Abe Isoo


Abe Isoo was a Japanese Christian socialist, parliamentarian and pacifist.

Early life and education

Abe was born in Fukuoka on 4 February 1865. He studied at Doshisha University and abroad, including at the University of Berlin, before attending Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. It was while he was studying in Hartford that he became interested in socialism.

Career

After returning to Japan, in 1899, Abe became a Unitarian preacher. He taught at the Waseda University starting in 1901, called Tokyo Semmon Gakko, at the time. He would teach for 25 years. In 1901 he helped to found the short-lived Japanese Social-Democratic party, which the government swiftly prohibited.
During the Russo-Japanese War, he advocated non-cooperation and participated in various early feminist movements. When the anti-war newspaper Heimin Shimbun was banned, he started his own magazine, Shinkigen. He used this as a soapbox to promote parliamentary socialism. In 1906, he played an instrumental role in founding the first Japanese Socialist Party, from which he advocated a Christian Socialist viewpoint. However, the government outlawed this party too in 1907. He dropped out of public life until after World War I, when he became active again. He founded the Japanese Fabian Society, in 1921, and in 1924, he became their first President. He resigned his teaching post to become the secretary-general of the Social Democratic Party. In 1928, he was elected to the Japanese Diet, where he held a seat for five consecutive elections. In 1932, he became a chairman of Shakai Taishuto. He withdrew from politics in 1940 due to the increasingly militaristic nature of the current government. Abe's other claim to fame was that he was responsible for the emergence of baseball in Japan.