The was a Japanese political party that existed in the early 1990s. It was founded in 1993 by 44 members of the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

led by

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 ...

and

Ichirō Ozawa is a Japanese politician and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1969, representing the Iwate 3rd district (Iwate 2nd district prior to the 1996 general election and Iwate 4th district prior to the 2017 general election). H ...

. It was instrumental in ending the LDP's 38-year dominance of Japanese politics. Both reformers, Hata and Ozawa had been involved in a difficult leadership struggle within the former Takeshita faction of the LDP. Their opponents, led by Keizo Obuchi and

Ryutaro Hashimoto was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1996 to 1998. Born in Okayama Prefecture, Hashimoto graduated from Keio University in 1960 and entered the National Diet in 1963. He rose through the ...

, were using the fallout of the Sagawa Kyubin scandal as a tool to undermine the reformist position. Hata and Ozawa split from the party partly to shift media attention away from the scandal. In doing so, they transformed an internal party dispute to a wide-ranging conflict that led to a decade of shifting allegiances and short-lived parties. In the

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

immediately following the split, the JRP won 55 seats, making it one of the most powerful opposition parties. Most importantly, the party drew off support crucial to the LDP. While several other small parties had split from the LDP, Hata and Ozawa's group was the largest, and was widely considered to have finally broken the back of LDP dominance. Known for his political organisational skills, Ozawa organised a five-party coalition of the JRP, the

Japan Socialist Party The was a major socialist and progressive political party in Japan which existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was the primary representative of the Japanese left and main opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party for most of its ex ...

, the Democratic Socialist Party,

Komeito , formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. Since 2012, i ...

and the Socialist Democratic Federation. This coalition held 237 seats in the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

, and after convincing the

Japan New Party The was a Japanese political party that existed briefly from 1992 to 1994. The party, considered liberal, was founded by Morihiro Hosokawa, a former Diet member and Kumamoto Prefecture governor, who left the Liberal Democratic Party to protest ...

and the

New Party Sakigake 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. The party was centrist, and had many reformist ...

to join, was able to form a government under

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 ...

. As the impetus for the collapse of LDP power, the JRP was able to exert great power in the coalition. While some concessions to other parties were made, the JRP was perhaps overly dominant, eventually forcing some other members out of the coalition through its heavy-handed style. In 1994, the JRP merged into the New Frontier Party.

Presidents of JRP

Election results

References

{{Authority control Defunct political parties in Japan Political parties established in 1993 Political parties disestablished in 1994 1993 establishments in Japan 1994 disestablishments in Japan