Democratic Party (Japan, 1996)

The Democratic Party of Japan (1996–1998) (民主党, Minshutō) was a centrist[1][2] political party in Japan, and one of the forerunners to the Democratic Party of Japan formed in 1998. Its two leading members, Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, subsequently and sequentially became Prime Ministers at the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

For other uses, see Democratic Party (Japan).
Democratic Party of Japan
民主党

Minshutō
PresidentNaoto Kan
Chief Secretary
(party affairs)		Yukio Hatoyama
Founded29 September 1996
Dissolved27 April 1998
Split fromNew Party Sakigake
Japan Socialist Party
Succeeded byDemocratic Party of Japan
IdeologyDemocratic centrism
Liberalism
Social liberalism
Political positionCentre to centre-left
International affiliationNone

History

The party was founded on 29 September 1996 by sitting members of the Diet,[3] and was composed mostly of former Sakigake and Japan Socialist Party politicians who did not support an alliance with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.[4] Its initial leaders were Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan, formerly members of Sakigake.[5] At its formation, it had 39 parliamentarians.[5]

The party won 52 seats in the 1996 general election, becoming the second-largest opposition party after the New Frontier Party.[6]

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.[5] 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.[5]

Presidents of DPJ
No. Name Term of office
Took Office Left Office
Split from: New Party Sakigake & Japan Socialist Party
1 Co-leadership
Naoto Kan   Yukio Hatoyama
 26 September 1996 16 September 1997
2 Naoto Kan 16 September 1997 27 April 1998
Successor party: Democratic Party (1998)
gollark: No, I've already removed enough months.
gollark: Well, the "second half" of the year finishes then.
gollark: They'll be sorry. They'll all be sorry. In November or so.
gollark: Observe my nightmarish abomination.
gollark: I don't actually "study" machine learning as much as "randomly acquire and use low-end pretrained models".

References
  1. Eiji Takemae (2003). Allied Occupation of Japan. Continuum. p. 540. ISBN 978-0-8264-1521-9.
  2. Glenn D. Hook; Julie Gilson; Christopher W. Hughes; Hugo Dobson (2013). Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security. Routledge. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-134-32806-2.
  3. Patrick Koellner (2011). "The Democratic Party of Japan: Development, organization, and programmatic profile". In Alisa Gaunder (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Japanese Politics. Taylor & Francis. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-136-81838-7.
  4. Gerald L. Curtis (2013). The Logic of Japanese Politics: Leaders, Institutions, and the Limits of Change. Columbia University Press. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-231-50254-2.
  5. James Arthur Ainscow Stockwin (2003). Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan. Routledge. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-136-89488-6.
  6. Robert W. Aspinall (2001). Teachers' Unions and the Politics of Education in Japan. SUNY Press. p. 174. ISBN 978-0-7914-5050-5.
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