Democratic Socialist Party (Japan)

Democratic Socialist Party (originally Minshu Shakai-to (民主社会党), later simply Minsha-to(民社党)) was a former democratic socialist party that existed in Japan.

History
Democratic Socialist Party was established in 1960 by a breakaway group (led by Suehiro Nishio) of Japan Socialist Party. It was made up of many members of the former Rightist Socialist Party of Japan, a more moderate social-democratic faction that existed between 1948 and 1955, though Japan Socialist Party reunified afterward. DSP claimed democratic socialism and was a member of Socialist International. The party advocated construction of a welfare state, opposed to totalitarianism (mainly communism), and strongly supported the Japan-US alliance. DSP was dissolved in 1994 to join the New Frontier Party. In 1996, when the Social Democratic Party (Japan) formed and the Japan Socialist Party dissolved, the New Frontier Party dissolved and merged itself with the Democratic Party of Japan. Despite the dissolution of the party back in 1994, its youth organisation (Minsha Youth) has survived until 2003 and was a member of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). After Minsha Youth was dissolved, some of its former members and independent social democrats formed a new youth organization - the Young Socialists (Japan), which retains a full membership of IUSY.