View source for Sakai Toshihiko

{{short description|Japanese socialist}}
{{family name hatnote|Sakai|lang=Japanese}}
{{Expand Japanese|topic=bio|堺利彦|date=December 2020}}
{{Refimprove|date=December 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Sakai Toshihiko
| image       = Toshihiko-Sakai-1.jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = Sakai Toshihiko
| native_name = 堺 利彦
| native_name_lang = ja
| birth_name  = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1871|11|25}}
| birth_place = [[Miyako, Fukuoka]], [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1933|01|23|1871|11|25}}
| death_place = [[Tokyo, Japan]]
| burial_place = Sōjō-ji, [[Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama]]
| nationality = Japanese
| other_names = Saka Kosen
| occupation  = Journalist, newspaper editor, politician
| known_for   = 
}}
{{Nihongo|'''Sakai Toshihiko'''|堺 利彦|extra=November 25, 1871 – January 23, 1933}} was a Japanese socialist. He advocated opposition to the [[Russo-Japanese War]], founded the [[Heiminsha]] and published the newspaper ''Heimin Shimbun''. He formed the [[Japan Socialist Party (1906)|Japan Socialist Party]] and the [[Japanese Communist Party]], and became the first general secretary of the Japanese Communist Party. His pen name is {{nihongo|'''Saka Kosen'''|堺枯川|}}. He is also known for his translation with [[Kōtoku Shūsui]].

==Biography==
Sakai was born as the third son to a [[samurai]] class family in what is now [[Miyako, Fukuoka]]. He attended what is now the [[Kaisei Academy]] where he studied the English language. However, he was expelled from the prestigious No.1 Higher Middle School for failure to pay his tuition, and worked as a tutor and a journalist in [[Fukuoka]] and [[Osaka]] while studying literature on his own, and writing works of fiction. He was invited to [[Tokyo]] by [[Suematsu Kenchō]] to stay at the residence of the former [[Mōri clan]] to help edit a history of the [[Meiji Restoration]].{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

Afterwards, he went to work for the ''Yorozu Morning News'', where he began to support social justice causes and [[pacifism]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}}

In 1903, Sakai established the [[socialism|socialist organization]] ''[[Heiminsha]],'' together with Shūsui Kōtoku and [[Uchimura Kanzō]]. With the start of the [[Russo-Japanese War]], ''Yorozu Morning News'' adopted a pro-government stance, and Sakai quit to form the weekly ''[[Heimin Shimbun]]'' together with Shūsui Kōtoku, which was critical of the war<ref name= Kowner> {{cite book | last = Kowner| first = Rotem|authorlink=Rotem Kowner| year = 2006 | title = Historical Dictionary of the Russo-Japanese War| publisher = The Scarecrow Press|isbn=0-8108-4927-5}}, p. 337.</ref> and decried the high taxes which the war was causing. It also published a Japanese translation of the [[Communist Manifesto]] in its November 13, 1904, issue. Sakai was sentenced to two months in jail.<ref>''Modern Japan: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism The Commoners Newspaper (Heimin Shimbun) (1903–05)'' p. 35</ref> Sakai was also a strong supporter of the [[Esperanto movement]], helping create the Japana Esperanto-Instituto in 1906.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

In 1906, Sakai became one of the founding members of the [[Japan Socialist Party]]. He was arrested in the 1908 [[Red Flag Incident]] and was sentenced to two years in prison. Following the end of the [[First World War]] he participated in  [[Rousoukai]] group. In 1922, he became one of the founding members of the [[Japan Communist Party]] and was elected to a seat in the Tokyo City Assembly in 1929. Sakai translated many works related to socialism, as well as [[utopian literature]] into Japanese. In June 1932, he was admitted to a hospital after an incident of [[domestic violence]] under suspicion of insanity, and died of a [[cerebral hemorrhage]] on January 23, 1933. His grave is at the temple of [[Sōji-ji]] in [[Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}}
[[File:Martyrsanarchistesjaponais.jpg|thumb|"Les martyrs japonais" (1911) (French postcard with the pictures of [[Kōtoku Shūsui|Denjirō Kōtoku]], Toshihiko Sakai, [[Sanshirō Ishikawa]] and Kōjiro Nishikawa.]]

==See also==
*[[Japanese dissidence during the Shōwa period]]

==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{cite book | first = William | last = De Lange | title = A History of Japanese Journalism: State of Affairs and Affairs of State | publisher = Toyo Press | year=2023 | isbn = 978-94-92722-393 }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://www.aozora.gr.jp/index_pages/person164.html#sakuhin_list_1 e-texts of Sakai's works] at [[Aozora Bunko]]

{{Communism in Japan}}
{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sakai, Toshihiko}}
[[Category:1871 births]]
[[Category:1933 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Fukuoka Prefecture]]
[[Category:Japanese anti-imperialists]]
[[Category:Japanese Esperantists]]
[[Category:Japanese socialists]]
[[Category:Japanese communists]]
[[Category:Japanese journalists]]
[[Category:Meiji socialists]]