Communism growing in Japan

This video is called Assistant Director explaining our scene on the set of Japanese film Kanikosen.

From Kyodo news agency in Japan:

Communist Party membership up amid slumping employment situation

Tuesday 27th January, 06:17 AM JST

TOKYO —

The number of Japanese Communist Party members increased in December 2008 for the 14th straight month, possibly due to its efforts to help workers and unemployed people struggling in the slumping employment situation, an executive of the party said Monday. A total of 14,000 people became members of the party between September 2007 and December 2008, with the ratio of young people among members rising as well, according to the executive.

Also, the print-run of the JCP newspaper, Shimbun Akahata, rose last year from the year before for the first time in 21 years, although the figure will only be released after the next House of Representatives election, the executive said. JCP chief Kazuo Shii, addressing party members in early January, called the increase in members and newspaper print-run ‘‘a historic achievement.’’

A fund-raising scandal has exposed the fragility of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), once thought to be marching unstoppably toward office: here.