Banchō Seisaku Kenkyūjo
(Japanese: 番町政策研究所 lit. Banchō Policy Research Institute) was a former faction of the Liberal Democratic Party which formed in 1956 and later merged into the Shikōkai faction in 2017. Its abbreviation was Banchō-ken (番町研), and its popular nicknames, as with other LDP factions, shifted depending on who was the factional leader at the time. History Formation The faction's ideas historically descended from the pre-war Constitutional Democratic Party and the centrist post-war National Cooperative Party. The latter group eventually merged into Reformist Party (Kaishintō), headed by Mamoru Shigemitsu. After the Liberal Democratic Party formed in 1955 as a big tent, The Kaishintō's descendants within the LDP were a part of the so-called "conservative anti-mainstream" (保守傍流) segment of the party which favoured Ichirō Hatoyama over the "conservative mainstream" (保守本流) side of Shigeru Yoshida. Miki and Matsumura faction era Within the LDP, this faction was considered akin to heretics, as they were further to the left than most of the party. Although they were a small faction with relatively weak influence, their leader Takeo Miki displayed an aggressive style and took advantage of things such as casting votes, resulting in him being labeled a 'Balkan politician'. Miki, who got his start as the