Democratic Party (Japan, 1947-1950)
| Democratic Party | |||
| Minshutō | |||
| Democratic Party | |||
| Parteivorsitz (sosai / Saiko-iinchō) |
Ashida Hitoshi → Inukai Takeru (coalition) / Tomabechi Gizō (opposition) |
||
| founding | April 1947 | ||
| resolution | March 1950 | ||
| MPs in the Shūgiin | 134 of 466 (foundation) | ||
| MPs in the Sangiin | 28 of 250 (April 1947) | ||
The Democratic Party ( Japanese 民主党 , Minshutō ) was a moderately conservative political party in Japan during the US-led Allied occupation . It was created in 1947 as the successor to the Progressive Party of Japan ( Nihon Shimpotō ), which had previously lost several leading politicians because of the occupation authorities' ban on office. From June 1947 she ruled in coalition with the Socialist Party of Japan (SPJ), in 1948 she also appointed Ashida Hitoshi , Prime Minister, who soon resigned. In the opposition, the Democratic Party split afterwards into supporters and opponents of cooperation with the Liberal Party of Yoshida Shigeru , in 1950 it went together with smaller opposition groups in the Kokumin-minshu-tō , the "People's Democratic Party".
The Progressive Party, which was formed soon after the end of the war and linked to the Rikken Minseitō of the prewar period, was severely affected by the occupation authorities' ban on office ( SCAP / GHQ ) for wartime politicians. Before the entry into force of the new constitution, the new lower house elections and the elections for the new, now also elected upper house, the members of the parliament that remained together with a group from the Liberal Party of Japan around Ashida Hitoshi founded the Democratic Party. The party tried to position itself in the political “middle” between liberals and socialists; from the start there were within the party conservatives around Shidehara Kijūrō , who wanted to cooperate with the Liberal Party, and “progressives” around Ashida Hitoshi, who considered working with the Socialist Party. In the first upper house election on April 20, 1947, the Democratic Party won 28 seats and five days later was able to maintain its position as the third party in the 1947 lower house election with 124 seats.
Although the SPJ emerged from the general election as the strongest party, it was unable to compose an absolute majority against liberals and democrats. Soon after the election, the smaller parties Kokumin-kyōdō-tō ("People's Cooperation Party") and Communist Party of Japan showed their willingness to form a coalition, but the majority of socialists preferred a coalition without communists, including the Democrats or the Liberals. The anti-communist Yoshida Shigeru even urged the SPJ to declare its willingness to expel members of the left wing suspected of having ties to the communists, but was still unwilling to join a coalition. After initial negotiations, the DP and SPJ jointly elected a socialist and a democrat as president and vice-president of the lower house. While Shidehara tried to persuade Yoshida to cooperate in a coalition government, Ashida, in turn, tried to find his own coalition led by the Democratic Party. For the upcoming first election of the prime minister, the Liberals announced that they would vote for the SPJ chairman Katayama Tetsu , the Democrats followed on condition that the Liberals would join a coalition. On May 23, 1947, Katayama was elected Prime Minister with 420 votes out of 426. However, the Liberals continued to reject government cooperation with the Socialists. Against Shidehara's efforts, the Democrats agreed at the end of May on a three-party coalition made up of socialists, democrats and people's cooperativists: in the Katayama cabinet , which began its work on June 1, 1947, the Democratic Party provided eight ministers, including Ashida Hitoshi, the deputy prime minister.
Ashida had prevailed and took over the party chairmanship, while opponents of the cooperation with the SPJ to Shidehara Kijūrō, including Tanaka Kakuei and Hara Kenzaburō , left the party in November and the Dōshi Club ( 同志 ク ラ ブ , about "Club of like-minded people"; later Minshu Club , "Democratic Club"). The SPJ's internal conflicts brought the government down, however: when the left wing of the socialists blocked the budget, the Katayama cabinet resigned after only nine months. Ashida achieved his goal and became Prime Minister in a coalition cabinet under Democratic leadership; however, his government lasted even shorter, as the Shōwa-Denkō scandal , one of the most serious corruption scandals of the occupation, implied members of his cabinet and later himself. Ashida resigned in October and the Democrats were forced back into the opposition by Yoshida and the Liberals (after the "Democratic Club" had joined the Democratic-Liberal Party). Inukai Takeru , the son of Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi , took over the party leadership.
In the Democratic Party, the supporters of cooperation with Yoshida spoke up again. In the new general election in 1949 , the Liberals won an absolute majority for the first time; the Democratic Party became the second largest party, but only won 69 seats. When the third Yoshida cabinet was formed, the Democrats split: the renritsu-ha (“coalition faction ”, in parliament: 第十 控 室 , dai-jū hikaeshitsu , “10th waiting room”) around Inukai participated in the formation of the government, while the opponents a collaboration formed as yatō-ha ("opposition faction ", in parliament: 第九 控 室 , dai-kyū hikaeshitsu , "9th waiting room") around Tomabechi Gizō , who initially led a new party executive together with three other politicians, then alone as saikō-iinchō (about "Chairman of the Supreme Council") took over. In 1950, Inukai's supporters finally joined the Liberals and the remaining Democrats founded the Kokumin-minshu-tō together with the “People's Cooperation Party”.
Individual evidence
- ^ Masaru Kohno: Japan's Postwar Party Politics . Princeton 1997, ISBN 0691015961 , p. 49 ff., Chap. 4: Coalition building under the pre-1955 multiparty system.
