The was a

political party in Japan In Japan, any organization that supports a candidate needs to register itself as a political party. Each of these parties have some local or national influence. This article lists political parties in Japan with representation in the National ...

formed in 1998 by

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 ...

and

Hirohisa Fujii was a Japanese politician who was a member of the House of Councillors from 1977 to 1986, and of the House of Representatives from 1990 to 2012. He served two terms as Minister of Finance, and as Secretary General of the Liberal Party and the D ...

. It is now defunct, having joined the

Democratic Party of Japan The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist: * * * * * * * to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016. The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic Part ...

in 2003. The Liberal Party were part of the Japanese liberal Parties genealogy,

neoliberal Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...

and

neoconservative Neoconservatism is a political movement that began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party and with the growing New Left and coun ...

. Ichirō Ozawa should not be confused with the

left-liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, which was re-established in 2016.

History

The Liberal Party was formed from remnants of the New Frontier Party after it dissolved in 1998. The party did do quite well for a new party, joining the opposition led by the

(DPJ) and also including the

New Kōmeitō , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

, the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

and

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

, and thus helped contest elections against the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). In January 1999, it formed a coalition with the ruling LDP under

Keizō Obuchi was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1998 to 2000. Obuchi was elected to the House of Representatives in Gunma Prefecture in 1963, becoming the youngest legislator in Japanese history, and was re-elected to his ...

Takeshi Noda is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). Background and career A native of Tokyo and graduate of the University of Tokyo he joined the Ministry ...

as Minister for Home Affairs became its only member in the realigned Obuchi cabinet, later replaced by

Toshihiro Nikai is a Japanese politician for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the leader of the LDP Shisuikai faction (informally called the Nikai faction), who served as the Secretary-General of the LDP from 2016 to 2021. He was previously the Minister ...

as Minister of Transportation. Later that year, the New Kōmeitō joined the coalition as well, and party president Ichirō Ozawa decided to lead the Liberal Party back into the opposition as he saw his party's position endangered. However, some members of the coalition wanted to stay in the government and eventually formed the breakaway

New Conservative Party New Conservative Party (or similar names) may refer to: * New Conservative Party (UK), 1960–1962 * New Conservative Group, Australia, 1991–1992 * New Conservative Party (Japan), 2000–2003 * New Zealand Conservative Party, 1996-c.1998 * New C ...

. In October 2003, because of the upcoming election, the Liberal Party finally merged with the DPJ and all its members joined the new party, making an influential grouping within the party. The DPJ did tremendously well, and Hirohisa Fujii became the Secretary General of the Democratic Party of Japan, while Ichiro Ozawa led the Liberal Party faction within the DPJ. In 2016, the name was revived by Ozawa, on his renaming of the People's Life Party to the

Presidents of LP

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

References