Democratic Party (Japan, 1947)

For other uses, see Democratic Party (Japan).

The Democratic Party (Japanese: 民主党, Hepburn: Minshutō), officially 日本民主党 (lit. 'Japan Democratic Party') was a conservative political party in Japan.^[5]

Democratic Party 日本民主党 Nihon Minshutō
Founders	Inukai Takeru Hitoshi Ashida
Founded	March 31, 1947 (1947-03-31)[1][2][3]
Dissolved	April 28, 1950 (1950-04-28)[4]
Preceded by	Japan Progressive Party[2]
Succeeded by	National Democratic Party[4]
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Ideology	Conservatism[5] Revisionist capitalism[2][5] Anti-bureaucratism[5]
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

History

The party was founded in spring 1947 by merging the Progressive Party (Shinpo-tō) of Inukai Takeru with a faction of Liberal Party led by Hitoshi Ashida and obtained 124 seats in 1947 elections. The party had held seven seats in Tetsu Katayama's government in 1947-1948. For some months in 1948, party's leader Ashida was Prime minister.

In March 1948, part of DP members led by Kijūrō Shidehara joined the Liberal Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party. In 1949 elections, the DP got 69 seats. The party was finally merged with the National Cooperative Party to form the National Democratic Party in April 1950.

Election results

House of Representatives

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Position	Status
1947	Hitoshi Ashida	6,960,270	25.44	124 / 468	new	3rd	Governing coalition
1949	Takeru Inukai	4,798,352	15.68	69 / 466	55	4th	Opposition

House of Councillors

Election	Leader	Constituency			Party list			Seats	Position	Status
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
1947	Ishiguro Takeshige	2,989,132	13.56	22 / 150	1,508,087	7.09	6 / 100	30 / 250	2nd	Governing coalition

References

1. Awaya 1983, p. 349.
2. Kanda 1983, p. 238.
3. Uno 1991, p. 1092.
4. Kanda 1983, p. 355.
5. 世界大百科事典 第2版の解説 [The Heibonsha World Encyclopedia (2nd ed.) 's explanation]. kotobank.jp (in Japanese). The Asahi Shimbun Company. Retrieved December 21, 2020.

Further reading

• Awaya, Kentaro [in Japanese] (1983). Showa no Seito. Showa no Rekishi (in Japanese). Vol. 6. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 978-4093760065.
• Kanda, Fuhito (1983). Senryō to minshu shugi. Showa no Rekishi (in Japanese). Vol. 8. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-376008-X.
• Uno, Shun'ichi [in Japanese] (1991). Nihon zenshi: Japan chronik (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-203994-X.