{{short description|Japanese politician}} {{family name hatnote|Abe|lang=Japanese}} {{expand Japanese|topic=bio|安部磯雄|date=July 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Abe Isoo | native_name = {{nobold|安部 磯雄}} | native_name_lang = ja | image = Isoo abe.jpg | caption = Abe in 1935 | office = Chairman of the Shakai Taishūtō | term_start = 24 July 1932 | term_end = 21 March 1940 | predecessor = ''Position established'' | successor = ''Position abolished'' | office1 = Chairman of the Social Democratic Party | term_start1 = 5 December 1926 | term_end1 = 24 July 1932 | predecessor1 = ''Position established'' | successor1 = ''Position abolished'' | office2 = Member of the House of Representatives | constituency2 = Tokyo 2nd | term_start2 = 20 February 1932 | term_end2 = 21 January 1941 | predecessor2 = Gorō Akatsuka | successor2 = Hisashi Kawaguchi | constituency3 = Tokyo 2nd | term_start3 = 21 February 1928 | term_end3 = 21 January 1930 | predecessor3 = ''Constituency established'' | successor3 = Gorō Akatsuka | birth_date = {{birth date|1865|02|04|df=y}}<ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-first=Dale H. |editor-last=Hoiberg |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Abe Isoo |edition=15th |year=2010 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. |volume=I: A-ak Bayes |location=Chicago, Illinois |isbn=978-1-59339-837-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/23 23] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/23 }}</ref><ref name=Alm>{{cite book|editor-first = Frank V.| editor-last=Castronova| title=Almanac of Famous People| volume= I Biographies| publisher= Gale Research| location = Detroit, MI| year = 1998| page= 4}}</ref><ref name=birth>There is uncertainty surrounding his birth date as some sources state that his day of birth is 1 March 1865.</ref> | birth_place = Sawara, Fukuoka, Japan | death_date = {{death date and age|1949|02|10|1865|02|04|df=y}}<ref name=EB/> | death_place = Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan | party = Shakai Taishūtō (1932–1940) | other_party = SDP 1901 (1901)<br>SDP 1926 (1926–1932) | alma_mater = Doshisha University<br>University of Berlin<br>Hartford Theological Seminary | signature = | website = | footnotes = }} {{nihongo|'''Abe Isoo'''|安部 磯雄||4 February 1865 &ndash; 10 February 1949}}<ref name=EB/><ref name=Alm/><ref name=birth/> was a Japanese Christian socialist, teacher, pastor, economist, parliamentarian and pacifist.

Abe actively promoted socialism from a Christian humanitarian standpoint and was a pioneer of the Japanese socialist movement. He also largely contributed to the development of baseball in Japan, and was called "Father of Japanese baseball." He was the founder of the baseball club of Waseda University.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Abe, Isoo|url=https://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/375.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130201223545/http://www.ndl.go.jp/portrait/e/datas/375.html |archive-date=1 February 2013 |access-date=2020-10-02|website=Portraits of Modern Japanese Historical Figures|publisher=National Diet Library}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Abe was born in Fukuoka on 4 February 1865.<ref name=Alm/><ref name=FR2002>{{cite book|author1=Louis Frédéric|author2=Käthe Roth|title=Japan Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2QnPijAEmEC&pg=PA902|year=2002|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-01753-5|page=902}}</ref> He entered at Doshisha University in 1879, and got baptized by Joseph Hardy Neesima at February 2, 1882.<ref name=":0" /> In 1898, he created the first Consumers' co-operative of university in Japan at Doshisha. After he graduated from Doshissha, he studied abroad, including at the University of Berlin, before attending Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/992/Abe-Isoo|title=Abe Isoo &#124; Japanese socialist leader}}</ref> It was while he was studying in Hartford that he became interested in socialism.<ref name=EB/>

==Career== After returning to Japan, in 1899,<ref name=EB/> Abe became a Unitarian preacher. He taught at the Waseda University starting in 1901, called Tokyo Semmon Gakko, at the time.<ref name=EB/> He later became a faculty of political science and economics and taught there for 25 years.<ref name=EB/><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Takahashi |first=Akira |date=2015-12-04 |title=Abe Isoo and the Waseda Baseball Club |url=http://www.waseda.jp/top/en/news/35380 |access-date=2020-10-02 |website=Waseda University}}</ref> He occupied some important positions in the university like a dean of first School of Political Science and Economics and University Vice President. In 1901 he helped to found the short-lived Japanese Social Democratic Party, which the government swiftly prohibited.<ref name=":0" />

During the Russo-Japanese War, he advocated non-cooperation and participated in various early feminist movements. When the anti-war newspaper ''Heimin Shimbun'' (''People's Weekly News'') was banned, he started his own magazine, ''Shinkigen'' (''A New Era'').<ref name="Britannica">{{cite web |title=Abe Isoo |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Abe-Isoo |website=Britannica |accessdate=4 October 2020}}</ref> He used this as a soapbox to promote parliamentary socialism.<ref name=EB/> In 1906, he played an instrumental role in founding the first Japanese Socialist Party, from which he advocated a Christian Socialist viewpoint. However, the government outlawed this party too in 1907. He dropped out of public life until after World War I, when he became active again.<ref name=EB/> He founded the Japanese Fabian Society, in 1921,<ref name=EB/> and in 1924, he became their first President. He resigned his teaching post to become the secretary-general of the Social Democratic Party.<ref name=EB/><ref name=":0" /> In 1928, he was elected to the Japanese Diet, where he held a seat for five consecutive elections.<ref name=EB/> In 1932, he became a chairman of Shakai Taishuto (Social Mass Party).<ref name=EB/><ref name=FR2002/> He withdrew from politics in 1940 due to the increasingly militaristic nature of the government of the time.<ref name=EB/>

==Father of Baseball in Japan== Abe contributed to the development and spread of baseball in Japan because he believed that personality was built with sports like knowledge was built with learning.<ref name="EB" /><ref name="Alm" /> Becoming the first manager of Waseda Baseball Club in 1901, he started the Waseda–Keio rivalry.<ref name=":1" /> In 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, he took the team to the United States and brought many techniques back to Japan, spreading them with his books. He also established the Japan Amateur Sports Association (later, Japan Sport Association) together with Jigoro Kano.<ref name=":0" /> He later helped with organizing the first Japanese Olympic team competing at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.<ref name="BRILL">{{cite book |last1=Gavin |first1=Masako |title=Rethinking Japanese Modernism |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=9789004211308 |pages=452–470 |chapter=Abe Isoo and Baseball—New Social Relations beyond the Family-State Institution |doi=10.1163/9789004211308_024 |access-date=4 October 2020 |chapter-url=https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004211308/B9789004211308_024.xml}}</ref> In 1930, Abe became the first chairman of the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League. After World War II, he also became the first chairman of {{Interlanguage link|日本学生野球協会|lt=Japan Student Baseball Association|jp||WD=}}.

He is called the ''''Father of Baseball in Japan'''' or the ''''Father of Student Baseball'''' in Japan because of such contributions. Totsuka Ground, the main stadium of Waseda's baseball team changed its name to Abe Ground in 1949, following Abe's death.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=安部球場 日本野球史のホームグラウンド|url=http://www.waseda.jp/top/news/43598|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330041541/https://www.waseda.jp/top/news/43598 |archive-date=30 March 2019 |access-date=2020-10-02|website=Waseda University|language=ja}}</ref> When the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame was opened in 1959, he was inducted into the hall.

== Selected Works == * Shakai mondai kaishakuhō (Social Problem Interpretation Methods). Tokyo Senmon Gakko. (1901) * Shūkyō to seinen no genki (Religion and the Vitality of Youth). Rikugō zasshi, no. 284. (1904) * Yakyū to gakusei (Baseball and the Student). Co-authored with Oshikawa Shurō; Kobundō shoten. (1911) * "Shisō no zendō to sanji seigen" (The Advance of Thought and Birth Limitation). Bunka seikatsu magazine. (1924) * Futsū senkyo to Musan seitō (Universal Suffrage and the Proletarian Party). Nihon Fabian Society. (1927) * Shakai minshūtō kōryō (Platform of the Social Democratic Party). Kurara sha. (1929) * Kokumin no shinpan ni uttō (An Appeal to the Judgment of the People). Senshinsha. (1930) * Sangyō hōkan ron (Theory of Industrial Stewardship). Chikura shobo. (1932) * Watashi no chūkun aikoku kan (My View of Loyalty and Patriotism). Kensetsusha. (1943)

==See also== * Shinkigen

==References== {{commons category}} {{reflist}}

== Further reading == * "Abe Isoo and His 1905 US Baseball Tour," East Asia: An International Quarterly (2021). Gavin, Masko * "Abe Isoo and Baseball — New Social Relations beyond the Family-State Institution," Rethinking Japanese Modernism, Brill (2012). Gavin, Masko * "National Moral Education: Abe Isoo's Views on Education," Japanese Studies 24(3), 2004. Gavin, Masko * "Abe Isoo and Kawakami Hajime in Interwar Japan," East Asia 28 (2011). Gavin, Masko * "Baseball and the Yellow Peril: Waseda University's 1905 American Tour," Baseball 10, McFarland (2018). Fitts, Robert K. * "Abe Isoo: The Utility Man," in Pacifism in Japan, UBC Press (1978). Powles, Cyril H. * "In a House Divided: The Japanese Christian Socialist Abe Isoo," in Nation and Nationalism in Japan, RoutledgeCurzon (2002). Tipton, Elise * Transpacific Field of Dreams: How Baseball Linked the United States and Japan in Peace and War, UNC Press (2012). Guthrie-Shimizu, Sayuri * Nihon shakaishugi no chichi Abe Isoo (Father of Japanese Socialism: Abe Isoo) (1970). Takano, Zen'ichi

{{Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame}} {{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abe, Isoo}} Category:1865 births Category:1949 deaths Category:Doshisha University alumni Category:Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Category:Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:Japanese Christian pacifists Category:Japanese Christian socialists Category:Japanese Protestants Category:Japanese socialist feminists Category:Members of the House of Representatives (Empire of Japan) Category:People from Fukuoka Category:Politicians from Fukuoka Prefecture Category:Unitarian socialists Category:Academic staff of Waseda University Category:Meiji socialists Category:Activists from Fukuoka