板垣退助
During this period, Itagaki Taisuke and Ōkuma Shigenobu were leading figures in the legitimization of political parties. Itagaki created Japan's first political party, the Aikoku Kōtō, in 1873 in Tokyo to petition for an elected assembly, and a similar regional party based in Osaka, the Aikokusha. These groups were the basis of the Jiyutō (Liberal Party), founded in 1881 as Japan’s first nationally based party. Ōkuma founded the Rikken Kaishintō in 1882, mainly from the urban elites. In reaction, the oligarchs fought back by the creation of their own party the same year, the Rikken Teiseitō.