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
Democratic Party (Japan, 1947) party was finally merged with the National Cooperative Party to form the National Democratic Party in April 1950. Democratic Party (Japan, 1947) Democratic Party (民主党, Minshutō) was a centrist political party in Japan. It was founded in spring 1947 by merging the Progressive Party (Shinpo-tō) of Inukai Takeru with a faction of Liberal Party led by Hitoshi Ashida and obtained 124 seats in 1947 elections. The party had held seven seats in Tetsu Katayama's government in 1947-1948. For some months in 1948, party's leader Ashida was Prime minister. In March 1948, part of DP members led by Kijūrō Shidehara joined