Tetsuzo Fuwa, Former Japanese Communist Party Leader Who Mended Ties With Beijing, Dies at 95

Tetsuzo Fuwa, the former chairman of the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) and a pivotal figure who steered the organization toward a fiercely independent political path while normalizing severed ties with Beijing, died of heart failure in Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2025. He was 95.

His death marks the end of an era for Japan’s oldest political party. Fuwa, a theoretical physicist by training, served as the party’s ideological compass for decades, successfully transforming the JCP from a radical fringe group influenced by external powers into a parliamentary force rooted in “scientific socialism” and pacifism.