Tetsuzo Fuwa

Tetsuzo Fuwa (不破 哲三, Fuwa Tetsuzō, born 26 January 1930) is the pen name of Kenjiro Ueda (上田 建二郎, Ueda Kenjirō),^[1] a member^[2] and the former chairman of the Japanese Communist Party.^[3] He is a graduate of Tokyo University.^[4] He joined the Communist Party in 1947, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1969.^[1]

Tetsuzo Fuwa
不破 哲三
Fuwa in 1967
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party
In office 24 November 2000 – 14 January 2006
Preceded by	Kenji Miyamoto (1997)
Succeeded by	Kazuo Shii (2024)
Chairman of the Japanese Communist Party
In office 29 May 1989 – 24 November 2000
Preceded by	Hiromu Murakami
Succeeded by	Kazuo Shii
In office 31 July 1982 – 29 November 1987
Preceded by	Kenji Miyamoto
Succeeded by	Hiromu Murakami
Member of the House of Representatives
In office 29 December 1969 – 10 October 2003
Constituency	Tokyo proportional representation block
Personal details
Born	(1930-01-26) 26 January 1930 (age 95) Nakano, Japan
Political party	Japanese Communist Party
Occupation	Politician and staff of the political party

Career

In around 1972, Fuwa, replacing certain senior party members, was placed in higher positions within the JCP as part of the JCP's attempts at changing its image and courting younger voters, with the Asahi Shimbun commenting on Fuwa's "eloquency, gentle manner and good looks" in connection to the JCP's electoral strategy. Fuwa was one of the figures in the party who were instrumental in the movement to change the JCP's general image from that of a violent revolutionary group to a reformist and democratic one.^[5]

Fuwa was eventually selected to be the chairman of the JCP from 1982 to 1987; he held the position again from 1989 to 2000. He was president of the Central Committee from 2000 to 2006. Fuwa reportedly declined to reattempt election in the 2003 Japanese general election, which ended his career in the Diet that had lasted over 30 years by then.^[1] As of the JCP's 28th party congress in January 2020,^[update] he remains a member of the party's standing committee and presidium.^[6] He stepped down as a member of the party's executive committee as a result of the resignation of his successor as chairman, Kazuo Shii, in 2024.^[7]

He is an advocate of scientific socialism^[8] and he believes that socialism should be achieved through stages.^[9]