The Mountain Village Operation Units were underground paramilitary units organized by the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) in the early 1950s for the purpose of carrying out Maoist-inspired guerrilla operations against the Japanese government and the Allied Occupation of Japan. The units were formed under the guidance of the Interim Central Directorate of the JCP, an informal group created by the party’s majority Shokanha faction, and sought to foment a nationwide communist revolution in emulating Mao Zedong's strategy of forming a base of operations in rural villages, but the operations achieved no successes and proved a disaster for the party's political prospects going forward.

The Japanese Communist Party is a communist party in Japan. Founded in 1922, it is the oldest political party in the country. It has 270,000 members as of 2020, making it one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party is chaired by Tomoko Tamura, who replaced longtime leader Kazuo Shii in January 2024.