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, 2016) of Representatives, the Democratic Party did not nominate any candidates. Several of its remaining members were elected without party nomination. Most of these joined the formation of the "Group of Independents" ("Mushozoku no kai") House of Representatives caucus led by Katsuya Okada in October 2017. Some others such as Seiji Maehara have left the party after the election. According to the party, its membership includes 14 members of the House of Representatives as of November, 2017: Democratic Party (Japan, 2016) The , abbreviated as DP, was a political party in Japan. It was the largest opposition political party in Japan