Political parties of the Empire of Japan public assembly, the press and on political discussion. The Meiji government had come to power by an elite of "samurai" from certain clans ("hanbatsu") and the "genrō" felt threatened by anything looking ever remotely like republicanism or democracy. During this period, Itagaki Taisuke and Ōkuma Shigenobu were leading figures in the legitimization of political parties. Itagaki created Japan's first political party, the Aikoku Kōtō, in 1873 in Tokyo to petition for an elected assembly, and a similar regional party based in Osaka, the Aikokusha. These groups were the basis of the Jiyutō (Liberal Party), founded in 1881 as Japan’s first
Rightist Socialist Party of Japan Rightist Socialist Party of Japan The Rightist Socialist Party of Japan (右派社会党, the official English name was Social Democratic Party of Japan) was a Japanese political party that existed between 1948 and 1955. It was a centre-left political party, which adopted a policy of moderate social-democracy. Following the defeat of the Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ) in 1948 at the hands of Japan's two main conservative parties, the Liberal Party and the Democrat Party, the SDPJ dissolved into chaos and internal bickering between moderates and Marxist-Leninists. As a result of the SDPJ split, some of its members formed a