= Democratic Party of Japan = The '''Democratic Party of Japan (民主党)''' ('''DPJ''') was a [[Japan/PoliticalParties|political party]] in [[Japan/Democratization|Japan]] that operated between 1996 and 2016. It served as the only effective oppostion to the [[Japan/LiberalDemocraticParty|LDP]] during that time. <> ---- == Platform == ---- == History == Ahead of the [[Japan/1996GeneralElections|1996 elections]], members of the [[Japan/JapanSocialistParty|Japan Socialist Party]] and the [[Japan/NewPartySakigake|New Party Sakigake]] broke away to found the '''Democratic Party of Japan'''. The party was co-led under [[Japan/YukioHatoyama|Hatoyama]] and [[Japan/NaotoKan|Kan]]. The DPJ won enough votes to become the second largest opposition party, just after the [[Japan/NewFrontierParty|New Frontier Party]]. In 1998 those two parties merged under the DPJ name and brand. In 2003, the [[Japan/LiberalParty1998|Liberal Party]] also merged in. The highly-influential [[Japan/IchirouOzawa|Ozawa]] became party leader after the merger. Ahead of the [[Japan/2016HouseOfCouncillorsElections|2016 elections]], the DPJ merged with the '''Japan Innovation Party''' in March 2016 to form the [[Japan/DemocraticParty2016|Democratic Party]]. ---- == Leaders == ||'''Leader''' ||'''Local Name'''||'''Term''' || ||[[Japan/NaotoKan|Naoto Kan]] ||菅 直人 ||1996 - 1999|| ||[[Japan/YukioHatoyama|Yukio Hatoyama]]||鳩山 友紀夫 ||2002 - 2004|| ||Naoto Kan || ||2002 - 2004|| ||Katsuya Okada ||岡田 克也 ||2004 - 2005|| ||Seiji Maehara ||前原 誠司 ||2005 - 2006|| ||[[Japan/IchirouOzawa|Ichirou Ozawa]] ||小沢一郎 ||2006 - 2009|| ||Yukio Hatoyama || ||2009 - 2010|| ||Naoto Kan || ||2010 - 2011|| ||[[Japan/YoshihikoNoda|Yoshihiko Noda]]||野田 佳彦 ||2011 - 2012|| ||Banri Kaieda ||海江田 万里 ||2012 - 2014|| ||Katsuya Okada || ||2014 - 2016|| ---- CategoryRicottone