Left Socialist Party of Japan

This article is about the Japanese political party that existed from 1951 to 1955. For other Japanese socialist parties, see Japan Socialist Party (disambiguation).

The Left Socialist Party of Japan (社会党左派, Shakaitō-saha) was a political party in Japan that existed between 1951 and 1955.

Left Socialist Party of Japan 社会党左派 Shakaitō-saha
Chairperson	Suzuki Mosaburō
Secretary-General	Hiroo Wada
Founded	1951 (1951)
Dissolved	1955 (1955)
Split from	Japan Socialist Party
Merged into	Japan Socialist Party (1955)
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Ideology	Marxism Revolutionary socialism
Political position	Left-wing to far-left
Colors	Red
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

History

Following the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, the Japan Socialist Party dissolved into chaos and internal bickering between moderate reformist socialists and more radical revolutionary socialists over the issue of whether or not to support the Treaty. The JSP split, with some of its members forming a more centrist social-democratic party, while others formed a more radical socialist party. Both groups claimed the name Nihon Shakaitō (日本社会党) but different English translations, and are known as the Left Socialist Party of Japan and the Right Socialist Party of Japan, respectively.

The left-wing in Japan was in chaos between 1951 and 1955. In early 1955, the Left and Right Socialists reconciled and merged to reform the JSP, months before the Liberal Democrat Party was created through a merger of the Liberal and Democrat parties. The Left Socialists generally had the upper hand in the reunified JSP, causing a few former Right Socialists to leave the party in 1960 to create the Democratic Socialist Party.

Election results

House of Representatives

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Status
1952	Mosaburō Suzuki	3,398,597	9.62	54 / 466	new	4th	Opposition
1953		4,516,715	13.05	72 / 446	18	3rd	Opposition
1955		5,683,312	15.35	89 / 446	17		Opposition

House of Councillors

Election	Leader	Constituency			Party list			Seats		Position	Status
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Won	Total
1953	Mosaburō Suzuki	3,917,837	13.99	10 / 75	3,858,552	14.27	8 / 53	18 / 128	40 / 250	2nd	Opposition

See also

• Itsurō Sakisaka
• List of political parties in Japan
• Politics of Japan