Yes. Actually, prior to the eruption of the Sino Japanese War in 1937, Japan was experiencing a growing civil unrest; the government officials were being assassinated, the growing number of unemployed people were claiming for a reform of the agricultural system, as well as a reform for the industrialization that was happening. One of the reasons why the military took over government was because the parliamentary system in Japan was unable to address these concerns, and the military feared the eruption of a communist civil war in the country. After 1936, political thinkers in Japan who had sympathetic views towards communism and socialism were persecuted, executed or assassinated.Interestingly enough, throughout the war, Japanese military were still actively persecuting communist sympathizers. Crazy, no?
Then the war erupted. Some would even argue that the war was started to divert the attention of the working class to a new "foreign concern". But that's subject to another debate in another thread. lol.
To this day, communism is present in Japan. There is even a communist party in the Japanese Parliament with considerable number of Councilors and Representatives.
@Edison Chen ,
We have in the Diet the Communist Party of Japan or the CPJ.