Kuroda Kan'ichi


Kuroda Kan'ichi was a 20th-century Japanese philosopher and social theorist. Born in Fuchū, Tokyo as the son of a doctor, he began studying Marxist philosophy at the age of twenty, in 1947, following the defeat of Japan and the subsequent U.S. occupation of Japan. At this time the workers movement in Japan was quite strong, but very influenced by pro-Soviet politics. Kuroda began studying closely works by prominent Japanese philosophers, among them Umemoto Katsumi, Kakehashi Akihide and Uno Kōzō.
In 1956, following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Kuroda joined Kurihara Tōichi in forming the first Trotskyist organization in Japanese history. Kuroda criticised the mechanical "materialism" that was prevalent in the orthodox Marxism, and instead developed a philosophical theory of "Materialist Subjectivity".
In 1959, Kuroda became the Chairman of the Japan Revolutionary Communist League. He wrote over fifty books published both in Japan and other countries on such subjects as Marxist philosophy, the analysis of Soviet society, Japanese cultural history, theory and praxis of organization building, and contemporary politics.
From 1963, Kuroda was the central theoretical figure in the Japan Revolutionary Communist League, remaining active in the group until retiring late in life.

Works