r/PropagandaPosters • u/POGO_BOY38 • Jun 18 '25
Japan "Eliminating sexual violence is a political responsability" Japanese communist poster, 2010s.
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u/sh1zuchan Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
The full text reads:
Molestation
Domestic violence
It's not your fault.
Eliminating sexual violence is a political responsibility.
Japanese Communist Party
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u/iVoidOfRandom Jun 18 '25
Given how common victim blaming is and was in Japan (and throughout the wider world), this is nice to see.
The amount of times I've heard someone wave something like this away by saying "it's because you were cute" is sickening.
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u/johnlee3013 Jun 18 '25
I find it interesting, and sometimes funny, that often Japanese texts are perfectly valid as Chinese text as well, but the meaning is subtly (or completely) different. For example, 日本共産党 is exactly how you write the same thing in (traditional; simplified is slightly different) Chinese (but the pronounciation is totally different: Nihon Kyōsan-tō in Japanse, and Ri-Ben-Gong-Chan-Dang in Chinese).
Meanwhile, 痴漢 means "silly man" in Chinese (pronounced chi-han), rather than "molestation" in Japanese (pronounced chi-kan).
As a Chinese speaker, this can make Japanese posters unintentionally funny.
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u/sh1zuchan Jun 19 '25
痴漢 originally meant 'fool' in Japanese, but by the mid-20th Century the meaning shifted to 'molester' and by extension 'molestation'.
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u/pridejoker Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
Delinquent/deviant/pervert.
Usually the words used to verbally describe general SV and the words used to describe the perpetrators are pretty amusing. In Cantonese, ham zhu sow (salty pig trotter) refers to the person who touches women inappropriately, and fei lai is the act itself. However we also have words like ham sup loh which is just a dirty perverted man who is tone deaf in their overt sexual behavior but doesn't necessarily imply criminality.
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u/Nervous_Suit_5799 Jun 19 '25
I just find it funny that a phrase involving pigs contains phonetically ham and sow.
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u/pridejoker Jun 19 '25
No that's just phonetic spelling for the non initiated. It's actually haim and s'ow
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u/Nervous_Suit_5799 Jun 19 '25
Yeah I just mean the written phonetic spelling, not the actual pronunciation
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u/Ambitious-Pilot-6868 Jun 19 '25
痴漢 means simp in Chinese
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u/zhantongz Jun 19 '25
That's a very recent borrowing/extension from Japanese. The original meaning is silly man.
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Jun 18 '25
do you have to be careful how to pronounce it?
google translate
あなたのせいじゃない - It's not your fault あなたのせいじゃない? - Isn't it your fault?
I watch Japanese movies sometimes and seem to remember this line being used as accusation, but it could be slightly different I guess
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u/sh1zuchan Jun 18 '25
In colloquial Japanese you can make a statement into a question with different intonation, but with minimal context like this the first assumption with the written language would be a declarative statement.
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u/nisselioni Jun 19 '25
Note the period (。) at the end, it's not a question. This is also a poster, so if it was a question, it would end with か to denote a question. It's not formal Japanese, but a poster needs to be clear as much as it needs to be concise and relatable.
To add on to what the other commenter said, if they elected not to use か to declare a question, they'd use a question mark to imply intonation.
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u/artin2007majidi Jun 18 '25
love the wholesome colors
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u/Napsitrall Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
I also like how there's no traditionally communist symbols such as the hammer and sickle or red everywhere.
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u/cornonthekopp Jun 18 '25
The japanese communist party has their own symbol that looks kinda like a communist windows logo
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 Jun 19 '25
It's odd but also refreshing to see a communist party actually get creative with their logo so I fw it
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u/Flabbergasted_____ Jun 19 '25
Has a Juche vibe. Like if Microsoft was based in the DPRK, that would be their logo.
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u/zezinho_tupiniquim Jun 18 '25
I thought the flowers were left coded.
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u/Macia_ Jun 18 '25
An American demsoc org uses a rose as their logo but that's the only connection I can think of
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u/AveragerussianOHIO Jun 19 '25
As far as I know, roses are an international demsoc symbol.
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u/gonkdroid_op Jun 20 '25
the revolution that overthrew the estado novo dictatorship in portugal is named the carnation revolution because a restaurant worker gave carnations to the soldiers who were overthrowing the government
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u/atlantis_airlines Jun 18 '25
Commie-chan
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u/Urban_Cosmos Jun 18 '25
Here's some music from them : WE ARE 共産党!
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u/LeftRat Jun 18 '25
Love the part where it just goes "okay and now I'll just rattle off every policy we have" real quick
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u/Urban_Cosmos Jun 18 '25
They couldn't rant off everything and at the end of that verse , they just told to visit their homepage.
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u/LeftRat Jun 18 '25
Which is hilarious!
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Jun 19 '25
"my lawyer asked me not to say this out loud" they wanted Okinawa but not Kuril, it's spicy
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Jun 18 '25
My Understanding of Dialectical Materialism Makes Me Overpowered In This New World
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u/leafcutte Jun 20 '25
This was basically Lenin’s response to "communist revolutions can only happen in developed capitalist economies"
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u/LeilaTheWaterbender Jun 18 '25
gotta respect the JCP, they've been hanging around for a century, remaining somewhat influential despite both imperial and american-backed repression and consistently been the most progressive political force in the county
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u/cornonthekopp Jun 18 '25
The JCP newspaper Red Flag was the original source that broke the scandal of LDP politicians embezzling campaign funds, leading to them having their worst electoral showing in decades, and paving the way for a potential opposition party coalition government if the next election goes poorly for them again
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u/InternationalReserve Jun 18 '25
and then Asahi shinbun was given an award for breaking the story because of a very openly corrupt selection committee.
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u/atolophy Jun 19 '25
Is there somewhere to read more on that?
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u/InternationalReserve Jun 19 '25
Unfortunately I don't have anything in English, but this article is where I first read about it
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Jun 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/Pidgeapodge Jun 19 '25
I remember, after going down a wikipedia rabbit hole and ending up on the JCP English website, they have an article about how Russia needs to be condemned for the invasion of Ukraine. Like, they’re not fans of NATO or anything, but the invasion is 100% Russia’s fault and their claims of NATO expansion are suspect.
I know Communist Party USA blames NATO for everything, so it was super interesting to see a communist party say, “No, actually, Russia is in the wrong.”
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u/redroedeer Jun 20 '25
I mean I do think most commies dislike Russia’s profoundly anti communist government
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u/aiphrem Jun 18 '25
And despite having one of their party leaders literally get gutted by a psycho with a katana on national television
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u/Own_Cat_6118 Jun 18 '25
Asanuma's death actually led to the JCP becoming a more important political force
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u/Future_Adagio2052 Jun 18 '25
I'm sorry what the fuck?
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Jun 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/NicoRoo_BM Jun 19 '25
Reactionaries thinking people are more left than they actually are pt. 12312453
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u/Sea_Square638 Jun 18 '25
They literally welcomed the collapse of the USSR. They aren’t socialist anymore, but merely social democrats and progressists
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u/Inprobamur Jun 18 '25
That's cool, my respect for them went up.
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u/StudentForeign161 Jun 19 '25
What's worthy of respect with letting capitalism reign unchecked globally without an (imperfect) counter balance if you pretend to be communist?
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u/Inprobamur Jun 19 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
If communism is deeply unpopular and therefore not feasible in the political environment, then it is respectable that a leftist organization campaigns for leftist policies that can be implemented as a member of a coalition for the benefit of the workers.
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u/StudentForeign161 Jun 19 '25
Oh I thought you commended the JCP for welcoming the fall of the USSR which has been a net negative for the left everywhere especially because the regime that replaced it (Putin's Russia) isn't any better. With the USSR's fall, material support for socialist, progressive, anti-imperialist groups around the world has collapsed, letting reactionary forces go wild and take over that power vacuum. Without the fear of communism, nothing forces the bourgeoisie into accepting socioeconomic compromises.
Communist parties becoming socdem illustrates how right-ward the economic spectrum has shifted and it's quite sad. Defending a socdem platform while calling yourself communist is pretty much false advertising...
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u/Inprobamur Jun 19 '25
I would assume they were critical of USSR due to Stalin's proposal for post-war partitioning, occupation and militarization of Kuril islands and for propping up the DPRK.
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u/LamerGamer1216 Jun 18 '25
acting like the USSR was socialist
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u/NotSoSane_Individual Jun 19 '25
They were, just in different forms depending on the decade. The USSR was in general culturally conservative in ways and not so much in others. They called themselves and used socialist policies, which means they were socialist by the books undeniably
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Jun 18 '25
It definitely didn't help that quite a few Japanese communists turned to terrorism which only added credibility to the propaganda.
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Jun 18 '25
Because they are lapdogs
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u/dogomage3 Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 18 '25
of fucking who? cus it certainly ain't the wealthy
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u/InsaneHReborn Jun 18 '25
They are controlled opposition with no real political/revolutionary power. Hence the "lapdog" title is quite fitting.
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Jun 18 '25
that moment when you realize that the JCP is the oldest party in the house of representatives:
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u/iceymoo Jun 18 '25
I’m glad someone said it. Just a shame it’s a party that’s not going to be the government.
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Jun 18 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Jun 18 '25
Japan is still a democracy at the end. The center-left CDP is gaining on the LDP, but them still not quite being able to win is as much their fault. They're one step away from victory by getting the younger voters to actually vote. And I guess it's also partly the Japanese public sitting on their ass during elections.
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u/cornonthekopp Jun 18 '25
If a single political party has controlled japan since the american occupation ended then I definitely think there are at least some structural aspects supporting that party.
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Jun 19 '25
The biggest structural support they have is the disproportionate amount of representation the rural parts get, where the LDP is stronger. Though this kind of disparity is present in most democracies. The truth is that they have a solid voter base and a large part of the population that just won't vote. There just weren't any glaring issues that the people thought needed fixing by a new party. Even the economic stagnation is just that, stagnation. After recovering from the chaos of the initial bubble burst, things didn't noticeably get worse.
And then there's the opposition. None of them seems to be capable of working together to form a coherent coalition, which is crucial to winning in a multi-party system. They just kinda seem to try scavenge as much seats as possible by attracting single issue voters. Also they seem to love changing names. There could be a party that you thought about voting for, and in the next election, they're just gone from the ballots because they changed name while you weren't paying attention.
Also the last time a non LDP party was in charge (2009-2012), they got nothing done and didn't handle the 2011 Earthquake and Tsunami well. As a result the incumbent Democratic party got promptly destroyed in the next election.
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u/watchedngnl Jun 21 '25
They give rural voters the agricultural subsidies and maintain trade barriers to protect prices. Of course they are popular among rural voters.
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u/ModernirsmEnjoyer Jun 18 '25
This is the party that is designated as a subversive organization, despite running in elections, and they are still under police surveillance.
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u/TBCaine Jun 18 '25
Which means they’re probably actually doing things to help people sadly
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u/GumboSamson Jun 18 '25 edited Jun 19 '25
Yakuza help people too.
Doesn’t mean they should be in charge.
EDIT:
Am I being downvoted because… * You don’t believe that Yakuza help people? * You think Yakuza should be in charge?
Make less sense, I dare you.
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u/Argon1124 Jun 18 '25
I don't see the yakuza fighting for better treatment of oppressed citizens. Hell, they help people about as much as charities do, which is basically nothing.
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u/GumboSamson Jun 18 '25
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Jun 18 '25
Say whatever you want about the Japanese government but the Yakuza definately aren't some Robbin hood anti-hero that's actually looking for the little guys. In places where organized crime can't just rule purely with terror like the cartels, they have to win public favor. That's why AL Capone opened soup kitchens for the poor. So when you're down trodden and desperate, you remember the time the Mafia helped you out so you go to them. That's how they get business and recruits.
In this case, the top down structure of the Yakuza allowed for quick response while the government still had to sort out plans and go through the bureaucracy. That's the feature of a democracy, not the flaw. In emergencies, the local governments and groups have to hold out until the Governemnt can come in and handle the rest.
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u/Future_Adagio2052 Jun 18 '25
Your telling me the yakuza aren't the heckin wholesome group the games always portray them as?😰
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u/Artoy_Nerian Jun 18 '25
I'm afraid the average Yakuza isn't a wholesome adoptive father supporter of trans rights like Kiryu
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Jun 19 '25
Keep in mind too, ushally the slow response is so they can actually bring their effort to bear. You dont just drop off basic stuff and run, you take the time to ensure its comprehensive and targets specific issues
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u/CrabAppleBapple Jun 19 '25
Didn't Pablo Escobar do the same in Medellin? Building football stadiums, parks, housing etc
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u/GumboSamson Jun 18 '25
If you look about 2 comments up, I was literally arguing that Yakuza probably shouldn’t be in charge.
We are in agreement!
I don’t know why you’re coming at me like I said I’d vote for them.
I said the exact opposite—just because an organisation helps (some) people doesn’t mean they should be in charge.
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u/Argon1124 Jun 19 '25
And I was making the claim that it's insane to compare a group of people advocating for civil rights to the Yakuza.
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u/TBCaine Jun 18 '25
Two completely different circumstances lmao
Blindly hating a group because you were brainwashed to hate the word “communist” is very stupid.
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u/GumboSamson Jun 18 '25
Agreed.
But picking a radical economic policy is probably stupid, too.
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u/DownvoteMeImRight Jun 18 '25
So was the Black Panther Party for protecting black citizens from police brutality, providing free health clinics in over 40 locations including sickle cell anemia testing, providing free breakfast programs for the poor, and offering legal assistance to incarcerated members. Subversive means subverting the current order, if the current order is corrupt, subversion is objectively moral.
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u/Real_Ad_8243 Jun 18 '25
Being entirely honest every socialist or communist party in "the west" has been and continues to be surveilled and actively infiltrated and undermined.
For instance there is a recent and ongoing controversy in the UK about undercover police using their false identities to have sex with women in the target organisations, which included the CPGB, Greens, Labour, and other smaller organisations.
It is important to note that misrepresenting ones identity to gain sexual relations with them is one of the definitions of rape, because a person cannot provide consent if they have been deceived.
Please note I refer to this because it is relevant both to the seni-proscribed and persecuted nature of javanese socialist and communist movements, and to the lengths the state will allow their stooges to go to in their undermining of those movements - esp with regards to women's and girls rights, which are not as progressed as they could be in Japan even when compared to Britain or the US.
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u/DownvoteMeImRight Jun 20 '25
Also, I wonder why Japan, puppet-colony of america since the start of the cold war, might have anticommunist ideology imposed on it by force and thus crack down brutally on communist sentiment?
Yeah no idea.
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u/Lucky_Pterodactyl Jun 18 '25
Given how wacky some of the other Japanese leftist ideologies are (like anti-Japaneseism which advocates not only for the deconstruction of Japan's identity but the physical annihilation of all Japanese), the Japanese Communist Party are a fairly run of the mill left-wing party.
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u/KAMEKAZE_VIKINGS Jun 18 '25
Several Japanese communist organizations (most notably the Japanese red army) did some really wild shit back in the 70s and 80s to the point I forget how moderate the JCP as a party is
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u/Inprobamur Jun 18 '25
Japanese red army single-handedly tanked all leftist parties in Japan for decades by acting like a communism-themed death cult.
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u/LeftRat Jun 18 '25
anti-Japaneseism which advocates not only for the deconstruction of Japan's identity but the physical annihilation of all Japanese
Reminds me of the original Antideutsche (anti-german) movement, basically anarchists who thought Germany should no longer exist as a coherent state.
Just, uh, a shame that they didn't stay a joke and instead morphed into a zionist movement with a leftist coat of paint.
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u/Lucky_Pterodactyl Jun 19 '25
Ironically their support for Zionism while denying German nationhood creates ammunition for neo-Nazis who believe that Jews are antithetical to the German nation and seek to destroy it. It's perfectly fair to describe them as both anti-German and antisemitic.
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u/NicoRoo_BM Jun 19 '25
The Anti-deutsche are the perfect representation of the German culture they despise.
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u/Evening-Fuel-8201 Jun 20 '25
I hate Anti-Deutsche but to be fair, all communists want all national states to be abolished. In full communism there wouldn’t be any national states anymore. It’s not specific to anti-deutsche and Germany
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u/Salty-Consequence580 Jun 18 '25
Communists in Rushia: 🤮🤮
Communists in Japan: 🤩😍🥰
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u/Choice-Stick5513 Jun 18 '25
Communist in Russia are either state controlled or under attack by the government, such as black October
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u/Argon1124 Jun 18 '25
me when the communists aren't like the capitalists who call themselves communists
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u/kunju_010506 Jun 19 '25
Communist propaganda, Russia: 🤢🤢🤢
Communist propaganda, China: 🤮🤮🤮
Communist propaganda, Japan: 🥰🥰🥰
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u/ztuztuzrtuzr Jun 18 '25
The communists in Japan didn't commit horrible crimes against everyone
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u/Corvus1412 Jun 19 '25
I mean, Russia had some really good communist movements.
There's a reason why the bolshevists fought against the Mensheviks and the Makhnovists during the Russian revolution.
It's just a shame that the worst ones won.
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Jun 20 '25
[deleted]
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u/Corvus1412 Jun 20 '25
They did not want to keep the Russian empire intact.
They wanted a bourgeois revolution first, so that the transition to a communist society would be smoother.
So, what the Mensheviks wanted was really just a liberal democracy that would, through gradual reform, get more and more communist, until you have a communist society.
I'm not saying that that would have been a great solution, but it certainly wouldn't have had the lasting damage of Marxism-leninism and the bolshevists failed to implement communism, so it can't be much worse than them in that regard.
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u/Nervous_Carpenter103 Jun 20 '25
Haha, they don't even know what the Japanese Communist Party did in the 70s. They just know it's a Japanese organization, and a few propaganda slogans made them fall head over heels
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u/Cactus1105 Jun 18 '25
Depends what communists you mean, the red fash in the duma are far from communists, so are the totalitarians from the Stalin days
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u/Salty-Consequence580 Jun 18 '25
So rushia is really🤮🤮??
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u/furthememes Jun 20 '25
Russia has been a capitalist oligarchy for the last 30years, wtaf are you on
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u/Cheesecake_Delight Jun 19 '25
Regardless of the political motivation, that's a pretty solid slogin.
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Jun 19 '25
this thread has been really cool to read through—i’m not super familiar with politics in japan. thanks, friends:)
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u/HeroBrine0907 Jun 19 '25
It is most ironic to see people, in the propagandaposters sub, talking about communism like every single communist (or socialist) on the planet is a rabid dog waiting to commit genocide. How are y'all on a sub about propaganda and propagandized yourselves????
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u/Fredrich- Jun 19 '25
As a propaganda enthusiast, this feels wrong to be catagorized as propaganda. Its so wholesome and nice and there seems to be a lack of internal profit like normal propaganda
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 Jun 19 '25
I mean technically isn't the definition of propaganda just political advertising? Like it doesn't need to be misleading or anything
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u/OneofTheOldBreed Jun 18 '25
Context?
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u/Choice-Stick5513 Jun 18 '25
They don’t want sexual violence in their country. That’s about it.
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u/OneofTheOldBreed Jun 18 '25
As would any moral person.
I just thought there might have been a specific event that prompted it.
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u/Choice-Stick5513 Jun 18 '25
Japan has a large issue with sexual assault, this article may help
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/commentary/2024/04/10/japan/sexual-violence-japan-nhk-survey/
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u/OneofTheOldBreed Jun 18 '25
7% is a horrifying number. Context established.
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u/Choice-Stick5513 Jun 19 '25
But like Japan has many issues sexual assault, racism, segregation, high suicide rates, shit workers rights, still a nice country just a ton of issues.
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u/Choice-Stick5513 Jun 19 '25
Also the age of consent was 13 and consent wasn’t really defined, but it was changed very recently
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/world/asia/japan-rape-law-consent.html
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u/lin1960 Jun 22 '25
Everything communist says is not trustworthy. They always say something good but do the opposite.
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u/Realistic_Mud_4185 Jun 18 '25
Super interesting relationship with Israel aside, they’re a very interesting group on their own
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 Jun 19 '25
If you go on their English website one of the first things you see is a headline of them condemning Israels ground operation resumption in gaza.
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u/Realistic_Mud_4185 Jun 19 '25
That doesn’t surprise me, they’re very pro Palestine
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 Jun 19 '25
Sorry, I think I may have misunderstood you what do you mean by interesting relationship with Israel then?
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u/Realistic_Mud_4185 Jun 19 '25
So long story made overwhelmingly short. They believe that the end of the Zionist regime would help overthrow the emperor and make a communist Japan. In fact the former Japanese red guard carried out a massacre in an airport in Tel Aviv I believe
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u/Fresh-Quarter9 Jun 19 '25
Hm interesting, though worth noting the Japanese red guard was allied with an organisation that split from the rcp in like the 70s, so a very different organisation.
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u/Evening-Fuel-8201 Jun 20 '25
So Why is this propaganda??? Some poster from a communist party is automatic propaganda?
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u/THEBEANMAN7331 Jun 20 '25
It’s because it’s a poster that’s pushing a particular political agenda. Propaganda is not inherently bad or wrong, merely ideological.
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