AHC: Communist Japan

Without the installation of a communist government (i.e., by the Soviet Union after World War II, or a similar circumstance), how could Japan come to have a communist government? This can be the result of a democratic election or a revolution, and it can occur at any point in the 20th century: the only requirement is that the government can't be externally imposed.
 
Hypothetically it could be elected in during the late 1940s or maybe early 50s. My impression was the communists were very active, but could not have gained power, other than as a jr partner in a coalition.

A long streach, 5+ years, with a communist/socialist coalition government would likely wreck Japans economic recovery of the 1950s. How that might butterfly the US economy and globally I cant say.
 
I did have a scenario where President Goldwater's nuclear war in China led to a Socialist government elected in Japan, which became a brief communist revolution once the CIA decided to try an ultraright coup that failed. But even then Japan was a multiparty and neutral state.
 
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