Nippon Ishin no Kai (2012-2014)

Nippon Ishin no Kai
日本 維新 の 会
Japan Restoration Party
Parteivorsitz (Daihyō)	Tōru Hashimoto
Secretary General	Ichirō Matsui
Executive Board Chair	Tōru Azuma
PARC Chair	Hitoshi Asada
founding	September 2012 August 2014 (new establishment after dissolution)
Headquarters	1-7-16 Shimanouchi, Chūō-ku , Osaka , Osaka Prefecture
MPs in the Shūgiin	32/480
MPs in the Sangiin	6/242
Government grants	3.3 billion yen (2014)
Website	j-ishin.jp

Nippon Ishin no Kai ( Japanese 日本 維新 の 会 , German about "Assembly for the Renewal of Japan" - in German-language media often as "Japan's rebirth" and, among other things, as the "Party of the Restoration of Japan", as the "Party for the Restoration of Japan" - English Japan Restoration Party ) was a political party in Japan. It was founded in September 2012 by the regional party akasaka Ishin no Kai by Tōru Hashimoto , former governor of Osaka and incumbent mayor of the city of Osaka , together with members of the national parliament and existed until 2014, when it split and the rump party around Hashimoto itself then merged with the Yui no Tō of Kenji Eda to Ishin no Tō .

history

In November 2012 joined the Taiyō no Tō ("Party of the Sun", English "Sunrise Party") of Shintarō Ishihara and Takeo Hiranuma for the upcoming Shūgiin election 2012 of the Nippon Ishin no Kai. After the merger, Ishihara took over the party chairmanship, Hashimoto the deputy chairmanship ( daihyō daikō ) and Takeo Hiranuma the chairmanship of the general assembly of members of the two chambers of the national parliament ( Kokkai giin-dan daiyhō ). At the same time, she announced 47 candidates for the upcoming election, but wants to nominate more. Ishihara should only run in the Tokyo proportional representation block , not in a single constituency. The party was able to form its own parliamentary group before the election, as nine MPs from other parties defected to it.

The orientation of the party is nationalistic , it is characterized as populist and as a protest party . The position on important political issues is controversial within the party. While Hashimoto advocates phasing out nuclear power, regionalization , free trade and tax increases, Ishihara has so far relied on the continued use of nuclear energy, economic protectionism and lower taxes.

The 2012 Shūgiin election ended with mixed success: of the 300 constituency mandates, Ishin no Kai won only 14, with less than 12% of the votes nationwide, twelve of them in Osaka Prefecture and none in Tokyo. The election for the 180 proportional representation seats was very successful, with Ishin no Kai becoming the second strongest party with around 20% of the vote and winning 40 seats.

Since January 2013, Ishihara and Hashimoto have shared the party chairmanship as co - chairpersons ( kyōdō-daihyō ).

For the 2013 Sangiin election , the party wanted to work more closely with Minna no Tō - in the 2012 Shūgiin election, the parties supported many of their candidates but also competed against each other in some places. After Tōru Hashimoto's statements in May 2013 about forced prostitution for the military in the Pacific War (" comfort women "), Minna no Tō terminated the cooperation plans. On May 21, 2013, Shugiin MP Shingo Nishimura was expelled from the party because he said there were "swarms of South Korean prostitutes in Japan".

From April 2014, the Ishin no Kai negotiated with the Yui no Tō, split off from the Minna no Tō, about a possible merger, in the Sangiin the two parties formed a community of factions. A merger initially stood in the way of the Ishin demand for a change to the post-war constitution, while the Yui no Tō positions itself as an opponent of a far-reaching constitutional change. Hashimoto and his followers nevertheless sought a merger of the parties, while Ishihara called for a completely new "self-determined constitution" ( jishu kenpō , in contrast to the post-war constitution that was "externally determined" under MacArthur) and was not prepared to make concessions on this issue. In May 2014, Hashimoto and Ishihara reached an agreement to split the Nippon Ishin no Kai. Ishihara's party is expected to be joined by more than 20 Ishin MPs from both chambers, while the MPs from Osaka in particular will remain in Hashimoto's party in order to then seek a rapid merger with the Yui no Tō. In the Shūgiin, the Ishihara supporters formed in July 2014 as the Jisedai no Tō ("party of the next generation [s]") faction. The party and faction in the Sangiin were founded in August 2014 under the same name. In total, the Jisedai no Tō joined 22 MPs, two left the party, the remaining 38 MPs formally re-founded the Nippon Ishin no Kai under Hashimoto's chairmanship. Hashimoto's (rump) party merged with the Yui no Tō to form Ishin no Tō in September 2014.

Election results

National

year	Lower House election results						Upper house election results						House of Lords composition
	Candidates	Direct dial		Proportional representation		Total mandates	Candidates	Direct dial		Proportional representation		Total mandates
		Share of votes	Mandates	Share of votes	Mandates			Share of votes	Mandates	Share of votes	Mandates
When a party is founded						3/480							4/242
2012	172	11.6%	14/300	20.3%	40/180	54/480
2013							44	7.2%	2/73	11.9%	6/48	8/121	9/242

Of the (as of August 2013) 62 members of the Ishin no Kai in the national parliament, the majority belonged to the Taiyō no Tō, the Ōsaka Ishin no Kai or no established party before the party was founded; eight are former Liberal Democrats (excluding former LDP members who converted to DPJ / Minna / Taiyō / Ōsaka Ishin before the party was founded), seven former Democrats, five former members of Minna no Tō.

Prefectures

The first prefectural parliamentary election that Nippon Ishin no Kai contested was in Tokyo in June 2013 : its 34 candidates received a total of 8.3% of the vote and won two of the 127 seats - one less than before the election.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sōmushō , April 1, 2014: 平 成 ２６ 年分 政党 交付 金 の 交付 決定
2. ↑ ^{a b} Felix Lill: A Populist Against Japan's Establishment Die Zeit online, November 12, 2012
3. ↑ ^{a b} Populists in Japan merge Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung online, November 18, 2012
4. ↑ Julian Ryall: Japan's parties before new elections Deutsche Welle, November 19, 2012
5. ^ Die Zeit, December 15, 2012: Japan is becoming nationalistic
6. ↑ Deutschlandfunk, December 15, 2012: Many parties, few differences
7. ↑ Defections to Osaka mayor's new political force expected to climb. Hashimoto sets new national party, names it Nippon Ishin no Kai. In: The Japan Times . September 9, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012 . 
8. ↑ 維新 、 太陽 と 合流 ＝ 新 代表 石 原 氏 、 代行 に 橋下 氏 - 基本 政策 で 合意 . In: Jiji Tsūshin . November 17, 2012, Retrieved November 18, 2012 (Japanese). 
9. ↑ 石 原 代表 は 東京 比例 候補 で 出馬 日本 維新 の 会 . In: Jiji Tsūshin . November 18, 2012, Retrieved November 18, 2012 (Japanese). 
10. ↑ Carsten Germis: Noda dissolves parliament on Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung online, November 16, 2012
11. ↑ Hashimoto to colead Nippon Ishin in bid to heal rift over Ishihara. In: The Japan Times . January 18, 2013, accessed February 2, 2013 . 
12. ^ Nippon Ishin, Your Party to Cooperate in Summer Poll; no merger yet. In: The Japan Times . January 25, 2013, accessed February 2, 2013 . 
13. ↑ 'Comfort women' rap unfair: Hashimoto. In: The Japan Times . May 19, 2013, accessed May 19, 2013 . 
14. ↑ 維新 と の 選 挙 協力 解 消 ＝ み ん な 代表 が 明言 . In: Jiji Tsūshin . May 19, 2013. Retrieved May 19, 2013 (Japanese). 
15. ↑ Nippon Ishin expels rightwinger Nishimura over prostitute remark. In: The Japan Times. May 21, 2013, accessed July 22, 2013 . 
16. ↑ Reiji Yoshida: Ishihara cool to merger overture by Yui no To. In: The Japan Times . April 11, 2014, accessed May 28, 2014 . 
17. ↑ Reiji Yoshida, Ayako Mie: Hashimoto, Ishihara to break up Nippon Ishin; opposition realignment seen accelerating. In: The Japan Times . May 28, 2014, accessed May 28, 2014 . 
18. ↑ 日本 維新 の 会 、 分 党 へ 石 原 ・ 橋下 両 共同 代表 が 合意 . In: Asahi Shimbun Digital. May 28, 2014, Retrieved May 28, 2014 (Japanese). 
19. ↑ 維新 「分 党」 へ… 旧 太陽 議員 、 石 原 氏 に 同 調 か . (No longer available online.) In: Yomiuri Online. May 28, 2014, archived from the original on May 29, 2014 ; Retrieved May 28, 2014 (Japanese). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
20. ↑ Reiji Yoshida: Ishihara says new party will boast at least 22 Diet members. In: The Japan Times . June 4, 2014, accessed June 5, 2014 . 
21. ↑ Eric Johnston, Reiji Yoshida: Ishin party members go their own ways. In: The Japan Times . June 4, 2014, accessed June 5, 2014 .