Liberal Democratic Party of Japan

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (Japanese: Liberal Democratic Party; English: Liberal Democratic Party; LDP) was founded in 1955 as a coalition of Japan's two conservative liberal political parties and the Democratic Party of Japan to counter the then-powerful Japan Socialist Party. The party's emblem resembles the chrysanthemum coat of arms of the Japanese Imperial family, except that the kanji characters for "Self-Democracy" are marked in the center of the chrysanthemum.