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 ...

founded in December 1994. As a merger of several small parties, the party was ideologically diverse, with its membership ranging from moderate

social democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

to liberals and

conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

. The party dissolved in December 1997, with

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 ...

's faction forming the

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 ...

and other splinters later joining 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 ...

in April 1998.

History

Foundation

The party was founded on 10 December 1994 by former member parties of the anti- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) opposition coalition led by

Morihiro Hosokawa is a Japanese politician and noble who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non- Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955. After a funding scandal in early 1994, h ...

who had resigned in April. During the formation of the succeeding Hata cabinet, several coalition parties formed a joint parliamentary group. But at the same time, the

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

(JSP) 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 an ...

withdrew from the eight-party coalition and left Hata without majority. In June, the LDP returned to power by striking a "grand" coalition deal with the JSP under which the Socialists would receive the prime ministership. Hata resigned before an impending no-confidence vote submitted by the LDP: In less than a year, the anti-LDP coalition had broken down. After the electoral reform initiated by the anti-LDP coalition had been passed by the new LDP-JSP coalition in November 1994, the opposition parties negotiated on creating a unified force to contest the newly introduced

First-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

single-member electoral districts that now elect the majority of the House of Representatives: In December, the

Japan Renewal Party 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 led by Tsutomu Hata and Ichirō Ozawa. It was instrumental in ending the LDP's 38-year dominance of Japanese ...

, a part of

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 coalit ...

which had split a few days before, the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), 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 '' Jiyū Kaikaku Rengō'' ("Liberal Reform League" a federation of several small groups of Diet members who had broken away from the LDP) formed the New Frontier Party, becoming the largest single party formed in post-war Japan other than the LDP.

Internal conflicts

On 8 December 1994, the Diet members of the future party elected former LDP Prime Minister

Toshiki Kaifu was a Japanese politician who served as the 77th Prime Minister of Japan from 1989 to 1991. Early life and education Kaifu was born on 2 January 1931, in Nagoya City, the eldest of six brothers. His family's business Nakamura Photo Studio w ...

as leader, Kaifu received 131 votes, former Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata 52 and DSP leader

Takashi Yonezawa is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings The name Takashi can have multiple different meanings depending on which kanji is used to write it. Some possible writings of the name include: *江詩 - "estuary , inlet, poem" *隆 - "prospe ...

32 votes. In 1995, Kaifu was succeeded by

who led the party from 1995 until its dissolution in 1997. Ozawa won the leadership election among party members and registered supporters (''tōyū'') in December 1995 with 1,120,012 votes against Tsutomu Hata who received 566,998 votes. Ozawa was reelected just a few days before the party dissolved in a vote among NFP Diet members and delegates from NFP prefectural federations in December 1997, defeating

Michihiko Kano was a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan. He was Minister of Agriculture. He lost his seat in the 16 December 2012 general election. Kano was born in Yamagata. He graduated from Gakushuin University is a private unive ...

by 230 votes to 182. The party held onto 156 seats in the 1996 general election, losing a net four seats and failing to attack the LDP-SDP government majority, but remaining the largest opposition party. Unlike the other major, nationwide parties (mainly LDP and DPJ, the SDP was already in the advanced stages of its decline to a micro-party), Ozawa's NFP in 1996 made little use of the possibility to nominate dual candidates that stand in both the majoritarian and the proportional election at the same time under the new parallel electoral system. Thereby, the party lost a string of experienced politicians who were not "insured" by a dual candidacy on a proportional list. In total, more than 40 NFP incumbents who sought reelection lost their seats in 1996.

Dissolution and aftermath

After the New Frontier Party dissolved in 1997, its remnants collated into several small parties: * The New Peace Party (''Shintō Heiwa'') and the "Dawn Club" (''Reimei Club'') of former Kōmeitō members, these merged later in 1998 with the still existing Kōmei to re-establish the ("New") Kōmeitō, * the

of Ichirō Ozawa which later participated in a coalition with the LDP under Keizō Obuchi, but eventually merged into the Democratic Party in 2003, * the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it comprised an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male cl ...

(''Kaikaku Club'') of Tatsuo Ozawa that later joined the LDP-Liberal Party-Kōmeitō coalition, * the

New Fraternity Party The was a Japanese political party that existed in early 1998. It was founded by Diet members that broke away from the New Frontier Party in January 1998. The party has political roots in '' Minsha kyōkai'', and ''Minsha kyōkai'' is now the ma ...

(''Shintō Yūai'') of

Kansei Nakano is a Japanese politician. He is a member of the Democratic Party of Japan and the Vice-Speaker of the Lower House of the Diet. Nakano was born in 1940 in Nagasaki. At age four, he experienced the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. In 1963, he graduated ...

and * the " Voice of the People" (''Kokumin no Koe'') of Michihiko Kano. The latter two parties immediately joined the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

in one parliamentary group (then renamed 民主友愛太陽国民連合, ''Minshu Yūai Taiyō Kokumin Rengō'', "Democratic Fraternity Sun People's League", abbreviated as 民友連, ''Min'yūren''). They were joined by two parties who had broken away from the NFP earlier – the

Sun Party The Sun Party (太陽党 ''Taiyōtō'') was a Japanese political party which existed from 1996 to 1998. It was a liberal reformist party that was opposed to the ruling coalition led by the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan). The party was compos ...

of Tsutomu Hata in 1996 and the From Five of Morihiro Hosokawa in 1997 – and another party from the former anti-LDP coalition that hadn't joined the NFP: the '' Minshu Kaikaku Rengō'' ("Democratic Reform League"). The joint parliamentary group gave the DPJ the role of leading the opposition in the Diet. Three member parties together formed the Minseitō ("Democratic" or "Good Governance Party") a few weeks later. All member parties of the parliamentary group eventually merged with the Democratic Party to form the ("New")

in April 1998.

Ideology

In terms of policy, the New Frontier Party took a hawkish position on foreign, security policy and related constitutional matters (which had been the main dividing line between political left and right in the 1955 System) similar to the LDP, but pushed for more deregulation, decentralization and political reform. It thereby tried to attract disgruntled LDP voters who would seek for new answers to the political challenges posed in the wake of the burst

bubble economy An economic bubble (also called a speculative bubble or a financial bubble) is a period when current asset prices greatly exceed their intrinsic valuation, being the valuation that the underlying long-term fundamentals justify. Bubbles can be ...

and by the dawning demographic transition. In contrast, the

that was formed two years later to provide an alternative to the old LDP and the Ozawa-dominated NFP, took a similar stance to the NFP on economic reform, but a more dovish position on foreign policy, thereby also becoming appealing to traditional JSP voters.Leonard J. Schoppa (2011). ''The Evolution of Japan's Party System: Politics and Policy in an Era of Institutional Change.'' University of Toronto Press. Chapter 2, pp. 14–42: Path Dependence in the Evolution of Japan's Party System since 1993.

Presidents of NFP

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Councillors

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Frontier Party 1994 establishments in Japan 1997 disestablishments in Japan Conservative parties in Japan Defunct conservative parties Defunct liberal political parties Defunct political parties in Japan Liberal parties in Japan Neoconservative parties Neoliberal parties Political parties established in 1994 Political parties disestablished in 1997