Tetsuzo Fuwa, Ex-Leader of Japanese Communist Party, Dies at 95
Former Japanese Communist Party leader Tetsuzo Fuwa died of acute cardiac failure at a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday (December 30). He was 95.
Known as one of the party's "theoretical pillars," Fuwa established a realistic and flexible approach for the JCP and maintained his strong influence on the party even after his retirement as lawmaker in 2003.
His death will unlikely have a major influence on the direction of the party's management since its current leader, Tomoko Tamura, follows Fuwa's policy line.
Born in Tokyo in January 1930, Fuwa, whose real name was Kenjiro Ueda, joined the party in January 1947, before graduating from the University of Tokyo's faculty of science in March 1953.
After the graduation, he served as a key member of what is now the Japan Federation of Basic Industry Workers' Unions and then started to work at the JCP's headquarters in March 1964.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, in December 1969.
Fuwa was appointed chief of the JCP's secretariat in July 1970 at age 40 and supported then party leader Kenji Miyamoto on the theory front for the party.
He became chairman of the party's executive committee in July 1982 and chairman of the party's central committee in November 2000.
Even after retiring from the Diet in October 2003, Fuwa led the full-fledged revision of the party's platform in January 2004 and forged a realistic stance for the party, such as tolerating the Imperial system and the Self-Defence Forces for the time being.
He became head of the JCP's social science research institute in September 2004.
Fuwa resigned as central committee chairman due to his age in January 2006, but remained as a member of the central committee.
In January 2024, he left the central committee and became an honorary executive.
Fuwa wrote many books in various fields, including research on socialism and literature, as well as hiking, which was his hobby.
In a statement released Tuesday over Fuwa's death, Kazuo Shii, current chairman of the JCP's central committee, expressed "deep sorrow at losing a great leader," who did a great job.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
