Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
and one of the most important theoreticians of the
Japanese Communist Party
The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired ...
during the 1920s.
Biography
Fukumoto was born in
Tottori Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Tottori Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, least populous prefecture of Japan at 538,525 (2023) and has a geographic area of . ...
to a moderately prosperous landowning family. He studied law at
Tokyo Imperial University
The University of Tokyo (, abbreviated as in Japanese and UTokyo in English) is a public university, public research university in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1877 as the nation's first modern university by the merger of several Edo peri ...
and became a lecturer at a high school after graduation. In 1922 he was sent to Europe to study law; there he familiarized himself with Marxism and joined the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
. When he returned home in 1924 he joined a small communist group and became an editor for a small magazine simply called ''Marxism''.
Fukumoto wrote numerous articles and was well known in left-wing circles for his interpretations of Marxism-Leninism and his criticism of other Japanese Marxist scholars, especially Yamakawa Hitoshi and
Kawakami Hajime
was a Japanese Marxist economist of the Taishō and early Shōwa periods.
Biography
Born in Yamaguchi, he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University. After writing for ''Yomiuri Shimbun'', he attained a professorship in economics at Kyoto Impe ...
. His writing style was considered complex and he was more interested in the theoretical than the practical aspects of Socialism. Fukumoto called for the separation of true Marxist from false Marxists and urged the true Marxists to concentrate on theoretical struggle. This approach was popular among young intellectuals and was called Fukumotoism, as opposed to the more pragmatic mass-based approach of Yamakawa called Yamakawaism.
Fukumoto's main contribution was to improve the theoretical foundation of the communist party and the revolution, though he also expressed the idea that excessive focus on theory could isolate the party from other left-wing groups. Eventually the Comintern took the view that this was happening and in 1927 it issued a thesis attacking both Yamakawa and Fukumoto and demanding that the party strive for an immediate two-stage revolution to overthrow the Japanese government, and especially the Emperor system and
Diet of Japan
, transcription_name = ''Kokkai''
, legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet
, coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg
, house_type = Bicameral
, houses =
, foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...
,
redistribution of wealth
Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, con ...
, and pursue a favourable policy with the
USSR
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
.
In the
1950 Japanese House of Councillors election
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 4 June 1950,Tottori constituency.
Later in life he dedicated himself to researching agricultural issues and the history of the Japanese Renaissance.