Good Governance Party

Good Governance Party
Leader	Tsutomu Hata
Founded	January 23, 1998 (1998-01-23)
Dissolved	April 27, 1998 (1998-04-27)
Merged into	Democratic Party of Japan

The Good Governance Party (民政党, Minseitō^?) was a Japanese political party which was in existence for a short period in early 1998. It was a centrist, reformist party that merged with other parties in April 1998 to form the Democratic Party of Japan.

There was an earlier pre-war Minseitō party, the Rikken Minseitō from which existed from 1927-1940.

History

The Good Governance Party was composed of several smaller reformist groups that had emerged during the collapse of the large coalition New Frontier Party in 1996. These groups were:

• The Sun Party (太陽党, Taiyōtō^?), led by Tsutomu Hata,
• The Voice of the People (Japan) (国民の声, Kokumin no Koe^?) led by Michihiko Kano
• The group of independents known as From Five (フロムファイブ, Furomu Faibu^?), led by Morihiro Hosokawa.

Shortly after uniting on January 23, 1998, the Good Governance Party merged with the previous Democratic Party of Japan (1996-1998) (民主党, Minshutō^?), the New Fraternity Party (新党友愛, Shintō-Yūai^?), and the Democratic Reform Party (民主改革連合, Minshu-Kaikaku-Rengō^?) to form the brand-new Democratic Party of Japan. Hata, Kano and Hosokawa all played important roles in the development of the DPJ as the largest opposition party in Japan.