The
Japan Innovation Party suffered a major split between August and October 2015, resulting in one of the party's founders,
Tōru Hashimoto, to lead Osaka-based members in forming the
Initiatives from Osaka party. Following the split, several of the remaining members of the Innovation Party expressed their intention to also leave the party due to dissatisfaction with
Yorihisa Matsuno's leadership. Four of the members,
Sakihito Ozawa,
Shinji Oguma,
Kazuhito Shigetoku and
Toshihide Muraoka submitted their resignation from the party on 22 October 2015. Together with
Taro Yamada, the President of
The Assembly to Energize Japan, the group submitted an application to register a new party named the on 18 November 2015. The members of the party were invited to participate in the merger of the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and
Japan Innovation Party in March 2016. Following a meeting with DPJ leader
Yukio Edano on 22 March, Muraoka announced that four of the party's five members would participate in the merger. The party submitted their formal dissolution papers to the House of Representatives on 25 March 2016. Muraoka, Oguma, Shigetoku and Suzuki joined the formation of the
Democratic Party that resulted from the DPJ-Innovation Party merger on 27 March 2016, while Ozawa indicated his intention to join the
Initiatives from Osaka party. ==External links==