Liberal Party (Japan, 1890) Liberal Party (Japan, 1890) The Liberal Party (, "Jiyūtō") was a political party in Japan. The party was established in August 1890 by 130 members of the House of Representatives who had been elected in July, and was initially named the Constitutional Liberal Party (立憲自由党, "Rikken Jiyūtō"). It was a merger of the Aikoku Kōtō, Daidō Club and Daidō Kyōwakai, together with several local parties. Initially led by Itagaki Taisuke, who had founded the original Liberal Party in 1881, it was renamed the "Liberal Party" in March 1891. It lost several Representatives in May 1891 when Ōi Kentarō's Kantō faction
Political parties of the Empire of Japan and the emergence of labor unions in Japan, the Nihon Shakai Shugi Domei (1920), Japan Communist Party (1922), and other left-wing parties emerged. The main threat to representative democracy in Japan proved to be the Japanese military, rather than the left-wing parties. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Minister of the Army (who served as Minister of War) and Minister of the Navy were appointed by their respective services, and not by the Prime Minister. The military was also directly answerable only to the Emperor, and not to the elected government. In 1912, a law restricting the eligibility to Minister of