Japan's unhappy army of part-timers turns hard left for answers

· Justin Norrie, Tokyo

· September 22, 2008

Election fever: Tokyo shop staff wear masks of comic-book fan Taro Aso, a hot favourite to become prime minister in today's LDP leadership vote. Photo: Reuters

FOR the five politicians of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party contesting today's party leadership vote, there is one electoral demographic fading from reach.

Part-time workers in their 20s and early 30s are so disillusioned with the Government that they are turning to the Japanese Communist Party instead.

Members of the so-called freeter (freelance worker) and NEET (not currently engaged in employment, education or training) generation have stimulated a sudden and dramatic reinforcement of the ageing core of the minor party, which has gained more than 10,000 members in the past year.

JCP chairman Kazuo Shii, who helped the groundswell movement with a tough-talking parliamentary speech that became a YouTube hit, confidently expects another 20,000 recruits in the next year.

That is a dramatic turnaround for the JCP, which has been a political pariah for almost two decades. In 1990 the party had 500,000 members but by 2000 that number had dropped by almost a quarter. Over the following five years, its share of the general vote dwindled from 11.3% to 7.3%.

So great is the revival of interest in the JCP now, however, that the main opposition party, the centre-left Minshuto, believes it can help topple the troubled LDP Government in a general election widely tipped for November.

"Many struggling young people are tired of the way Japan is heading," Mr Shii said. "This year they have become attracted to our party as they see their plight reflected in Kanikosen," a reference to a seminal Japanese novel about proletarian life that has recently returned to the bestseller list.

Kanikosen (The Crab Cannery Ship), written in 1929 by Marxist author Takiji Kobayashi, tells the story of a group of workers on a factory ship bound for Russian waters. "We're going to hell!" one of them famously says as they set out on their brutal mission, during which they are assaulted and exploited by their employers.

Kobayashi was tortured to death by Japan's special police four years after his classic was published. In 1953 the book was released in paperback and has subsequently sold about 5000 copies a year. But since January, when it was cited in major newspaper Mainichi Shimbun by right-wing punk-singer-cum-writer Karin Amemiya, it has sold 500,000 copies.

Publishing company Shinchosha says the book is especially popular with the legion of young workers who struggle to survive on low-paying and infrequent part-time shifts, while drifting between internet cafes and makeshift accommodation.

The proportion of Japan's workforce categorised as part-time has increased from 38% in 2001 to 44% at the start of this year.

The number of Japanese earning less than 2 million yen ($A22,000) a year, meanwhile, has climbed to 10 million.

But some veteran JCP members are sceptical about the faddish interest in their party. As one 60-year-old told the media: "I wonder if those who became members because they identify with a book will actually take an interest in party activities and vote in elections."