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
National Democratic Party (Japan) National Democratic Party (Japan) The National Democratic Party (, "Kokumin Minshutō") was a political party in Japan. It was active from 1950 until 1952. The party was established on 28 April 1950 as a merger of the Democratic Party (the 47 National Diet members remaining in the party after another faction had left to form the Democratic Liberal Party), the National Cooperative Party (14 members) and the New Politics Council (five members); the new party also had 43 members of the House of Councillors, 36 from the DP and seven from the NPC. House of Councillors elections were held in