The was a political party in Japan from 1960 to 1994. It was formed in January 1960 by a moderate breakaway faction of the Japan Socialist Party led by Suehiro Nishio, primarily consisting of members from the former Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, amid disagreements over the Anpo protests and cooperation with the Japanese Communist Party. The party advocated social democracy with conservative stances on social issues and national security (often described as right-wing social democracy or centre to centre-left), strongly supported the Japan–United States alliance, and drew much of its organizational and financial support from the Dōmei private-sector labour confederation. It was a member of the Socialist International and dissolved in 1994 to join the New Frontier Party; many of its former members later joined the Democratic Party of Japan, with its tradition continuing as a faction within successor parties.
History The party was established in January 1960 by a breakaway faction of the Japanese Socialist Party. Led by Suehiro Nishio, it was made up of members of the most moderate wing of the former Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, a moderate faction that had existed as an independent party between 1948 and 1955 before reluctantly merging back together with the Leftist Socialist Party of Japan. Although long-standing ideological differences and factional rivalries played a key role, the proximate cause of the split was internal disagreements over how to conduct the ongoing Anpo protests against revision of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan, known as Anpo in Japanese, and whether or not to cooperate with the Communist Party of Japan in doing so.
Declassified United States government documents later revealed that covert CIA funding had also helped encourage the founding of this breakaway party. CIA support was aimed at moderating and subverting the political opposition to the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party, which was the main CIA funded party.
The DSP was dissolved in 1994 to join the New Frontier Party. In 1996, the Japan Socialist Party was transformed into the Social Democratic Party. Two years later, in 1998, the New Frontier Party dissolved and most former DSP members eventually joined the Democratic Party of Japan. Despite the dissolution of the DSP in 1994, its youth organisation (Minsha Youth) survived until 2003 and was a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). After Minsha Youth was dissolved, some of its former members and independent social democrats formed Young Socialists, a new youth organisation which retained full membership in IUSY; however, it was finally dissolved on 8 March 2008 without any successor organisation and abandoned its IUSY membership.
The tradition of the DSP is carried on by the Minsha kyōkai (民社協会, Democratic Socialist Group) as a faction within the liberal Democratic Party of Japan, Democratic Party and now centre-right Democratic Party for the People.
Political position and foreign policy
The DSP was rated "moderate", "moderate social-democratic", "centrist", "centre-left", and "leftist" by Japanese political standards at the time, but at the same time it was also regarded as a "conservative" political party. It derived much of its financial and organisational support from the Domei private-sector labour confederation, but unlike other social-democratic political parties in Japan, the party was not hostile to accepting neoliberal policies Due to the DSP's syncretic political position, the party's ideology is often referred to as right-wing social democracy.
The DSP strongly backed the Japan–United States alliance. For this reason, the DSP was often called the "right-wing party" in Japan, but because the DSP had a belief in socialist ideals, it was classified as a political "centrist" along with the old Komeito at the time. In addition, the DSP was a member of left-wing Socialist International.
Leaders No.PhotoName (Birth–death)Constituency/titleTerm of officeTook officeLeft office1Suehiro Nishio (1891–1981)Rep for Osaka 4th district (1947–93)
Osaka 1st district (1947–93)
Osaka 2nd district (1947–93)24 January 1960June 19672Eiichi Nishimura (1904–1971)Rep for Osaka 2nd district (1947–93)
Osaka 5th district (1947–93)June 196727 April 19713Ikkō Kasuga (1910–1989)Rep for Aichi 1st district (1947–93)27 April 197128 November 19774Ryōsaku Sasaki (1915–2000)Cou for National district
Rep for
Hyogo 5th district (1947–93)28 November 197723 April 19855Saburo Tsukamoto (1927–2020)Rep for Aichi 2nd district (1947–93)
Aichi 6th district (1947–93)23 April 198525 February 19896Eiichi Nagasue (1918–1994)Cou for Kyoto Prefecture
Rep for
Kyoto 1st district (1947–93)25 February 1989April 19907Keigo Ōuchi (1930–2016)Rep for Tokyo 2nd district (1947–93)April 19908 June 19948Takashi Yonezawa (1940–2016)Rep for Miyazaki 1st district (1947–93)
Kyushu PR block (from Miyazaki)8 June 19949 December 1994
Election results
House of Representatives
Election year Candidates No. of seats won Change Status 1960 105 1963 59 6 1967 60 7 1969 68 1 1972 65 12 1976 51 10 1979 53 6 1980 50 3 1983 54 6 1986 56 12 1990 44 12 1993 28 1
House of Councillors
Election year Seats Status Total Contested 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992
See also Blue Labour Democratic Socialists '70 Italian Democratic Socialist Party New Italian Socialist Party Labor Right Seeheimer Kreis Social Democratic Party (UK) Social Democrats USA New Fraternity Party
References