is a Japanese far-left revolutionary group, often referred to as Chūkaku-ha (, "Central Core Faction") in Japanese. Their main goal is to have Japan, and the entire world, adopt communist policies. Chūkaku-ha rejects imperialism and Stalinism.

The group was long led by chairman , who chaired the league from 1997 to September 2025.

The Japanese National Police Agency reports that as of 2020, 4,700 members are active in Chūkaku-ha.

History

thumb|Headquarters in [[Edogawa, Tokyo]]

Prehistory of Chūkaku-ha

In 1957 a number of dissidents dissatisfied with the direction of the Japan Communist Party (JCP), along with a number of student activists from the Nationwide Zengakuren student federation, formed the Revolutionary Communist League (RCL), usually abbreviated as Kakukyōdō in Japanese. This group was fervently anti-Stalinist, and soon fell under the sway of the charismatic half-blind Trotskyist philosopher Kan'ichi Kuroda.

The group evolved into its current form (Chūkaku-ha) after a series of schisms. In 1959, Kuroda Kan'ichi was expelled from the RCL in the wake of a scandal in which he tried to sell compromising information about the JCP to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). Therefore, Kuroda, along with his right-hand man Nobuyoshi Honda, founded their own version of the RCL, with the appellation "National Committee" added to the name, and took many of their followers with them to create the RCL-NC. In 1960, a youth branch of the RCL-NC was established for Zengakuren student activists as the Marxist Student League (MSL), abbreviated Marugakudō in Japanese. This was followed in 1961 by the creation of another youth branch for young labor unionists, the Marxist Workers' Youth League (MWYL).

Chūkaku-ha era

Starting in the mid-1960s, Chūkaku-ha, became active in organizing protest activities. In 1966, Chūkaku-ha joined in alliance with two other radical student groups, the "Second Bund" (Daini Bunto) and the Liberation Faction of the Socialist Youth League (Kaihō-ha) to form the "Three-Faction" (Sanpa) Zengakuren. As part of the Sanpa Zengakuren, Chūkaku-ha participated in the October 8, 1967 protest at Haneda Airport which attempted to block Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Satō from visiting South Vietnam. In 1968, they protested the visit of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, , to Sasebo. Later that same year Chūkaku-ha participated in another protest of the Shinjuku Rail Station's transportation of US forces fuel tanks, remembered as the "Shinjuku Riot." According to Chūkaku-ha, Kakumaru-ha was aided and protected by the police. Chūkaku-ha's attacks continued into the later part of the 20th century, with the last one occurring in 2001. On that day, a protest against the occupation of Okinawa by the United States turned violent, with students throwing Molotov cocktails at officers.

Today, Chūkaku-ha still stages protests and operates a YouTube channel to document and publicize its activities. In May 2023, Chūkaku-ha organized an anti-G7 protest in Hiroshima, denouncing the G7 summit as "imperialism for nuclear war".

In September 2025, Shimizu retired due to his age.

References

  • JRCL (Chūkaku-ha) English website
  • Official website (Japanese)
  • Zengakuren, the Zengakuren faction that is loyal to JRCL (Chūkaku-ha)