Marxism (marukusu shugi), with its three main items of focus—a philosophical view of man, a theory of history, and a social/economic program—has impacted both Japanese society and literature. Kobayashi Takiji and other proletarian authors wrote from a perspective that saw class struggle and capitalist oppression of the workers as the great evils of modernization. Literary critics and historians in Japan have often used the framework of Marxism for their analyses. Also, though less prominent, several Japanese intellectuals and writers emerged from communal experiments based on Marxist tenets. Marxism took center stage in Taisho Japan when capitalism and economic development were instrumental in Japan’s industrialization. The sudden changes in the economy caused the lower classes to be more open to radical ideas in order to help their plight, which in turn spawned the generation of proletarian writers.
Historical dictionary of modern Japanese literature and theater. J. Scott Miller. 2009.