Liberal Party (Japan, 1950)

Liberal Party 自由党
Founder	Shigeru Yoshida
Founded	1950
Dissolved	15 November 1955
Merger of	Democratic Liberal Party Democratic Party (coalition faction)
Merged into	Liberal Democratic Party
Headquarters	Tokyo, Japan
Ideology	Conservatism
Political position	Right-wing
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

The Liberal Party (Japanese: 自由党, Jiyūtō) was a political party in Japan. The party had put pro-Americanism and economic reconstruction as its main policies.

History

The party was established in March 1950 as a merger of the Democratic Liberal Party led by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida (which held a majority in the House of Representatives) and 22 MPs from the Alliance faction of the Democratic Party, although Alliance leader Takeru Inukai did not join the new party. In the April 1950 House of Councillors elections, it won 52 of the 132 seats.

In August 1952, Ichirō Hatoyama was allowed to rejoin the party, having been banned from politics as a result of the purge. A former leader of the original post-war Liberal Party, he expected Yoshida to allow him to take over the party again, but was rebuffed. This led to increasing tensions within the party, splitting it into Hatoyama and Yoshida factions.

Although the party won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives in the October 1952 elections, winning 242 of the 466 seats, Yoshida's government lost a vote of no-confidence in March 1953, leading to early elections. Prior to polling day, the Hatoyama faction broke away to form Liberal Party–Hatoyama, which won 35 seats in the elections as the Liberal Party was reduced to 202 seats. The simultaneous House of Councillor elections also saw the party lose is majority in the upper house. However, Yoshida was able to form a minority government, and later in the year Hatoyama and 25 other Liberal Party–Hatoyama MPs rejoined the Liberal Party.

Another split occurred in November 1954 when 35 MPs left the Liberal Party to merge with the Japan Liberal Party and the Kaishintō to form the Japan Democratic Party (JDP). A no-confidence motion was passed shortly afterwards, resulting in the resignation of Yoshida and Hatoyama, now a member of the JDP, becoming the new prime minister.

In the February 1955 general elections, the party was reduced to 114 seats as it was defeated by the JDP. On 15 November that year the two parties merged to form the Liberal Democratic Party.

Leaders

#	Name	Portrait	From	To
1	Shigeru Yoshida		1 March 1950	8 December 1954
2	Taketora Ogata		8 December 1954	15 November 1955

Election results

House of Representatives

Election	Leader	Candidates	Seats	Change	Status
1952	Shigeru Yoshida	475	240 / 466		Government
1953		316	199 / 466	41	Government
1955	Taketora Ogata	248	112 / 467	87	Democratic-Liberal Party coalition

House of Councillors

Election	Leader	Seats		Status
		Won	Total
1950	Shigeru Yoshida	52 / 132	76 / 250	Governing minority
1953		46 / 128	93 / 250	Governing minority