- Convenors:
-
Elijah Joshua Benjamin Aban
(University of the Philippines)
Fesa Husnayovari (Graduate School of Sustainable Development Universitas Indonesia)
Harry Chi Hang Cho
Susy Ong (University of Indonesia)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Interdisciplinary Section: Trans-Regional Studies (East/Northeast/Southeast Asia)
Short Abstract
Drawing from positionalities of the researchers, the panel focuses on providing perspectives utilizing Asian lenses and paradigms to question, interrogate and expound initial scholarships regarding the Japanese Left and its encounters beyond Japan.
Long Abstract
What views do Asians have towards the Japanese Left? While some regard it as a “failed” political movement phenomenon in Japanese and Marxist history, in this proposed panel, the presenters reveal how Asians view the Japanese Left from their positions. The first panelist will discuss the significance of studying the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) that follows the initial study of Lam Peng Er (1996). Often dismissed as "imitators" of Eurocommunism in Japan, "revisionists", "lost cause", or "moral compass", by implementing a historical materialist approach in collected materials, a proposed study in this panel counterargues that the transformation of the Japanese Communist Party from an asset of the Communist International in Asia to an independent leftist party transcends the core process of "self-formation" to Yoshimi Takeuchi's proposed concept of "Asia as Method" (Takeuchi, 2005). The second panelist expounds the perception of the Japanese Red Army’s (JRA) incident in Jakarta as reported by Indonesian mass media, breaking away from what the Western and Japanese media portrayed of the radical group. Next, the third panelist provides a Maoist point of view on the Japanese Left, examining how the general public engaged with, negotiated, or resisted leftist movements within Japanese society. This section would offer a counterpoint to prevailing discourses on the relationship between the Japanese Left and the broader social space it sought to transform. After this encounter, the fourth panelist aims to discuss the role of the Indonesian Marxist intellectual, Tan Malaka, broadening the panel discussion of how camaraderie within the Japanese Left expanded beyond Japan and influenced Indonesian Nationalism. With these research presentations, though challenging established initial findings and interpretations, the panel calls for inter-referencing the Japanese Left, as collectively done in multiple perspectives drawn from Asian perspectives.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
Despite falling out with the Soviet Union and China, I argue that the Japanese Communist Party's continuous solidarity with Southeast Asian countries after the Bandung Conference transcends the core process of "self-formation" to Yoshimi Takeuchi's proposed concept of "Asia as Method".
Paper long abstract
Previous studies on the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and its international activities focused mainly on how it functioned as the Japanese "counterpart" of the then Soviet Union and China. These neglected the party's autonomous practices in building solidarity in Southeast Asian countries. On April 18, 2025, the JCP commemorated the seventieth anniversary of the Asian-African Conference, commonly known as the Bandung Conference, through its newspaper, Shimbun Akahata, highlighting its significance and its role as an ally to Southeast Asia's anti-colonial struggle. History has witnessed the post-Bandung activities of the Japanese Communist Party asserting its position against the growing influence of what it called the period of US Imperialism. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union and China's economic reform under Deng Xiaoping, the Japanese Communist Party maintained its global solidarity, distinct from ruling communist parties. Often dismissed as "imitators" of Eurocommunism in Japan, "revisionists", "lost cause", or "moral compass", by implementing a historical approach in collected materials, this study counterargues that the transformation of the Japanese Communist Party from an asset of the Communist International in Asia to an independent leftist party transcends the core process of "self-formation" to Yoshimi Takeuchi's proposed concept of "Asia as Method" (Takeuchi, 2005). Furthermore, I argue that this rerouting of political tactics serves as a "reference point" for interrogation (Chen, 2010) towards understanding the mobilities of non-state actors that function beyond conventional diplomatic relations.
Paper short abstract
This paper investigates the circulation and reception of Quotations from Chairman Mao (the Little Red Book) in Japan during the Cultural Revolution.
Paper long abstract
Quotations from Chairman Mao (commonly known as the Little Red Book) was an important tool through which Maoist China exported Mao Zedong Thought abroad. Patterns of its reception in different parts of the world reflect varying degrees of curiosity about and fascination with Maoist China. To date, there has been no systematic study in either English- or Japanese-language scholarship on the circulation and reception of the Little Red Book in Japan. This paper provides an overview of how the Little Red Book was disseminated in Japan and addresses several fundamental questions: Who read it? How many people read it? And how did they read it? Following the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in China, the Little Red Book triggered a boom in publication and consumption in Japan, becoming a bestseller of the time. However, this paper argues that strong sales did not necessarily indicate a wholesale acceptance of its ideology or revolutionary messages among Japanese readers. Rather, it raises the question of whether the phenomenon should be understood as reflecting the dynamics of transnational ideological contestation, marked by both reception and resistance.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines Indonesian media coverage of the 1986 Japanese Red Army attacks in Jakarta through Kompas Newspaper and Tempo Magazine. While both framed the events as terrorism, Tempo also contextualized the violence within broader global political issues.
Paper long abstract
On May 14, 1986, a series of incidents occurred in Jakarta, Indonesia, including mortar attacks on the United States and Japanese Embassies and a car bomb explosion in the parking lot of the Canadian Embassy. Tsutomu Shirosaki, suspected by Japanese authorities of being a member of the left-wing militant Japanese Red Army, was named in connection with the attacks. This paper examines how these events were discussed by two prominent Indonesian media outlets at the time: Kompas Daily and Tempo Magazine. While existing studies on the Japanese Red Army have tended to focus on Japanese or Western contexts, this paper shifts its attention to how the Japanese left-wing movement was represented in Indonesian media. Based on a qualitative reading of articles published in 1986, this paper finds that while both media outlets labeled the acts as terrorism, Tempo tended to be more interpretive. Its coverage explained the background of the violence by citing global political situations such as the Palestinian issue and criticism of United States dominance.
This paper argues that despite Indonesia’s anti-communist stance and its close ties to the United States, Indonesian media did not present a unified understanding of the Japanese Red Army. Examining how Japanese left-wing political violence was interpreted provides insight into how the Japanese left-wing movement was perceived outside of Japan.
Paper short abstract
The idea of Indonesian nationalism was generally associated with Japan's right-wing's 'Pan-Asianism', however, Tan Malaka's work, published in 1925 in Canton and Tokyo, implied that Comintern and Chinese as well as Japanese Left had been the source of inspiration for Indonesian nationalism.
Paper long abstract
Tan Malaka, one of the founders of Indonesian (then Dutch Indian) communist party, exiled by the Dutch colonial government in 1922 to the Netherland, attended the Fourth Congress of Comintern in Moscow and later assigned Comintern's Far East representative, based in Shanghai. In 1n 1925, his published "Naar de Republiek Indonesia" ("Toward the Republic of Indonesia"), in which he argued, from the standpoint of a communist, that the coming clash of American imperialism and Japanese imperialism will pave the way for Indonesia's national independence.
It is generally neglected in Indonesia's historical narration that Tan Malaka, a communist, was the first one who had envisioned an independent state of Indonesia. Besides, his argument about the clash of American and Japanese imperialism and its consequence for Indonesia's independence, offers and alternative view generally held hitherto, that Japan's right-wing 'Pan Asianism' movement and Japan's military occupation of Indonesia was the determinant factor for Indonesia's national independence.