Liberal Party (Japan, 1890) saw the party reduced to 107 seats. In April 1896 it joined Itō Hirobumi's government and Liberal leader Itagaki Taisuke was appointed Minister of Home Affairs. After losing another two seats in the March 1898 elections, the party merged with Shimpotō in June 1898 to form the Kenseitō. Liberal Party (Japan, 1890) The Liberal Party (, "Jiyūtō") was a political party in Japan. The party was established in August 1890 by 130 members of the House of Representatives who had been elected in July, and was initially named the Constitutional Liberal Party (立憲自由党, "Rikken Jiyūtō"). It was a merger of
Japan Labour-Farmer Party followers in the Japan Peasant Union and leftwing socialist intellectuals such as Asō Hisashi, Kono Mitsu, Suzuki Mosaburō, Tanahashi Kotora and Kato Kanju. Asō Hisashi became chairman of the party, whilst Miwa Jusō became its general secretary. In terms of its programme, the party differed little from the Labour-Farmer Party (which, although having non-Communists amongst the ranks, was essentially controlled by the Japanese Communist Party). In fact several members of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party were former communists themselves (such as Kondo Eizo, the founder of the Enlightened People's Communist Party). However, in practice there was a clear political demarcation between