The , also referred to in English as the Japan Restoration Association, was a Japanese

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

. It was launched on 12 September 2012 and gained official recognition on 28 September 2012. The party grew from the regional

Osaka Restoration Association The , also referred to as One Osaka, is a regional political party in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Founded in 2010 by then-Governor (Japan), Governor Tōru Hashimoto, its main platform is pursuing the Osaka Metropolis plan of merging the prefecture a ...

, headed by Tōru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka, and

Ichirō Matsui is a Japanese businessman and politician who is the former mayor of Osaka, leader of the Osaka Restoration Association (ORA) and Nippon Ishin no Kai alongside Nobuyuki Baba. Early life Matsui attended public elementary and middle schools in Yao ...

, Governor of Osaka Prefecture. On 17 November 2012 Hashimoto and

Shintaro Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer, who served as the Governor of Tokyo Metropolis, Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the Far-right politics, radical right Sunrise Party, later merged with Toru Hashimoto's Japan ...

, leader of the

Sunrise Party The , formerly known as the , was a conservative and nationalist political party in Japan. The SPJ was formed on 10 April 2010 by five Japanese lawmakers and parliamentarians, four former members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and an ind ...

, announced a merger of their parties to create a "third force" to contest the general election of December 2012. The merged organization, which retained the name "Japan Restoration Party", was at that time Japan's only national political party based outside Tokyo. After the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

it had 54 seats in the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

and 9 members in the

upper house An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...

. On May 28, 2014, co-leaders Hashimoto and Ishihara agreed to split the party after many internal differences, including disagreement over a proposed merger with the Unity Party. As a result, Ishihara's group split off from the JRP and formed the

Party for Future Generations The , officially the , was a Japanese political party. It was formed as the on 1 August 2014 by a group of Diet members led by Shintarō Ishihara. The party adopted its final name in December 2015, and ended up dissolving in November 2018. His ...

. Later, Hashimoto and

Kenji Eda is a Japanese politician and member of the House of Representatives of Japan, House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan, Diet (national legislature). A native of Okayama Prefecture and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he joined the Minist ...

of the Unity Party agreed to merge their parties. The JRP was subsequently dissolved and the result of the merger was the formation of the

Japan Innovation Party The is a conservative and centre-right to right-wing populist political party in Japan. Formed as Initiatives from Osaka in October 2015 from a split in the old Japan Innovation Party, the party became the third-biggest opposition party in ...

History

Party launch and early days

National political parties in Japan require a minimum of five Diet members to be recognized, and in 2012 the party gained seven sitting Diet members through defections from other parties. On 28 September 2012 an application for party recognition was submitted to the Ministry of the Interior through the Osaka prefectural electoral board. This was accepted and the party was officially launched. The

, also headed by Hashimoto and Matsui, was placed under the umbrella of the new national party. The first meeting of the nine JRA lawmakers was held on 3 October 2012. Yorihisa Matsuno, a member of the House of Representatives who had formerly been in the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a Centrism, centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to Centre-left politics, centre-left, Liberalism, liberal or Social liberalism, social-liberal List of political parties in Japan, ...

, was selected as the leader of the nine lawmakers, and rules of conduct were also adopted. The party's first general meeting was held on 6 October 2012, with Matsuno formally becoming a deputy party leader, along with Yutaka Imai, a member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly. Hashimoto said that in cases where national NRA members and regional assembly members could not agree he would make a decision.

Merger with the Sunrise Party

After much discussion, on 17 November 2012 Ishihara and Hashimoto decided to merge their parties, with Ishihara becoming the head of the Japan Restoration Party.

Your Party is a Japanese parliamentary caucus consisting of Yoshimi Watanabe and Takashi Tachibana, later Satoshi Hamada after Tachibana forfeited his seat, in the House of Councillors. It was also a political party led by Watanabe from 2009 until its ...

would not join the party, nor would Tax Cuts Japan, as the latter party's opposition to any increase in the consumption tax did not match the JRP's policy in favour of an increase. Following Hashimoto's controversial remarks on the issue of

comfort women Comfort women were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ''comfort women'' is a translation of the Japanese , a euphemism ...

during World War II,

Yoshimi Watanabe is a former Japanese politician. He was formerly a member of the Liberal Democratic Party and later the founder of Your Party, after which he became a member of Nippon Ishin no Kai until 2019 when he then became an independent politician. He wa ...

announced that Your Party had decided to end their planned alliance for the upcoming Upper House elections.

Split with former Sunrise members

On May 28, 2014, co-leaders Hashimoto and Shintarō Ishihara agreed to split the party after many internal differences and a proposed merger with the Unity Party, especially their differences regarding the Constitution of Japan. The division is to be in accordance with the Political Parties Subsidies Act in order to split the subsidies each group receives. Ishihara's followers created a new party, the , led by Takeo Hiranuma. The party launched with 19 representatives and 3 councilors on 1 August 2014, the day after the formalities of the "dissolution" of the Japan Restoration Party. Hashimoto's followers relaunched a new Japan Restoration Party, which has a similar organization to the old one. Hashimoto's Japan Restoration Party planned to unite with the Unity Party within 1–2 months. Upon the division of the party, two representatives chose to join neither group, and became independents.

Merger with Unity Party

On 22 September 2014, Hashimoto and

of the Unity Party agreed to merge their parties. The JRP was subsequently dissolved; the result of the merger is the

Ideology

The party supported legalizing

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. The party advocated revising the

Constitution of Japan The Constitution of Japan is the supreme law of Japan. Written primarily by American civilian officials during the occupation of Japan after World War II, it was adopted on 3 November 1946 and came into effect on 3 May 1947, succeeding the Meij ...

, which it characterized as "the Occupation Constitution". When the Japanese government proposed to revise the laws so that Japan's military would be able to mobilise overseas, the party was the only one to vote no, while other opposition parties walked out.

Presidents of JRP

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

References

External links

* * * {{Japan Restoration Party 2012 establishments in Japan 2014 disestablishments in Japan Conservative parties in Japan Defunct political parties in Japan Far-right political parties in Japan Libertarian parties in Japan Japanese nationalist parties Neoconservative parties Neoliberal parties Political parties disestablished in 2014 Political parties established in 2012 Political history of Osaka Prefecture