Minseito

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Seiyûkai (Constitutional Friends Association) (Japan) Japan's pre-eminent prewar party, also known as Rikken Seiyûkai, founded in 1900. From its earliest days, the Seiyûkai dominated the Diet, controlling more than half the seats in the Lower House. In its origins, the party possessed firm ties with members of the oligarchy which had ruled Japan since the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Its founder and first president Itô Hirobumi (b. 1841, d. 1909) and Saionji Kinmochi (b. 1848, d. 1940) served as Prime Ministers, but they chose to continue along the lines of their predecessors by including few party men in their Cabinets. It was with the presidency of Hara Takashi that the Seiyûkai party machine was developed to its full potential. At the time, local patronage in the constituencies guaranteed impressive performance in elections even while the electorate itself was enlarged many times. Its electoral predominance coupled with the economic and social crisis of 1918 propelled the Seiyûkai into office under Hara's leadership. After Hara's assassination, the party became more disunited and suffered a severe electoral reverse in 1924. After that the Seiyûkai alternated with the Minseitô as the party in power. Moreover, factionalism, which had been existent within the organization from its beginnings, increasingly manifested itself in open splits and defections, as some politicians preferred to join the government regardless of which party had formed it. In 1939, Japan's most important political party of the prewar period fragmented, overwhelmed by its chronic factionalism.

Seiyukai , Japanese political party, founded in 1900. It was derived, via the Kenseito (see Minseito ) from the Jiyuto, organized by Taisuke Itagaki in 1881. Under the astute political leadership of Takashi Hara , it was the most powerful party in Japan from 1900 to 1921. Hirobumi Ito was its first president, and Kimmochi Saionji its second, but these great statesmen were more powerful in their own right than as party leaders. The first real party cabinet, marking the decline of the old genro oligarchy, was formed by Takashi Hara in 1918. Party governments prevailed from 1924 to 1932, the Seiyukai cabinets of Giichi Tanaka (1927–29) and Ki Inukai (1931–32) alternating with Minseito governments. After this the influence of political parties steadily declined as that of the militarists increased. Japanese parties have been based more on factionalism and personal loyalty than on divisions of principle. The Seiyukai was generally conservative and acceded to bureaucratic and military control more willingly than the Minseito. After World War II, the Seiyukai reappeared, under the leadership of Kijuro Shidehara, as the Progressive party, the most conservative major political party in postwar Japan. The Progressives were later absorbed into the business-oriented Liberal Democratic party . The Seiyukai was traditionally identified with the Mitsui financial interests.

Bibliography: See P. Duus, Party Rivalry and Political Change in Taishō Japan (1968).

Minseitô (Constitutional Democratic Association) (Japan) Also known as Rikken Minseitô, it was founded in 1927 and became Japan's second major party of the prewar period, formed by conservative groups opposed to the Seiyûkai. The Minseitô's early history was marked by electoral success in the 1928 Lower House elections, the first to operate under universal male suffrage. The following year the party formed a government under the premiership of Hamaguchi Osachi although the polices of this administration in a period of domestic and international uncertainty proved to be highly unpopular. Like its rival, the Minseitô relied heavily on the financial support of business, especially the Mitsubishi zaibatsu whose interests it continued to represent. Also like the Seiyûkai, the party was rarely free from factionalism, especially between Nagai Ryûtarô, a prominent party member and advocate of the new order in Asia, and Machida Chûji, the Minseitô party president in the late 1930s. Machida sought to protect the interests of business from the calls for economic rationalization as Japan's war plans developed. Although the party was eventually to participate in the Imperial Rule Assistance Association it showed more reluctance than most in this.

Minseito , Japanese political party. It is usually called the Liberal party in English. Founded by Shigenobu Okuma in 1882 as the Kaishinto, or Progressive party, it was dissolved in 1884, reformed into the Shimpoto, and merged with the Jiyuto (see Seiyukai ) in 1898 to form the Kenseito. Okuma later took his group out of the Kenseito and set up the Kenseihonto, which became the Kokuminto in 1910. A faction of the Kokuminto joined Taro Katsura's Doshikai in 1913 and became the nucleus of the Kenseikai. In 1927 the Kenseikai was reorganized as the Minseito. The cabinets of Takaaki Kato (1924–26), Reijiro Wakatsuki (1926–27, 1931), and Osachi Hamaguchi (1929–31) were Kenseikai or Minseito governments. All parties were dissolved in 1940. After World War II, the Minseito reemerged under the leadership of Shigeru Yoshida and Ichiro Hatoyama as the Liberal party, one of the two strong conservative groups in postwar Japan. It merged with the Democrats in 1955 to form the Liberal Democratic party . The Minseito was traditionally identified with the Mitsubishi financial interests.

Bibliography: See P. Duus, Party Rivalry and Political Change in Taishō Japan (1968).