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Kibō no Tō 希望の党 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Nariaki Nakayama |
| Secretary-General | Kazunari Inoue |
| Founder | Yuriko Koike |
| Founded |
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| Dissolved |
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| Split from | Democratic Party Liberal Democratic Party |
| Merged into | Democratic Party For the People (first iteration) |
| Headquarters | 2-17-10-203Nagatachō,Chiyoda, Tokyo |
| Ideology |
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| Political position |
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| Colors | Green[5] |
| Website | |
| kibounotou | |
Party of Hope (Japanese:希望の党,Hepburn:Kibō no Tō) was aconservativepolitical party in Japan founded byTokyo GovernorYuriko Koike. The party was founded just before the call of the2017 general election. The party's ideology was mainly Japanese conservatism andnationalism.
Kibō no Tō merged with theDemocratic Party to form theDemocratic Party For the People on 7 May 2018. However, someright-wing populist members decided to form a new party with the same name. In October 2021, the party disbanded a second time.
In 2016'sgubernatorial election, Governor Koike was elected as the Governor with membership of theLiberal Democratic Party (LDP) even though she was not the official candidate of the party.[note 1] Then, she formed a regional party:Tomin First no Kai, which was founded for the2017 metropolitan election. TheKomeito party supported Governor Koike in the metropolitan council, even though they were part of thecoalition government with the LDP at the national level. At this time, the party was described ascentre-right.[4]
Then, on 25 September 2017, afterPrime MinisterShinzo Abe had calledOctober 2017 general election, Koike announced that she will found a national party called Kibō no Tō based on the Tomin First no Kai.[6] Because Kibō no Tō at the time declared it as a centrist liberal party, the support rate of it was once ranked the second among political parties in Japan briefly after its foundation. The largest opposing partyDemocratic Party (DP) at the time, troubled by its continuous low support rate since 2012,[7] announced that the party had abandoned plans to contest the2017 general election becauseSeiji Maehara, a conservative in DP and the leader of DP at the time, decided to start the merger with Kibō no Tō.[8] The DP caucus in theHouse of Representatives disbanded, with many of the party's existing representatives contesting the election as candidates for Kibō no Tō.[9] This led to the split on 2 October 2017 of theConstitutional Democratic Party, which consists of left-leaning and liberal DP politicians whom Koike had rejected as Kibō no Tō candidates.[10][11]
It was reported that the Kibō no Tō is tightly connected to some far-right organizations likeGanbare Nippon founded bySatoru Mizushima. Some members of Kibō no Tō, likeNariaki Nakayama, are far-rightist, too.[12] The support rate of Kibō no Tō then dramatically decreased before the election and finally it only won 50 seats, even lower than the newly-foundedConstitutional Democratic Party of Japan.
On 10 November 2017, the party held aleadership election to elect a co-leader of the party.Yūichirō Tamaki was elected in the caucus election by a margin of 39 to 14. Koike resigned as party leader on 14 November 2017 as a result of the poor performance in the general election, leaving Tamaki as a sole leader.[13][14]
On 24 April 2018, the leadership of Kibō and theDemocratic Party announced in a joint press conference that both parties agreed to merge in May 2018 under the nameDemocratic Party For the People (DPFP). Several factions in both parties do not plan to join the new party. The members of these factions are expected to form their own splinter party, join other parties or become independents.[15]
Prior to the merger, far-right members of Kibō led byShigefumi Matsuzawa stated that they intended to form a separate party that retains the Kibō no Tō name.[16] The party was formed on 7 May 2018, on the same day with the DPFP merger.[17]
On 5 June 2018, Former Secretary-generalKuniko Koda left the party, so Kibō no Tō lost its legal status as a political party and became a political organization.[citation needed]
On 28 May 2019, Matsuzawa resigned as party leader, andNariaki Nakayama became the new party leader.
On 10 October 2021, Nakayama, the only member of the Diet, did not run for the next House of Representatives election and indicated his intention to retire from politics.[18][19] On the 18th of the same month, Nakayama officially announced his retirement at a press conference, revealing that the Party of Hope, which he represented, had dissolved on the 1st of the same month.[20]
| No. | Name | Image | Term of office | Election results | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Took office | Left office | ||||
| 1 | Yuriko Koike |  | 25 September 2017 | 14 November 2017 | Unopposed |
| 2 | Yuichiro Tamaki |  | 14 November 2017 | 7 May 2018 | |
| 3 | Shigefumi Matsuzawa | .jpg) | 7 May 2018 | 28 May 2019 | |
| 4 | Nariaki Nakayama |  | 28 May 2019 | 1 October 2021 | |
| Election | Leader | Constituency | Party list | Total | Status | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| 2017 | Yuriko Koike | 11,437,602 | 20.64 | 32 / 176 | 9,677,524 | 17.36 | 18 / 289 | 50 / 465 | Opposition |
One look at these three points may give the false impression that Kibo no To pursued liberal-leaning policies. But the rest of its campaign platform was totally conservative, calling for market fundamentalism on economic issues and featuring a nationalistic political agenda. [...] All in all, the party gave the impression of pursuing a right-leaning populism. [...] In short, Kibo no To came off as nothing but a right-wing populist party that looked similar to but was indeed different from the LDP.
Bracketed numbers indicate numbers of seats in theHouse of Representatives (Lower House) of theNational Diet immediately after the2024 general election | |||||
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| Political organizations with seats in theNational Diet |
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