Press translations [Japan]. Political Series 0112, 1945-12-23.

Full translation:

In the general election of next spring, women will be given suffrage for the first time in JAPAN and will run for the Diet in accordance with the revised Election Law. How many female representatives will appear? The Diet being dissolved, the political campaign has entered the first phase.

In TOKYO, where the most candidates are expected, the women who expressed their intention to stand as candidates ranking among men, at present number only two, Mrs. FUKUCHI, Fumino and Mrs. YAMAZAKI, Michiko. There are no noted women included. In the outlying districts, some women, who have spent half their lives in liberating women or who belong to the Communist Party, have determined to run for the Diet. The biographies of those women are as follows:

Mrs. NISHIMORI, Moto, OKAYAMA-Ken, 69-year old Principal of the MAKIBI Girls' High School-born in KOCHI city; graduated from the TOKYO Girls' Higher Normal School in 1890; has been teaching for forty years. As she has devoted herself to female education, she is acknowledged a power among women. In her educational career she served at the KOCHI Municipal Girls' High School, the OKAYAMA Prefectural Girls' High School, and the OKAYAMA. Girls' Norma1 School, and assumed the principalship of the MAKIBI Girls' High School in 1925, when it was founded. This school is a rare one, founded through collecting a fund from female supporters. She has been, so to speak, e fighter for women in the KANSAI Ladies Society.

She said, "I like liberty, independence, and the proper way of life. Female education is vital in order to improve women's status, and no Party is giving consideration to the problem at present. American women are surely superior on this point. I think it is owing to American women's fairness that measures for improving Japanese women's status after defeat has been taken by the UNITED STATES. Female social action should be further promoted hereafter along with the current of the times."

Mrs. MIYAI, Asaka, KAGAWA Ken. 40 year old leader of the KAGAWA Local Committee of the Communist Party - born in KAGAWA Ken. After leaving the MATSUO Primary School, KAGAWA ken, in 1918, she traveled in various places as a maid or a woman worker and was then active in the Communist Party. She married Mr. MIYAI, who had been arrested in connection with the 15th March affair and was in prison in 1930. As her husband is an invalid, she has determined to stand as a candidate in compliance with the earnest request of the Committee.

POLITICAL SERIES: 112 (Continued)

ITEM 1 (Continued)

She said, "I will stand as a candidate in compliance with the advice of those who are afraid for MIYAI's health, as soon as I am permitted to do so by the Central Committee. I don't care whether I succeed or fail in the election. I intend to cater to the wishes of the people even if they don't support me. The extreme corruption of JAPAN is due to the existence of capitalists and landowners, who are sabotaging production. In order to establish the liberty of a new JAPAN, it is urgent to solve our problems rapidly by promoting labor unions, and overthrowing the local agricultural administration."

Mrs. TSUCHIYA, Naraye. NARA Ken, 48 years old, mother of one son and one daughter. She is an official on the regular staff of the OSAKA Boys' Court and the OSAKA Local Court. After graduating from the NARA Girls' Higher Normal School in 1919, she devoted herself to the study and application of the Boys' Trial Law for twenty years. She is the only female official of the Justice Ministry treated as a sonin-rank official in the KINKI District. She is a good and clever wife at home and quite popular among women in the neighborhood. She connects her home directly with politics while working in the kitchen and is of the female politician type which may be found in the Labor Party of ENGLAND.

She said, "I am determined to [illegible]e an adviser of women and trainer of children. Since we have been given suffrage, it is the only way to solve our problem and to discharge our duty, isn't it? I am sorry to say that the Japanese women's level is not high compared with that of ether women in the world. It is time for Japanese women to test their capacity by entering current politics. I will try to use women's power to maintain peace."

Summary:

A round table conference composed of the following:

Chairman: "What are the Communists views on the land system?"

SHIGA: [illegible]In our opinion we cannot put much confidence in the present Government, which includes war criminals in its personnel yet professes to promote the welfare of the farmers' as well as the whole populace. We also regard the existing Diet as a nest war criminals. Therefore, it is inconceivable that the system can be revised for the benifit of the farmers. They are protecting the landowners. They have decided on five CHOBU, and many landowners are taking away the land from the tenants and creating trouble, as Mr. MIZUTANI knows. We must consider whether it is possible or not to solve the pressing food problem by second-best policies. They talk of three CHOBU or five CHOBU, but in present JAPAN small landholders are predominant, so that the majority of the farmers will be left as the landowners' slaves, as they are now. The proposed measure is absolutely of no use in the fundamental settlement of the problem.

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POLITICAL SERIES: 112 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

Secondly, as history plainly tells us, the creation of peasant-owners is doomed to be a failure. Once inflation occurs, the farmers will have to part with their land again. They say it will serve to absorb money from the farmers for the purchase of land, but I think the Government is under the illusion that all the farmers have thousands of yen on account of the black market sale of crops. It is true that some of them have, but the majority of honest farmers haven't much because they have not enough surplus to sell. Furthermore, if the farmers are to buy land with their davings or loans, they will not have money left for improved farm implements with which to increase production. So the method will be of little avail for the immediate solution of the food question.

Mr. KUROSAWA says that the landowners acquired land by their own hard work, but it is a half truth, for we cannot overlook the fact that many poor fellows, driven to starvation, parted with their land which has fallen into the present owners' hands. Accordingly, the Communist Party must insist that a fundamental solution for the land problem must be confiscation, and the land must be gratuitously distributed among the working farmers. Otherwise we can never overcome the food crisis. Even if the land is given to the farmers, who have none at all or not enough to till, there is a danger that such land will revert to the former landowners due to the impoverishment of the farmers resulting from economic changes. To guard against this, it is necessary to prohibit the sale of the land. Since the land may be mortgaged thereby starting similar trouble, mortgaging must be prohibited, too. After all, the sale or mortgage occurs because the farmers are driven to the verge of starvation, so that they must be protected against such an emergency by law. In spite of Mr. MIZUTANI's opinion that the Imperial property should voluntarily be offered for cultivation, I maintain that the Imperial owned land should be given to the farmers gratis. The Imperially and State land, as well as parade grounds, airfields, sites of factories, and all such cultivable lands, and leaves the farmers deprived of the rights to cultivate the State land, but this must be confiscated and distributed among the farmers. The present Agrarian Reform Law puts the stress only on the cultivated land, but this must be rectified. I am dead set against the Agricultural Societies' buying of land. What were these organizations doing during the war? They were committing the same crime as the army officers. The farmers regard them with immense distrust.

If the farmers are informed that by mutually co-operation they can get the rent or taxes reduced, the question of the day can be settled to the advantage of the farmers. In any case I am obsolutely against the farmers paying for the land.

MIZUTANI: My opinion is partly supported by Mr. SHIGA, but at the same time I notice he disagrees with some of my views. He contends that the present Government has not the farmers' confidence and that the Agrarian System Reform Land submitted by it is no good. He also says the existing Diet is made up of war criminals. It is doubtful that it will pass the Bill. I, myself, am afraid the outcome of the Bill because Mr. SHIGA's prediction may come true. However, as far as my Party is concerned, we are doing our best to get the other Parties to pass the bill. Since the question has come to a head, the Diet cannot shelve it for fear of the bad effect such an act might have on production and crops. The Bill may not be attractive to the farmers in the Communists' fold, but they say they will have a try at it.

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POLITICAL SERIES: 112 (Continued)

ITEM 2 (Continued)

Of course the Bill has defects, the worst being the admittance of the landowners' right of appealm as this will be utilized for prolonging decisions. In some respects it is not clear whether the Bill intends protection for the owners or for tenants. Nevertheless, the appearance of the Bill is an epoch-making event. It should result in increased production, and it seems to us that it should be the first step in breaking down feudalism in the agrarian districts, going hand in hand with the fulfillment of the Potsdam Declaration. When I said that unless a party which is trusted by the farmers comes into power there would be no increase in production, Mr. MUROBUSHI asked if the Social-Democratic Party would form a Government, to which I replied "yes."

SHIGA: You should not be so narrow-minded as to think of seizing power for your Party alone.

MIZUTANI: But many people write us, supporting my views.

SHIGA: You've been dreaming of "my Parties Government."

MIZUTANI: It is a party mans spirit in a sense. If you belong to a party, unless you have the conviction that without the party the nation's living problems cannot be solved, you cannot stay in my profession. Anyway, as you say, I would rather induce the farmers to increase production than make them pay for the land.

SHIGA: How do you propose to do so?

MIZUTANI: I propose that manure and fodder should he nationalized and [illegible]n increased supply be made available to the farmers. The rent must be reduced and the land devalued, so that even if the State purchase s the land, the price would become so low as to make purchase tantamount to confiscation. In this way, our purpose will be served.

Chairman: What is the Progressive Party's opinion on the land question?

KOYAMA: The Communist Party's proposal for confiscation and re-distribution of the land will cause confusion under the present conditions when the people are suffering from starvation. A systematic change is inevitable, But too drastic a change would be disastrous.

The defects of the Agricultural Association must be rectified, of course. An agricultural enterprise on a. grand scale is now under consideration throughout the world. If a Ken hires workers it is doubtful whether they can increase production if they are unable to handle impartial distribution. So in my opinion the villages must accept the agricultural associations management and let peasant owners manage their own problems, instead of hiring outsiders.

One more question which Mr. MIZUTANI brought out is the nationalization of agriculture. The nationalization is all right, but it is to be conducted by Government officials, as in the past, I think we must correct the method considerably. I think it possible to create a. system almost similar to nationalization without actually nationalizing. Because of characteristics peculiar to Japanese, Nationalization is liable to degenerate into a system of Government officials control. Therefore, except in a few special cases, my Party cannot approve of extensive nationalization.

DISTRIBUTION "X"

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