Good Governance Party

The Good Governance Party 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, which existed from 1927 to 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, led by Tsutomu Hata,
The Voice of the People led by Michihiko Kano
The group of independents known as From Five, 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), the New Fraternity Party, and the Democratic Reform Party 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.