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
Unity Party (Japan) Unity Party (Japan) The was a Japanese political party. The party was formed in December 2013 by Kenji Eda and 13 other legislators who left Your Party. Your Party initially refused to acknowledge that six councillors had left its caucus in the House of Councillors, but filed a notice in February 2014 which acknowledged their departure from Your Party, allowing the Unity Party to have formal representation in the upper house. The party supported Morihiro Hosokawa in the Tokyo gubernatorial election, 2014. Eda had discussions with the Japan Restoration Party in early 2014 with a view toward coordinating the two