Japan may be a powerhouse of global capitalism. But it also developed a powerful socialist movement in the twentieth century. During the Cold War, the Socialist Party led the opposition to the ruling Liberal Democrats. Japan today still has a Communist Party with a mass membership and a serious electoral base.

Kenji Hasegawa joins Long Reads for a conversation about the Japanese left. He’s a professor of modern Japanese history at Yokohama National University and the author of Student Radicalism and the Formation of Modern Japan.

Read Kenji's article for Jacobin, "Japanese Socialism Was a Powerful Force Until It Lost Its Political Bearings," here: https://jacobin.com/2022/12/japan-socialist-party-social-democrats-ldp

Long Reads is a Jacobin podcast looking in-depth at political topics and thinkers, both contemporary and historical, with the magazine’s longform writers. Hosted by features editor Daniel Finn. Produced by Conor Gillies, music by Knxwledge.

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