The Democratic Party (Japanese: 民主党, Hepburn: Minshutō), officially 日本民主党 (lit. 'Japan Democratic Party') was a conservative political party in Japan.^[5]

The party was founded in spring 1947 by merging the Progressive Party (Shinpo-tō) of Inukai Takeru with a faction of Liberal Party led by Hitoshi Ashida and obtained 124 seats in 1947 elections. The party had held seven seats in Tetsu Katayama's government in 1947-1948. For some months in 1948, party's leader Ashida was Prime minister.

In March 1948, part of DP members led by Kijūrō Shidehara joined the Liberal Party to form the Democratic Liberal Party. In 1949 elections, the DP got 69 seats. The party was finally merged with the National Cooperative Party to form the National Democratic Party in April 1950.

Election	Leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/-	Position	Status
1947	Hitoshi Ashida	6,960,270	25.44	124 / 468	new	3rd	Governing coalition
1949	Takeru Inukai	4,798,352	15.68	69 / 466	55	4th	Opposition

• Awaya, Kentaro [in Japanese] (1983). Showa no Seito. Showa no Rekishi (in Japanese). Vol. 6. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 978-4093760065.
• Kanda, Fuhito (1983). Senryō to minshu shugi. Showa no Rekishi (in Japanese). Vol. 8. Tokyo: Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-376008-X.
• Uno, Shun'ichi [in Japanese] (1991). Nihon zenshi: Japan chronik (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-203994-X.

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