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
Japan Labour-Farmer Party contacts with the Labour-Farmer Party after the ban had been issued. In December 1928 the party merged with the Proletarian Masses Party, the Japan Farmers Party and four regional political parties, forming the Japan Masses Party. However, even after the merger the leadership clique of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party maintained itself as a separate grouping throughout the 1930s. Japan Labour-Farmer Party The was a socialist political party in Japan between December 1926 and December 1928. During its existence, it occupied a centrist position in the divided socialist movement. The Japan Labour-Farmer Party was one of several proletarian parties that existed