Kenji Miyamoto (politician)

Kenji Miyamoto
Kenji Miyamoto in 1978
General Secretary of the Japanese Communist Party
In office 1958–1977
Preceded by	Sanzo Nosaka
Personal details
Born	October 17, 1908 Hikari, Yamaguchi, Japan
Died	July 18, 2007 (aged 98) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Japanese Communist Party
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University

Kenji Miyamoto (宮本顕治, Miyamoto Kenji^?, October 17, 1908 – July 18, 2007) was a Japanese communist politician and Japanese Communist Party (JCP) leader from 1958 until 1977.

Miyamoto was born in Shimata-mura (島田村), Yamaguchi in 1908. He was originally from Yamaguchi Prefecture. Miyamoto attended and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in March 1931, which is now the University of Tokyo, where he majored in economics.

Kenji Miyamoto officially joined the Japanese Communist Party two months after graduation in May 1931. Miyamoto was arrested by Japanese military police in 1933 and accused of conspiring to beat a policeman to death in a crackdown on Japanese Communists. He denied that he had committed the crime. Miyamoto was convicted of the conspiracy charges and sentenced to life in prison. He was released 12 years later after Japan surrendered, ending World War II in 1945. His prison sentence had been annulled following an imperial decree by Emperor Hirohito.

Miyamoto reentered politics soon after his release from prison and once again became involved with the Japanese Communist Party. He led the Communist's 1949 election campaign, which saw the JCP win 35 seats. The JCP lost ground in 1950, just before the start of the Korean War, just across the Sea of Japan. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the American Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan, banned Miyamoto and 23 other high ranking JCP members from holding any public office.