Shimbun Akahata

Shimbun Akahata headquarters in Sendagaya, Tokyo.

Shimbun Akahata (しんぶん赤旗, Shinbun Akahata, lit. Newspaper Red Flag) is the daily organ of the Japanese Communist Party in the form of a national newspaper. Started in 1928, Akahata has a 16-page daily edition and a larger 36-page Sunday edition.

Akahata has journalists based in the capitals of ten countries around the globe. They are Beijing, Berlin, Cairo, Hanoi, London, Mexico City, Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, and Washington, D.C..

Some of their journalism deals with activist politics, but they also do original reporting on a wide variety of political issues which are often untouched in Japan. Most Japanese newspapers publish the names of alleged criminals, but Akahata often declines to publish their names, unless they are related to organized crime or right-wing activities. They also go out of their way to avoid using polite terms for the Emperor of Japan; for example, the paper refers to the Emperor's Cup exclusively as "a Japanese soccer tournament". They refer to the Buraku Liberation League as the "Liberation" League, using scare quotes to convey their opposition to the group.

See also

• List of newspapers in Japan
• Japanese media

References

Further Reading

• George M. Beckmann, Genji Okubo (1969). The Japanese Communist Party 1922-1945. Stanford University Press. 
• Tim, Rees, and Thorpe, Andrew. International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43 Manchester University Press, 1998.
• Robert A. Scalapino (1967). The Japanese Communist movement, 1920-1966. University of California Press. 

External links

• Shimbun Akahata (Japanese)
• Japan Press Weekly
• "Japan's Eight Top Communists Still Missing Without Clue". Reading Eagle. Jun 3, 1951. 
• "Tokyo College Raided Sunday". Herald-Journal. Jun 12, 1950. 

Communism in Japan
Events	Socialist thought in Imperial Japan Relations between Japanese Revolutionaries and the Comintern and the Soviet Union Lod Airport massacre 1975 AIA building hostage crisis Laju incident 1974 French Embassy attack in The Hague
Current organisations	Japanese Communist Party Shimbun Akahata Democratic Youth League of Japan Chongryon Kakurōkyō
Historical organisations	Enlightened People's Communist Party Leftist Socialist Party of Japan Unified Socialist League Communist Workers Party East Asia Anti-Japan Armed Front Japanese Red Army United Red Army Japan Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist)
Key people	Fusako Shigenobu Haruo Wakō Yū Kikumura Kanson Arahata Kiyoteru Hanada Shoichi Ichikawa Masanosuke Watanabe Yoshiki Yamashita Kenji Miyamoto Kazuo Shii
Related topics	Draft Constitution of the People's Republic of Japan Appeal to the People The Singing Voice of Japan
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