The Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDPJ) is a social democratic political party in Japan that was founded in 1996 as the successor of the Japan Socialist Party. An earlier Social Democratic Party had existed from 1926 to 1932 in Interwar-era Japan, occupying a rightist position among the three proletarian parties in Japan. In 1947, the revived party emerged as the largest party in Japan, with Tetsu Katayama becoming Japan's first socialist prime minister. At various times, the party advocated the creation of a socialist Japan, but the party program changed after 1996, when it renamed itself to the "Social Democratic Party" and adopted social democracy as its main ideology. However, after this split, most of the JSP's legislators joined the Democratic Party of Japan, and the SDPJ became a minor party. In 2020, the party agreed to a merger with the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, although a faction of SDPJ politicians resolved to continue on as Social Democrats rather than merge into the CDP.
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