Background
Isoo Abe was born on 4 February 1865 in Fukuoka Prefecture.
安部 磯雄
Isoo Abe was born on 4 February 1865 in Fukuoka Prefecture.
He studied at Doshisha, a Christian college in Kyoto, and was baptized by its founder and head, Niijima Jo. After graduation, he preached Christianity in Okayama. He went to America in 1891 to study theology and socialism, and on his return to Japan became a professor of Doshisha and later of Waseda University in Tokyo.
In 1924 he became head of the Fabian Society and in 1926 chairman of the Shakai Taishuto, or Social Populace Party. In 1928, in the first election to be held under the universal manhood suffrage law, he was elected a member of the Diet. He was chosen chairman of the Social Mass Party. After the Pacific War, he acted as an advisor to the Japan Socialist Party.
In 1898 he formed the Socialist Study Society. In 1900 he renamed it the Socialist Society and assumed the post of director. In 1901 he joined with Katayama Sen, Kotoku Shusui, and others to form the Shakai Minshuto, or Social Democratic Party. The group drafted statements calling for total disarmament for the sake of universal peace and the brotherhood of mankind, but were immediately outlawed and forced to disband. During the Russo-Japanese War, Abe voiced his opposition, declaring that the war was not in the economic interest of the Japanese people as a whole and calling upon Japan to become the “Switzerland of Asia.” In 1905 he joined with Ishikawa Sanshiro in publishing a magazine called Shinkigen.
In 1910, after Kotoku Shusui and other socialists were arrested on suspicion of plotting to assassinate the emperor, he in effect separated himself from the movement advocating the practice of socialism. During the more liberal years of the Taisho period, however, he returned to the movement, and was looked upon as the leader of right-wing socialism in Japan.
He is famous as the founder of the baseball club of Waseda University, being referred to as ‘‘the father of Japanese student baseball.”
In addition, he was an ardent advocate of birth control.