The , also known as the New Harbinger Party, was a political party in Japan that broke away from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) on 22 June 1993. The party was created by

Masayoshi Takemura was a Japanese politician. Elected as a representative of the Liberal Democratic Party, in 1993 he broke away to form New Party Sakigake, before joining the newly formed Democratic Party of Japan in 1997. He served as Chief Cabinet Secretary ...

. The party was centrist, and had many

reformist Reformism is a political tendency advocating the reform of an existing system or institution – often a political or religious establishment – as opposed to its abolition and replacement via revolution. Within the socialist movement, ref ...

and even moderate ecological elements. The theoretical leader was Shusei Tanaka. Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan also took part but later moved to 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, ...

History

After the 1993 general election, Sakigake joined a Cabinet led by

Morihiro Hosokawa is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994. He led an eight-party coalition government which was the first Japanese government not headed by a Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Libera ...

. It was the first government without the LDP since 1955. Sakigake's

became Minister. Sakigake supported the following

Tsutomu Hata was a Japanese politician who briefly served as prime minister of Japan in 1994. Born in Tokyo, Hata graduated from Seijo University and was first elected to the National Diet in 1969. He rose to become a key member of the Liberal Democratic ...

Cabinet, but didn't join the Cabinet. In 1994, New Party Sakigake took part in the government of Murayama Tomiichi, a government coalition of the LDP and the Japan Socialist Party, which replaced the coalition government headed the previous year by the Japan Renewal Party. In September 1996, Sakigake and Japan Socialist Party politicians who did not support their respective parties alliances with the LDP broke away to found the

. The exodus of these liberal members moved the party further to the right. In 1997, the New Party Sakigake had two members in the House of Representatives and three members in the House of Councillors, which was good for them, especially after the LDP became the ruling party again. However, it decided to moderate its stance, and, because of the power of the ecologist and reformist factions, the conservatives decided to reform the party. As part of the ruling coalition in 1998, it had 2 seats in the House of Representatives and 3 in the House of Councillors. In October 1998, the party reformed itself with a more conservative image, dropping the 'New' from its title to become simply the ''Sakigake Party''. Its popularity heavily declined after that, and by 2001, the party had no seats in either the Lower or Upper House. In 2002, the ecologists took control, and turned the party into an ecologist party. It changed its name to , the Environmental Green Political Assembly, which, because it won no seats in the 2004 Parliamentary elections, dissolved itself on 31 October 2004. The party gained its followers mainly from white collar bureaucrats and ecologists. It was a conservative reformist party with ecological elements.

List of leaders of NPS

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

Notes

References

External links

Archive.org copy of former website
{{Authority control Liberal parties in Japan Centrist parties in Japan Centre-left parties in Asia Defunct political parties in Japan Political parties established in 1993 Political parties disestablished in 2004 1993 establishments in Japan 2004 disestablishments in Japan