was a Japanese socialist. He advocated opposition to the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

, founded the Heiminsha and published the newspaper ''Heimin Shimbun''. He formed the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

and 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 ...

, and became the first general secretary of the Japanese Communist Party. His pen name is . He is also known for his translation with

Kōtoku Shūsui , better known by the pen name , was a Japanese socialist and anarchist who played a leading role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century. Historian John Crump described him as "the most famous socialist in Japan". He was ...

Biography

Sakai was born as the third son to a

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

class family in what is now

Miyako, Fukuoka 260px, Buzen Kokubun-ji is a town located in Miyako District, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 18,049 in 8405 households, and a population density of 120 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Ge ...

. He attended what is now the

Kaisei Academy Kaisei Academy (, ) is a Private school, private secondary school for boys located in Arakawa, Tokyo. Overview Kaisei Academy admits approximately 300 students to its junior high school and 400 to its high school each year. The school's motto ...

where he studied the English language. However, he was expelled from the prestigious No.1 Higher Middle School for failure to pay his tuition, and worked as a tutor and a journalist in

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

and

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

while studying literature on his own, and writing works of fiction. He was invited to

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Suematsu Kenchō Viscount was a Japanese politician, intellectual and author who lived in the Meiji and Taishō periods. Apart from his activity in the Japanese government, he also wrote several important works on Japan in English. He was portrayed in a ne ...

to stay at the residence of the former

Mōri clan The was a Japanese clan, Japanese samurai clan descended from Ōe no Hiromoto. Ōe no Hiromoto was descended from the Fujiwara clan. The family's most illustrious member, Mōri Motonari, greatly expanded the clan's power in Aki Province. Durin ...

to help edit a history of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. Afterwards, he went to work for the ''Yorozu Morning News'', where he began to support social justice causes and

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ...

. In 1903, Sakai established the socialist organization '' Heiminsha,'' together with Shūsui Kōtoku and

Uchimura Kanzō was a Japanese author, Christian evangelist, and the founder of the Nonchurch Movement ( Mukyōkai) of Christianity during the Meiji and Taishō periods in Japan. He is often considered to be the most well-known Japanese pre-World War II pac ...

. With the start of the

, ''Yorozu Morning News'' adopted a pro-government stance, and Sakai quit to form the weekly '' Heimin Shimbun'' together with Shūsui Kōtoku, which was critical of the war , p. 337. and decried the high taxes which the war was causing. It also published a Japanese translation of the

Communist Manifesto ''The Communist Manifesto'' (), originally the ''Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (), is a political pamphlet written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, commissioned by the Communist League and originally published in London in 1848. The t ...

in its November 13, 1904, issue. Sakai was sentenced to two months in jail.''Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism The Commoners Newspaper (Heimin Shimbun) (1903–05)'' p. 35 Sakai was also a strong supporter of the

Esperanto movement The Esperanto movement, less commonly referred to as Esperantism (), is a movement to disseminate the use of the planned international language Esperanto.See the definition in theDeklaracio pri la Esenco de la Esperantismo ("Bulonja Deklaracio ...

, helping create the Japana Esperanto-Instituto in 1906. In 1906, Sakai became one of the founding members of the

. He was arrested in the 1908 Red Flag Incident and was sentenced to two years in prison. Following the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

he participated in

Rousoukai Rousoukai (老壮会, The Society for Old Combatants) was a Japanese think tank which attracted participants from both the left-wing and right-wing of Japanese politics. It was founded on 9 October 1918 and continued until 1921. Members Left-wing ...

group. In 1922, he became one of the founding members of the

Japan Communist Party The is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest List of political parties in Japan, political party in the country. It has 250,000 members as of January 2024, making it one of the largest List of communist parties#Modern n ...

and was elected to a seat in the Tokyo City Assembly in 1929. Sakai translated many works related to socialism, as well as

utopian literature Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

into Japanese. In June 1932, he was admitted to a hospital after an incident of

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

under suspicion of insanity, and died of a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

on January 23, 1933. His grave is at the temple of

Sōji-ji is one of two of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism. The other is Eihei-ji temple in Fukui Prefecture. ''Fodor's'' calls it "one of the largest and busiest Buddhist institutions in Japan". The temple was founded in 740 as a Shingon Buddhist temp ...

Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama is one of the 18 ku ( wards) of the city of Yokohama in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the ward had an estimated population of 270,433 and a density of 8,140 persons per km². The total area is 33.23 km². Geography Tsurumi-ku is l ...

References

External links

e-texts of Sakai's works
at

Aozora Bunko Aozora Bunko (, , also known as the "Open Air Library") is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousand works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that t ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Toshihiko 1871 births 1933 deaths People from Fukuoka Prefecture Japanese Esperantists Japanese socialists Japanese communists Japanese journalists Meiji socialists

Biography

See also

References

Further reading

External links