Japanese Collectivist Party (Joan of What?)

Japanese Collectivist Party 日本集団党 Nihon Shūdantō
General Secretary	Nosaka Sanzō
Deputy General Secretary	Tokuda Kyuichi
Chairman of the Supreme Council	Shiga Yoshio
Founded	28 August 1925
Dissolved	10 July 1954
Headquarters	Sapporo, North Japan
Newspaper	Rōdō Shinbun
Youth wing	Young Workers' League of Japan
Armed wing	Japan National Revolutionary Army
Membership (1953)	286,300
Ideology	Stalinism Republicanism
Political position	Far-left
Colors	Red
Status	Disbanded Outlawed throughout Japan and Russia
Supreme Council (1953)	607 / 687

The Japanese Collectivist Party (Japanese: 日本集団党, tr. Nihon Shūdantō) was the founding and ruling political party of the Japanese Democratic Republic, and the largest party represented in the Supreme Council of Japan. Throughout North Japan's existence, the JCP remained the sole governing party in the country, although it de jure coexisted with two other legal parties making up the Democratic Republican Front of Japan.

The Collectivist Party was formed in 1925 by Japanese socialists and republicans opposed to the existing government in the Empire of Japan, inspired by the policies of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and especially those of the then Russian president, Joseph Stalin. The Party's platform was concentrated on the collectivisation of Japanese agriculture and the nationalisation of industry. After being banned by the Japanese government in late 1928, the party's leaders escaped arrest by fleeing to Russia, where Stalin provided political asylum.

During World War III, the members of the Collectivist Party, led by Nosaka Sanzō, were covertly moved by the Russians to Sapporo, Hokkaido, from which they were to re-establish the party in Japan in preparation for a socialist revolution in Japan. In 1946, Japan surrendered to the Allies, and on 18 August the country was divided into Cygnian and Russian occupation zones. The Russian occupation authorities gradually began to transfer power to the Collectivist Party, which eventually became the de facto governing body of northern Japan.

On 23 November 1948, the Russians proclaimed the establishment of the Japanese Democratic Republic, and bestowed upon the Collectivist Party the "democratic duty of executing the laws of Japan", making the party the sole governing political party in North Japan. Collectivisation policies were enacted and initiated on 1 January the next year, bringing the country into line with the JCP's platform. However, these quickly led to crop failures and subsequent famine, especially as increasing amounts of money were being spent on the military.

North Japan, with Russian support, began an invasion of South Japan in 1950 in an effort to forcefully reunify the country. Cygnia and other Western countries quickly came to the South's defence, beginning the Japanese War. Discontent with the Collectivist Party reached a tipping point not long after the North's advances into the South were reversed, which allowed for a swift takeover of civilian locations in North Japan. By the autumn of 1952, all of mainland Japan was under Southern control, which left only Hokkaido in Northern hands. On 13 January 1953, Stalin's successor, Nikita Khrushchev, had Nosaka's entire government arrested, and installed a Russian-appointed provisional council, which signed an armistice with South Japan and its allies. Exactly one month later Khrushchev declared Russia's annexation of Hokkaido, ending the Japanese republic.

Hostilities between South Japan and the now-nonexistent North were officially concluded on 19 June 1954, when the Treaty of Kyoto was signed by Allied and Russian officials. The Treaty recognised the Tokyo government as the sole legitimate governing authority of Japan, and officially reunified the country, albeit without Hokkaido. On 10 July 1954 both the Japanese and Russian governments banned the Collectivist Party.