National Front (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

The National Front (国民戦線 Kokumin Sensen) in Japan is an alliance of political parties and mass organisations in Japan led by the Nationalist Party of Japan (MKT). The National Front has the most largest representatives in the State Council of the Republic of Japan.

Member parties

 * Nationalist Party of Japan (みょうみ こくみんとう/明湄国民党 Myōmi Kokuminto)
 * Constitutionalist Party (りっけんとう/立憲党 Rikkento)
 * Social Democratic Party (しゃかいみんしゅとう/社会民主党 Shakai Minshuto)
 * Christian People's Party (キリストきょう じんみんとう/キリスト教人民党 Kirisutokyo Jinminto)
 * National Buddhist Association (ぜんこく ぶっきょう きょうかい/全国仏教協会 Zenkoku Bukkyo Kyokai)

Member mass organisations

 * National Youth League (こっか せいねん れっめい/国家青年連盟 Kokka Seinen Renmei)
 * Japanese National Culture Association (だいわ ぜんこく ぶんか きょうかい/大和全国文化協会 Daiwa Zenkoku Bunka Kyokai)
 * Taiwanese Cultural Association (たいわん ぶんか きょうかい/台湾文化協会 Taiwan Bunka Kyōkai)
 * National Women Federation (じょせい ぜんこく そうどめい/女性全国総同盟 Josei Zenkoku Sodomei)
 * All-Japan Industrial and Commerce Association (ぜんみょうみ しょこう かいぎしょ/全明湄商工会議所 Zen-Myōmi Shoko Kaigi-sho)
 * All-Japan Peasant Union (ぜんみょうみ のうみん くみあいかい/全明湄農民組合会 Zen-Myōmi Nōmin Kumiai-kai)

History
The National Front was founded on April 27th, 1926 as the coalition of the pro-revolution political parties and mass organisations. The two largest Front parties at the time was the Nationalist Party of Japan and the Communist Party of Japan. Despite the political rivalry between two parties, the Communist Party participated in the first election of the National Congress in 1932 in the Front official list and Katayama Sen, prominent Japanese communist in Soviet Union elected as member of First Convocation of National Congress (1933-1937). Saburo Itou, the leader of the CPJ's trade unions federation was served as the Minister of Labour and Industry (1931-1934) and later as one of Vice Prime Minister of Japan (1937-1940) in the Council of Ministers.

Later, the Front operated through the issuing of a generally consistent proportion of seats (divided between the Front's parties and MKT-controlled mass organisations) submitted in the form of a single list of candidates during each election to the Legislative Council and based on a set quota rather than vote totals. As the Front's list was the only one submitted it "won" with virtually unanimous levels of support. This system of election retained in Japan from 1931 to 1942.

In 1934, the split in Japanese Communist Party between the pro-government right wing faction and the pro-Comintern left wing faction led the organisations to collapse. The pro-government faction joined the Nationalist Party and later formed the Party's left-wing faction. The pro-Comintern faction tried to contesting the Front election list in the 1936 and 1940 elections as the independent candidates.

After 1946 amendment of the 1931 Constitution, the electoral law revised and any National Front participation in the Legislative Council election was abolished. The National Front only gained their seats in the powerless State Council. About 54% of all seats in the State Council of the Republic of Japan are belongs to the National Front