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
Social Democratic Party (Japan, 1926) Social Democratic Party (Japan, 1926) The (a more accurate translation of the Japanese name would be "Social People's Party", but this naming is common in English texts) was a political party in Japan between 1926 and 1932. Amongst the three main proletarian parties in Japan at the time, the Social Democratic Party occupied a rightist position. The party was founded on December 5, 1926 by the Japan Federation of Labour ("Sōdōmei"), other trade unions and the Independent Labour Association, an organization of moderate leftist intellectuals. Abe Isoo was elected chairman of the party. Suzuki Bunji, Nishio Suehiro, Akamatsu Katsumaro, Shimanaka