New Conservative Party (Japan)

The New Conservative Party (NCP) was the name of two now-defunct political parties in Japan with a common lineage.

The first incarnation of the party (保守党, Hoshutō, lit. 'Conservative Party') was founded on April 3, 2000 by 20 lower house and 6 upper house defectors from the Liberal Party. This party was dissolved briefly and then re-established (as 保守新党, Hoshu Shintō, lit. 'New Conservative Party') on December 25, 2002 in order to accommodate defectors from the Democratic Party of Japan.

The party eventually merged with the Liberal Democratic Party after the 2003 election.

First New Conservative Party
In 2000, Liberal Party leader Ichiro Ozawa decided to take his party out of its coalition with the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and go into opposition. However, some of his party members wanted to remain in the government, and thus defected to form the New Conservative Party.

Takeshi Noda had been favored to be founding president, but he opted to become the secretary-general. Toshiki Kaifu also declined the position, so Chikage Oogi, a former Takarazuka actress, was selected as party president.

The New Conservative Party became part of a three-party ruling coalition with the LDP and New Komeito. This incarnation of the party was dissolved on December 23, 2002.

Second New Conservative Party
Japan's Public Offices Election Law prohibits lawmakers that were elected to proportional representation seats from switching to a party that they had competed against in the last election without first resigning their seat, so the original incarnation of the New Conservative Party was unable to accept defectors from the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) into its ranks.

The dissolution and re-establishment of the party on December 25, 2002 created a new legal entity, unconstrained by this rule. This allowed Hiroshi Kumagai and four other disgruntled DPJ members (Takao Satō, Yoichiro Esaki, Zenjiro Kaneko and Eriko Yamatani) to form the new party together with nine members from its previous incarnation, with Kumagai becoming the party leader. The new party took over the role of its predecessor in the LDP-led ruling coalition.

The party was a conservative reformist party and was very right-wing. After the November 2003 general election, the New Conservative Party was left with only four members in the House of Representatives, down from nine prior to the election. Among the losers in the election was the party president, Hiroshi Kumagai.

On November 10, 2003, then-Prime Minister Koizumi proposed that the NCP merge with the LDP. The secretary-general of the NCP, Toshihiro Nikai, confirmed the merger, stating "We humbly received the proposal and, after discussion within the party, we agreed to accept the proposal to deliver the policies we promised to voters."