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, 1996) members of Sakigake. At its formation, it had 39 parliamentarians. The party won 52 seats in the 1996 general election, becoming the second-largest opposition party after the New Frontier Party. In April 1998, the party was augmented by former members of the New Frontier Party, which had collapsed in December 1997, increasing it to 90 seats. It was then relaunched as the Democratic Party of Japan upon its merger with the Good Governance Party ("Minseitō"), New Fraternity Party and Democratic Reform Party. Democratic Party (Japan, 1996) The was a centrist political party in Japan, and one of the forerunners to