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TheKenseitō (憲政党; Constitutional Party) was apolitical party in theEmpire of Japan during theMeiji period.

TheKenseitō was founded in June 1898, as a merger of theShimpotō headed byŌkuma Shigenobu and theLiberal Party (Jiyūtō) led byItagaki Taisuke, with Ōkuma as party president. The merger gave the new party an overwhelming majority in theLower House of theDiet of Japan; the two parties had won 208 seats in theMarch 1898 elections. After the collapse of the Itō administration, Ōkuma becamePrime Minister of Japan, despite concerns byYamagata Aritomo and other members of theMeiji oligarchy andgenrō that this would result in a dilution of their authority.^[1] One of Ōkuma's first acts as prime minister was to pass much-needed fiscal retrenchment legislation, trimming the number of bureaucrats on the government payroll. However, he was unable to curtail spending for the post-First Sino-Japanese War military expansion program he inherited from the Itō administration.

During theAugust 1898 general election, theKenseitō won 260 out of 300 seats contested; however, the party soon collapsed. Members of the formerJiyūtō felt that Ōkuma did not distribute the cabinet seats in fair proportion to their party, and joined with Yamagata Aritomo and other conservative elements in the Diet to criticizeMinister of EducationOzaki Yukio for a speech which they felt promotedrepublicanism. Following Ozaki's resignation, the formerJiyūtō faction continued to attack the government until Ōkuma's cabinet disintegrated.

The formerJiyūtō faction reorganized itself into theNewKenseitō in November 1898 with Itagaki as its president, whilst the formerShimpotō members formedKensei Hontō. The reformed party allied itself with the new government led by Yamagata, and pushed for land tax reform and expansion ofsuffrage. The NewKenseitō joined Itō Hirobumi'sRikken Seiyūkai in 1900.

• Banno, Junji,The Establishment of The Japanese Constitutional System. Routledge (1995)ISBN 0-415-13475-7
• Sims, Richard (1990).Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868–2000. University of California Press.ISBN 0-520-06838-6.

• Defunct political parties in Japan
• Political parties established in 1898
• 1898 establishments in Japan
• Political parties in the Empire of Japan
• Political parties disestablished in 1900
• 1900 disestablishments in Japan

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