was a Japanese

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

who completed the first full Japanese translation of

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

's ''

Das Kapital ''Capital: A Critique of Political Economy'' (), also known as ''Capital'' or (), is the most significant work by Karl Marx and the cornerstone of Marxian economics, published in three volumes in 1867, 1885, and 1894. The culmination of his ...

''. In his youth he became a member of the small Japanese anarchist movement. During the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

however, he began to lean in support of

state socialism State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition ...

. Where prominent

Marxists 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 conflict, and ...

saw the state in

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...

as a temporary and necessary evil needed to construct

communist society In Marxist thought, a communist society or the communist system is the type of society and economic system postulated to emerge from technological advances in the productive forces, representing the ultimate goal of the political ideology of ...

, Takabatake welcomed the revolution precisely because it would lead to a strong centralized state. This led to tensions between him and other Japanese Marxists, with Takabatake becoming one of the first theoreticians of socialist nationalism in Japan. He completed the first Japanese translation of ''

'' in 1924, though by 1926 he had left Marxism entirely, establishing the fascist

Kenkokukai The Kenkokukai (建国会/建國會, National Foundation Society) was a Japanese secret society founded by Bin Akao in April 1926. It was an anti-communist organisation, strongly influenced by the National Socialism of Motoyuki Takabatake. The p ...

organization, and had prepared to establish a

National Socialist Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

Party before his abrupt death in 1928.

References

1886 births 1928 deaths Japanese nationalists Japanese fascists Japanese Marxists People of the Meiji era Former Marxists {{Japan-bio-stub