Democratic Socialist Party (Japan)

The party was established in January 1960 by a breakaway faction of the Japanese Socialist Party.^[9][10] 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.^[9] 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.^[9]

Declassified United States government documents later revealed that covert CIA funding had also helped encourage the founding of this breakaway party.^[11] 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.^[12][13]

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.^[10] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.

The DSP was rated "moderate",^[14][15][16] "moderate social-democratic",^[17][2] "centrist"^[4][5][6], "centre-left"^[7], and "leftist"^[18] by Japanese political standards at the time, but at the same time it was also regarded as a "conservative"^[3][8][19] 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^[20] Due to the DSP's syncretic political position, the party's ideology is often referred to as right-wing social democracy (右派社会民主主義).^[21]

The DSP strongly backed the Japan–United States alliance.^[2] 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.^[22] In addition, the DSP was a member of left-wing Socialist International.^[21][23]

House of Representatives

More information Election year, Candidates ...

Election year	Candidates	No. of seats won	Change	Status
1960	105	17 / 467		Opposition
1963	59	23 / 467	6	Opposition
1967	60	30 / 486	7	Opposition
1969	68	31 / 486	1	Opposition
1972	65	19 / 491	12	Opposition
1976	51	29 / 511	10	Opposition
1979	53	35 / 511	6	Opposition
1980	50	32 / 511	3	Opposition
1983	54	38 / 511	6	Opposition
1986	56	26 / 512	12	Opposition
1990	44	14 / 512	12	Opposition
1993	28	15 / 511	1	Governing coalition

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House of Councillors

More information Election year, Seats ...

Election year	Seats		Status
	Total	Contested
1962	12 / 250	5 / 125	Opposition
1965	7 / 250	3 / 125	Opposition
1968	10 / 250	7 / 125	Opposition
1971	13 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1974	10 / 252	5 / 126	Opposition
1977	11 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1980	12 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1983	12 / 252	6 / 126	Opposition
1986	12 / 252	5 / 126	Opposition
1989	8 / 252	3 / 126	Opposition
1992	9 / 252	4 / 126	Opposition

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