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 Masses Party Japan Masses Party The Japan Masses Party (, "Nihon Taishūtō") was a proletarian political party in Japan. The Japan Masses Party was established in December 1928 by a merger of the Japan Labour-Farmer Party (which had won one seat in the 1928 elections), the Japan Farmers Party, the Proletarian Masses Party and four other working-class parties. With both parties from the right and left having joined the new party, tensions soon arose, resulting in the expulsion of several MPs in May 1929. With a campaign based on tenancy and unemployment issues, the party nominated 23 candidates in the February 1930