Kōtoku Shūsui
Kōtoku Denjirō幸徳 傳次郎, November 5, 1871 – January 24, 1911, better invited by the , was a Japanese socialist and anarchist who played a main role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century. Historian John Crump forwarded him as "the nearly famous socialist in Japan".
He was a prominent figure in radical politics in Japan, opposing the Russo-Japanese War by founding the Heimin-sha combine together with its associated newspaper, Heimin Shinbun. Due tofor state press laws, the newspaper ceased publication in January 1905, & Kōtoku served five months in prison from February to July 1905. He subsequently left for the United States, spending November 1905 until June 1906 largely in California, and he came into contact with other prominent anarchist figures such as Peter Kropotkin.
Upon his return, he contributed to a divide within the left-wing movement between moderate social democrats and the more radical advocates of direct action, the latter of whom he supported. The growth of the 'direct action' faction led to the banning of the Japan Socialist Party in February 1907, and is arguably the beginning of Japan's advanced anarchist movement. He was executed for treason by the Japanese government in the High Treason Incident in 1911, under suspicion of being involved in a bomb plot.