Sakigake Party
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The Sakigake Party was a Japanese political party which existed from 1998 through 2002. It was a conservative reformist party with ecologist elements. It was right-wing, and today is defunct.
[edit] History
The Sakigake Party grew out of the New Party Sakigake, a party which was created in 1993 by members who broke from the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan). In 1996 some liberal members of New Sakigake joined the fledgling Democratic Party of Japan. The exodus of these liberal members moved the party further to the right.
As part of the ruling coalition in 1998, it had 2 seats in the House of Representatives and 3 in the House of Councillors. In October 1998, the party reformed itself with a more conservative image, dropping the 'New' from its title to become simply Sakigake.
Its popularity heavily declined after that, and by 2001, the party had no seats in either the Lower or Upper House. In 2002, the ecologists took control, and turned the party into an ecologist party. It changed its name to Midori no kaigi, which, because it won no seats in the 2004 Parliamentary elections, dissolved itself on July 22, 2004, spelling an end to the whole Sakigake movement in Japanese politics.
The party gained most of its support from white collar workers and ecologists, and on domestic policy was right-wing conservative, as well as reformist, ecologist.
The party is now defunct.
