League for the Establishment of a National Assembly has goal national assembly
Background
In 1875 Taisuke Itagaki formed the Aikokusha, in order to expand his Freedom and People's Rights Movement nationwide. However, because Itagaki was reinstated as a sangi in the Meiji government his Aikokusha soon dissolved on its own.
Three years later, in September 1878 the Aikokusha was revived and a conference was held. At its third conference held in November 1879 it was decided to engage in canvassing throughout Japan and collect signatures for a petition to establish a national assembly.The third conference and the formation of the Liberal Party
The main agenda planned for the Association's third conference in October 1881 was discussion of the draft constitutions drawn up by their members. In addition, during the first two days of October talks were undertaken between the leaders of the Liberal Party Preparation Committee and the Great Japan Public Association of Volunteers for the Establishment of a National Assembly with an eye to bringing together the two organizations and forming a new political party. Kaneaki Hayashi of the Association's standing committee played a leading role in the negotiations.
While this was happening, the Hokkaido Colonization Assets Scandal had come to light and, as a result of having taken the government to task over it, Shigenobu Okuma was ousted from the government in the Political Crisis of 1881. In order to deflect mounting criticism, the government promulgated on 12 October 1881 the Imperial Edict on the Establishment of a National Assembly to take effect in the year 1890. The activists of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, judging that they had succeeded in their objective, shelved their discussion of the draft constitutions and the majority agreed that they ought to create a political party.
Because differences of opinion would emerge between the group's urban and rural elements, Morikazu Numa seceded from the formation of the new party and would later join Shigenobu Okuma's Rikken Kaishinto.
On 18 October 1881 the conference opened, bringing together 78 representatives from across the country at the restaurant Ibumura-Ro in Tokyo. Shojiro Goto was selected to chair the meeting with Tatsui Baba as co-chair. On 19 October the party pledge and rules were written up and on 29 October the Liberal Party came into being with Taisuke Itagaki being elected as the party's president and Nobuyuki Nakajima as vice-president.References
External links
Daikichi Irokawa on the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (in Japanese)
The text of the petition from the National Diet Library (in Japanese)