Seiyukai Party

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Rikkenseiyukai (Friends of Constitutional Government, 立憲政友会) is a political party in Japan founded in 1890 by Count Itō Hirobumi. After the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) he became the first real leader of the Rikken-Seiyukai party. Also called the Seiyukai Party, it became the representative party in prewar Japan.

The Seiyukai Party was the most powerful party in Japan from 1900 to 1921 and it promoted a big government with “active policy” (quite large public spending). Though called "liberal" by members of the party the Seiyukai Party was generally conservative. It often opposed social policies and it supported bureaucratic control and militarism for the purpose of winning votes and especially attacking the rival Minsei Party. The Seiyukai Party governments prevailed from 1924 to 1931. After winning election in late 1931 the Seiyukai Party floated the yen and conducted expansionary macro policies to revive the economy.

After World War II, the Seiyukai reappeared, under the leadership of Kijuro Shidehara, as the Progressive Party (Shinpō-tō), the most conservative major political party in postwar Japan. The Progressives were later absorbed into the business-oriented Liberal Democratic Party. The Seiyukai was traditionally identified with the Mitsui financial interests.

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