	Minsha Youth
Ideology	Democratic socialism[1][2] Social democracy[2] Anti-communism[2]
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	Socialist International
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

History

The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) was established in January 1960 by a breakaway faction of the Japan Socialist Party.[4][3] 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 democratic socialist faction that had existed as an independent party between 1948 and 1955 before reluctantly merging back together with the Leftist Socialist Party of Japan.[4] 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 US-Japan Security Treaty (known as Anpo in Japanese), and whether or not to cooperate with the Communist Party of Japan in doing so.[4]

Declassified United States government documents later revealed that covert CIA funding had also helped encourage the founding of this breakaway party.[5] 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.[6][7]

The DSP advocated democratic socialism and was a member of the Socialist International.[8] The DSP supported the construction of a welfare state by a mixed economy based on democratic socialism, opposed totalitarianism (i.e. fascism and communism) and strongly backed the Japan–United States alliance.[2] This made the pro-United States and anti-communist alliance within the LDP continued to have majority in both Houses. It derived much of its financial and organisational support from the Domei private-sector labour confederation.

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.[3] 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.

International comparison

Internationally, the DSP may be compared to the Democratic Socialists '70, another centre-right, anti-communist split from a social-democratic party.

Election results

General election results

Election year	Candidates	# 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	28 / 511	1	Government

Councillors election results

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

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 November 12, 2020.
2. Taguchi, Fukuji. 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 November 12, 2020.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. "U.S. admits CIA gave LDP money in 1950s, 1960s". Japan Times. Kyodo News. 2006-07-20. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
6. Hounshell, Blake (2007-07-30). "U.S. admits CIA gave LDP money in 1950s, 1960s". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
7. Weiner, Tim (1994-10-09). "C.I.A. Spent Millions to Support Japanese Right in 50's and 60's". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-29.
8. James C. Docherty; Peter Lamb (2006). Historical Dictionary of Socialism. Scarecrow Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-8108-6477-1. Retrieved 28 January 2013.