December 12 & 14, 2021

The Democratic Youth League of Japan (DYLJ) held its 45th Congress on December 11 and 12. DYLJ Chair Nishikawa Ryuhei said that the league has brought in 1,276 new members, as of December 11, through its campaign calling for a turn away from neoliberal policies.

Nishikawa reported that local DYLJ groups in all 47 prefectures conducted a food aid project to support young people and students facing hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that a total of 100,000 young people made use of this assistance.

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair Tamura Tomoko delivered a speech in solidarity. Referring to the fact that the number of new DYLJ members increased more than that from the previous Congress for the first time in 19 years, she said, "I wholeheartedly applaud the achievements you made."

Tamura said, "Prewar and wartime Japan outlawed the JCP, but both young and veteran JCP members never stopped their struggles for peace and popular sovereignty. Now, the principles of 'no war', peace, and popular sovereignty are spelled out in the Japanese Constitution."

She said, "After the war ended, JCP members still had to fight against anticommunist attacks and have continued to pass a communist baton on to younger generations, which has led to today's cooperation between concerned citizens and opposition parties. The JCP hopes to commemorate its centennial anniversary next summer together with a stronger DYLJ and to fight together in the forthcoming Upper House election."

In the discussion session, the chairperson of Tokushima's DYLJ said, "We carried out food aid events 49 times in the prefecture and more than 3,000 students in total received food assistance." She/he added that Tokushima's DYLJ gathered opinions from the students in need and made a representation to the prefectural government to meet their demands, and that a prefectural budget of 12 million yen was successfully allocated for for-student food assistance.

A member from Kagoshima Prefecture who joined the DYLJ in April said that she/he used to have no interest in politics but "came to realize after experiencing workplace power harassment that there is an adverse situation in society where individual persons cannot survive by themselves". She/he emphasized the need to overcome the widespread notion calling for "self-responsibility" and placing the blame on social ills on the individual.

All in the DYLJ leadership, including Chair Nishikawa Ryuhei, were reelected in the Congress.