the 1993 Japanese general election while the LDP lost its majority in the lower house for the first time since the 1983 Japanese general election and was out of government for the first time in 38 years. The anti-LDP coalition government of Morihiro Hosokawa was formed by reformists who had triggered the 1993 election by leaving the LDP (Japan Renewal Party and New Party Sakigake), a liberal party formed only a year before (Japan New Party), the traditional centre-left opposition (Kōmeitō, Democratic Socialist Party and Socialist Democratic Federation) and the Democratic Reform Party, the political arm of the trade union federation, together with the JSP. In 1994, the JSP and the New Sakigake Party decided to leave the non-LDP coalition. The minority Hata cabinet lasted only a few weeks. The JSP then formed a grand coalition (dai-renritsu) government with the LDP and the New Party Sakigake under JSP Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who was leader of the party from 1993 to 1996. Most of the other parties from the anti-LDP coalition, now forced back into opposition, united to form the New Frontier Party (NFP), which overtook the JSP as second largest political party in Japan. The JSP suffered a defeat in the 1995 Japanese House of Councillors election. In January 1996, the New Socialist Party of Japan split off from the JSP, Murayama resigned as Prime Minister, and the JSP changed its name from the JSP to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as an interim party for forming a new party. Ideology The JSP is generally regarded as a progressive and socialist "left-wing" party that opposes the conservative and nationalist "right-wing" Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The JSP is also considered a centre-left party, but there was a far-left faction within the party. The so-called "leftists" in the JSP were Marxists in favour of scientific socialism. By contrast, the so-called "rightists" were in favour of social democracy and aimed at establishing a welfare state. The JSP supported a neutralist foreign policy and opposed amending the Constitution of Japan, especially the Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan. Japan's left-wing liberalism emerged as a "peace movement" and was largely led by the JSP. After Takako Doi became party leader, the JSP established a European-style democratic socialism line. Apart from the party's socialist identity, the Murayama Cabinet, which came to power between 1994 and 1996, supported social-liberal reform. The JSP opposed Shintoist social