Book: The Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism: Volume 1
- Ryota Nakanishi
- Mar 12
- 3 min read
New Release
🔻 BOOK DATA
Title: The Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism: Volume 1
Author: Ikki Kita (北一輝) and Ryota Nakanishi
ISBN: 9789887606680
Language: English
Publisher: Ryota Nakanishi
(March 11, 2025)
🔻 THE FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF KOKUTAIRON AND PURE SOCIALISM
This is the first English translation of Ikki Kita's The Theory of Japan's National Polity and Pure Socialism (1906), also known as Kokutairon and Pure Socialism. Volume 1 contains the first four chapters of Parts I and II. The entire text is an analysis and commentary on socialism, focusing on Ikki Kita's theories of economic justice, social democracy, and the relationship between socialism and the Japanese national polity.
In its writing style and book form, it is similar to Friedrich Engels' Anti-Dühring (1877-1878) and Vladimir Lenin's Materialism and Empirical Criticism (1909) as a series of antitheses to the leading reactionary scholars' lectures and writings of the time.
Ideologically, Ikki Kita's theory of the national polity is close to Ueki Emori's[1] The Constitution of Japan (1881)[2] and the continuation of the republicanism of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (1874-1884). The fundamental difference between the absolutism of the Emperor of Japan and the revolutionary democratic movement is whether the state, the sovereign ruler and the people are separated or not. Fascism or National Socialism is to make the people and the people's rights slavishly serve the state and the sovereign ruler by denying social evolution, while Kita and the Freedom Party[3] were advocates of the people's sovereign/revolutionary rights and the restoration of the Japanese "nation" (race), which was historically trapped in the automatic equation of the imperial family with the concept of the Japanese "nation". Here, the traditional confusion and immaturity of the concepts of state, nation, ruler and people prevent the realization of the truth. In this era, the emperor and his family are equal to the state, the nation, the ruler and the people. In this context, what Kita and the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (1874-1884) meant by "the emperor" is in fact the president democratically controlled by the people. The ideological struggle between imperial absolute monarchy disguised in constitutional monarchy and democratic republicanism skillfully presented in constitutional monarchy is reflected in Kita's three major books, Kokutairon and Pure Socialism (1906), An Informal History of the Chinese Revolution (1915), and An Outline Plan for the Reorganization of Japan (1919).
[1] Ueki Emori (February 14, 1857 - January 23, 1892) was a Japanese revolutionary democrat active in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and one of the founders of the Risshi-sha, a political party that joined the League for the Establishment of a National Assembly.
[2] The Constitution of Japan is one of the privately drafted constitutions of the Meiji era of 1881 (Meiji 14). It was drafted by Ueki Emori of the Risshi-sha following a decision made at a meeting of the Kokkai Kisei Domei.
[3] The first Liberal Party of Japan was founded on October 18, 1881 by Itagaki Taisuke and other members of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (League for the Establishment of a National Assembly) to advocate the establishment of a national assembly based on the ideals of liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy.
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