Democratic Party For the People

The Democratic Party For the People (国民民主党, Kokumin Minshu-tō), abbreviated to DPFP or DPP, is a centre to centre-right, conservative and populist political party in Japan.

Democratic Party For the People 国民民主党 Kokumin Minshu-tō
Abbreviation	DPFP or DPP
Leader	Yuichiro Tamaki
Secretary-General	Kazuya Shimba
Deputy Leader	Motohisa Furukawa
Founded	7 May 2018 (2018-05-07) 11 September 2020 (2020-09-11) (in current form)
Merger of	Kibō no Tō Democratic Party (2016)
Merged into	Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (majority)
Headquarters	1-11-1 Miyakezaka Building, Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Newspaper	Kokumin Minshu Press
Ideology	Conservatism (Japanese) Populism
Political position	Centre to centre-right
Colors	Blue and   gold
Slogan	つくろう、新しい答え。 (Tsukurou, atarashii kotae, "Let's make a new answer")
Councillors	22 / 248
Representatives	27 / 465
Prefectural assembly members	34 / 2,644
Municipal assembly members	145 / 29,135
Website
new-kokumin.jp
Politics of Japan Political parties Elections

The first iteration of the party was formed on 7 May 2018 as a merger of the Democratic Party and Kibō no Tō (Party of Hope). In September 2020, some members of the party agreed to join the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, however other members, including party leader Yuichiro Tamaki, rejected the arrangement and instead formed a new party retaining the DPFP name and branding.

The party saw electoral success in the 2024 general election, in which it won 28 seats in the House of Representatives, becoming the fourth-largest party in the chamber. Subsequently in the 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election, the party came in second in the national popular vote and won 17 seats, surpassing Komeito to become the fourth-largest party in the National Diet overall.

The party advocates for the use of expansionary fiscal policy. Politically, the party has never joined an LDP-Komeito ruling coalition, instead claiming cooperation with other parties, regardless of governing status, when policy aligns. For example, in 2024, the party tried to reach an agreement with the LDP and Komeito on the national budget, while also signing cooperation agreements with the CDP and RENGO on policies such as diplomacy, economy, and diversity.

History

First iteration

On 28 September 2017, Democratic Party (DP) leader Seiji Maehara announced that the party had abandoned plans to contest the 2017 general election, with the party's sitting representatives contesting the election as candidates for the Kibō no Tō recently founded by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, or as independents. On 23 October 2017, after the election, Maehara resigned as party president, with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) having replaced the DP as the largest opposition party in the House of Representatives, while the existing DP caucus continued to exist in the House of Councillors.

In January 2018, the DP and the Kibō no Tō agreed to form a joint parliamentary group in both houses of the Diet, although days later the negotiations broke down. On 9 April 2018, it was announced that talks were ongoing to merge the two parties into a new opposition force. On 24 April 2018, at a joint press conference the leadership of the DP and the Kibō no Tō announced that both parties had agreed to merge in May 2018 as the National Democratic Party. The DP and Kibō no Tō on 7 May 2018, 62 members of the predecessor parties joined the DPFP at its formation. adopting Democratic Party For the People as their official English language title. DP leader Kōhei Ōtsuka and Kibō leader Yūichirō Tamaki became the interim co-leaders of the new party.

The party held a leadership election in September 2018 to choose a permanent leader. Interim co-leader Tamaki was elected as the permanent leader of the party.

In April 2019, the Liberal Party merged into the Democratic Party For the People.

Second iteration

In year 2019, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan tried to absorb Democratic Party of People, but faced resistance from the party.

Discussions resumed in year 2020, but due to split in opinion among members of the party at the time regarding whether to join CDPJ, it's announced on August 24 in the year both CDPJ and DPFP were dissolved and re-established as new CDPJ and DPFP, with only some of old DPFP members joining the new CDPJ. Difference in positions in policies have been cited as reason for why some members and supporting groups of DPFP didn't join CDPJ at the time, including CDPJ's opposition of consumption tax cut, opposition to constitution amendment, push for zero nuclear, and that CDPJ did not name itself as reformist-centrist.

As a result of this decision, the old DPFP dissolved on 11 September 2020 and the application for dissolution submitted to the government on 14 September 2020, and the new DPFP is subsequently established on 15 September 2020.

After the establishment of new DPFP, the new party decided not to join left-leaning opposition coalition which featured CDPJ, Japan Communist Party, Social Democratic Party, and Reiwa Shinsengumi, due to concern on the coalition's position regarding nuclear power, constitution reform, national security, and tax cut. Instead, the party cooperated with Japan Innovation Party for pushing constitutional reform and Tomin First no Kai in election.

In November 2023, Maehara Seiji and some other parliament members of the party left the party following defeat in party leadership election, critising the executives of Democratic Party For the People at the time being too closely aligned with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), such as via the DPFP cooperating with the LDP on legislation and the DPFP intention to support the LDP's supplementary budget for the fiscal year 2024.

But due to 2023–2024 Japanese slush fund scandal, DPFP voted for support a vote of no confidence against the Kishida cabinet of the LDP-Komeito ruling coalition at the time. Because of this opposition, Komeito and LDP removed policy supported by DPFP from the supplementary budget. This caused DPFP disengage from discussion with LDP and Komeito and the party instead moved to support candidates from CDPJ in elections against LDP/Komeito coalition.

Political position and ideologies

First iteration

In 2018 sources defined the party as centrist. The DPFP describes itself as a "reformist centrist" and not populist, although various sources have described the party as being conservative and populist. In 2018, Otsuka said that the term "Reformist-Centrist Party" describes the attitude and spirit of the DPP that thoroughly adheres to a democratic approach to realistically reform/solve various issues. In 2018, the DPFP officially stated its support of diplomatic pacifism, constitutionalism and sustainable development.

Second iteration

The DPFP self-defines as "a reform centrist party led by people ranging from moderate-conservatives and liberals". The DPFP's political position is considered centrist or center-right.

Key policies taken to the 2024 election included supporting raising the tax-free threshold for income tax, and reducing premiums for social insurance. The DPFP also supports the reopening and new construction of nuclear power plants, as well as greater investment in defence spending and defence manufacturing. On immigration, the party campaigned on investigating social insurance coverage for foreign residents.

During 2025 House of Councillors election the DPFP softened some policy positions on foreign residents due to claims of xenophobia, while also rescinding their previous support for consumption tax to be halved to 5%.

Leadership

Position	Name
Leader	Yuichiro Tamaki
Deputy Leader	Motohisa Furukawa
Secretary General	Kazuya Shimba
Chairman in the House of Councillors	Yasue Funayama
Chairman of the General Council	Yoshifumi Hamano
Chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee	Motohisa Furukawa
Chairman of the Policy Affairs Research Council	Makoto Hamaguchi
Chairman of the Election Strategy Committee	Toshihide Muraoka
Deputy Secretary General Secretary General in the House of Councillors	Takanori Kawai
Source: [1]

Leaders

No.	Name	Constituency / title	Term of office		Image	Election results
			Took office	Left office
Preceding parties: Democratic Party (2016) (centre), Kibō no Tō (centre-right), and Liberal Party (2016) (centre-left)
1	Co-leadership Kohei Otsuka (born 1959) Yuichiro Tamaki (born 1969)	Otsuka: Cou for Aichi Tamaki: Rep for Kagawa 2nd	7 May 2018	4 September 2018		DP; 2017 Unopposed Kibō; 2017 Unopposed
2	Yuichiro Tamaki (born 1969)	Rep for Kagawa 2nd	4 September 2018	11 September 2020		2018 Yuichiro Tamaki – 204 Keisuke Tsumura – 74
Successor parties: Constitutional Democratic Party (centre-left) and Democratic Party For the People (centre-right)
1	Yuichiro Tamaki (born 1969)	Rep for Kagawa 2nd	11 September 2020	Incumbent		2020 Yuichiro Tamaki – 65 Takae Ito – 26 2023 Yuichiro Tamaki – 80 Seiji Maehara – 31
—	Motohisa Furukawa (born 1965) Acting	Rep for Aichi 2nd	4 December 2024	4 March 2024

1. Tamaki was suspended from his leadership position by the DPFP on 4 December 2024 for three months following the revelation of an extramarital affair.

Election results

House of Representatives

House of Representatives

Election	Leader	Candidates	Seats			Position	Constituency votes		PR Block votes		Government
			No.	±	Share		Number	%	Number	%
2021	Yuichiro Tamaki	27	11 / 465		2.4%	5th	1,246,812	2.17%	2,593,396	4.51%	Opposition
2024		42	28 / 465	17	6.0%	4th	2,349,584	4.33%	6,172,427	11.32%	Opposition

House of Councillors

House of Councillors

Election	Leader	Candidates	Seats					Position	Constituency votes		PR Block votes		Status
			Won	±	Share	Total	±		No.	Share	No.	Share
2019	Yuichiro Tamaki		6 / 124		4.83%	21 / 248		6th	3,256,859	6.47%	3,481,078	6.95%	Opposition
Successor parties: Constitutional Democratic Party (centre-left) & Democratic Party For the People (centre-right)
2022	Yuichiro Tamaki	22	5 / 125		4.00%	10 / 248		6th	2,038,655	3.83%	3,159,657	5.96%	Opposition
2025		41	17 / 125	12	13.60%	22 / 248	12	3rd	7,180,653	12.14%	7,620,493	12.88%	Opposition

See also

• Conservative mainstream (in Japanese)
• Minsha kyōkai