Hiroshi Kumagai and three other disgruntled Democratic Party of Japan members (Takao Sato, Zenjiro Kaneko and Eriko Yamatani) defected from the party in December 2002 and formed the second New Conservative Party with former members of the first New Conservative Party. The party was a conservative reformist party and was very right-wing. After the November 2003 general election, the New Conservative Party was left with only four members in the House of Representatives, down from nine prior to the election. Among the losers in the election was the party president, Hiroshi Kumagai.