Arahata Kanson 荒畑 寒村

Japanese labour leader, journalist, participating in many of the left-wing movements of the era. He started as a libertarian-socialist close to Kōtoku Shūsui (幸徳秋水) and Sakai Toshihiko (堺利彦) and the Heiminsha (平民社) group around the 'Heimin Shinbun' (平民新聞 / The Commoner's News) newspaper, then became an anarcho-syndicalist implicated in the 1908 Red Flag Incident (赤旗事件 / Akahata Jiken), for which he was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. He then became a communist and was involved in the founding of the Japanese Communist Party (日本共産党), known as the First Communist Party (第一次共産党), in 1921, eventually serving in the Diet as a representative of the postwar Japan Socialist Party (日本社会党).