People's Party of Japan
The People's Party of Japan is a radical anti-monarchist terrorist group in Japan. They also advocate the separation of Corea from the rest of the Empire, which they would rename the Republic of Japan.
They are most noted for the assassination of Naruhito, Prince Hiro, and the attempted assassination of Emperor Saisei. Since that event, much of their leadership has been incarcerated or killed. They remain in existence, having gone underground, and are currently subject to surveillance by the Imperial Security Intelligence Agency.
They have been linked by some to the religious sect Òmu Xinliquiò.
History
The original People's Party was founded shortly after the Civil War as a merger of several pro-republican parties, sickened by the violence between the two rivals to the Throne. In the early years, they were a genuine political party, seeking peaceful means of their goal. They were never a major party, and by the mid 60's had lost all seats in the Coccai.
In 1972, the party split into the People's Party of Corea and the People's Party of Japan, remaining, initially, in close alliance, both seeking democratization and separation of the two states. The two parties gradually began to drift apart, and in 1981, the People's Party of Corea merged with the Chosen Party to form the Corean Nationalist Party.
The People's Party of Japan, meanwhile, became increasingly hostile towards the establishment. In 1979, Inucai Ban became the head of the party, and took the party in a far more radical direction, advocating the use of violence. Moderates abandoned the party, and the party became a full-fledged terrorist organization. Their crimes were initially minor, threatening letters, vandalism, and so forth. However, in 1987, they graduated to murder, killing a professor at Òsaca Imperial University whom they saw as particularly anti-Republican. After that, they went into hiding again, until, in 1995, they assassinated Prime Minister Haximoto Ryotaro. Much of their membership was rounded up at that time, and they were believed to have been destroyed. This belief proved false in 2002, when they attacked the Imperial Palace itself, the product of almost seven years of preparation.
It was believed by the police and the government that the People's Party were the mastermind behind the assassination of Empress Empress Gacudai in Louisianne in 2006.
As a retaliation, right-wing SNOR-ist and monarchist Japanese groups, along with the Yacuza (they were suspected in killing the Empress but all known Yacuza groups denounced the assassination and declared their support for the Imperial Family) conducted their own war against the People's Party, using the same methods the People's Party used. By 2012, all surviving members of the People's Party surrendered to the police. Inucai Ban committed suicide in prison in 2011, previously captured in 1999. Before it, he declared the end of the People's Party, claiming that its name were tarnished by its terrorism, and implored any People's Party symphatizers outside prison to fight for republicanism under another name instead.
The People's Party had a left-leaning communist and right-leaning SNOR-ist faction. The left-leaning faction were later symphatetic to Marxism and became the dominant faction under Inucai Ban. The right-leaning faction eventually developed a SNOR-ist, pro-Ezo ideology under Taquehaxi Djinrai, and survived in 1987 as the Japan National People's Party. After the fall of Ezo, it absorbed the remnants of the Rational-Progressive Party and became the leading post-SNORist organization in Japan. It later moderated its stance on the monarchy, allowing the Imperial Family to remain as head of the Xinto church but otherwise Japan would be explicitly a SNOR-ist style Republic. They were targeted by the People's Party as traitors and several members were assassinated in the 1990s; in retaliation, along with the monarchists and the Yacuza, conducted assassinations of their own against the People's Party members. Their influence on the government and the businesses prevented them from being stigmatized like the People's Party, although to this day, they were unable to gain a seat in the Coccai.
