Morihiro Hosokawa in the context of "Japan New Party"

The Hosokawa clan (細川氏, Hosokawa-shi; Japanese pronunciation: [ho.so.ka.wa(ꜜ.ɕi), -soꜜ.ka.wa(.ɕi)]) is a Japanese samurai kin group or clan. The clan descends from the Seiwa Genji, a branch of the Minamoto clan, and ultimately from Emperor Seiwa, through the Ashikaga clan. It produced many prominent officials in the Ashikaga shogunate's administration. In the Edo period, the clan was one of the largest landholding daimyo families in Japan. The current clan head Morihiro Hosokawa served as Prime Minister of Japan.

General elections were held in Japan on 18 July 1993 to elect the 511 members of the House of Representatives. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had been in power since 1955, lost their majority in the House. An eight-party coalition government was formed and headed by Morihiro Hosokawa, the leader of the Japan New Party (JNP). The election result was profoundly important to Japan's domestic and foreign affairs.

It marked the first time under the 1955 System that the ruling coalition had been defeated, being replaced by a rainbow coalition of liberals, centrists and reformists. The change in government also marked a change in generational politics and political conduct; the election was widely seen as a backlash against corruption, pork-barrel spending and an inflated bureaucracy. Proposed electoral reforms also held much influence over the election. Eleven months after the election, with the electoral reform legislation that was its raison d'être passed, the eight-party coalition collapsed. This was the last general election to use the single non-transferable vote electoral system, with the 1994 electoral reform efforts changing the system to parallel voting starting with the next election.

Komeito (公明党, Kōmeitō), formerly New Komeito (NKP) and commonly referred to as simply Komei, is a political party in Japan affiliated with the Soka Gakkai religious movement. It is generally considered centrist and socially conservative. From 1999 to 2009 and from 2012 to 2025, it served in government as the junior coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Komeito was founded by the leader of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, in 1964. In 1993 and 1994, Komeito joined the non-LDP governments of Morihiro Hosokawa and Tsutomu Hata. With the collapse of the Hata government in 1994, Komeito split into New Kōmei Party and Kōmei; the New Kōmei Party merged with other smaller opposition parties to establish the New Frontier Party (NFP). After the dissolution of the NFP in 1997, some former New Kōmei Party established the New Peace Party, which merged with Kōmei in 1998 to establish the New Komeito. In 1999, the party entered into a coalition with LDP, serving in the government until the coalition lost power in 2009. In 2012, the coalition regained power. In 2014 the party changed its English name back to Komeito. In 2025, Komeito ended its alliance with the LDP.

Tsutomu Hata (羽田 孜, Hata Tsutomu; 24 August 1935 – 28 August 2017) was a Japanese politician who briefly served as prime minister of Japan in 1994.

Born in Tokyo, Hata graduated from Seijo University and was first elected to the National Diet in 1969. He rose to become a key member of the Liberal Democratic Party's Tanaka/Takeshita faction, and served as agriculture, forests, and fisheries minister in the 1980s and finance minister from 1991 to 1992. After Keizō Obuchi took over the faction, Hata formed the Japan Renewal Party in 1993, which joined in the anti-LDP coalition which formed Morihiro Hosokawa's government. Hata served as foreign minister, then replaced Hosokawa as prime minister when he resigned. However, the Japan Socialist Party soon left the coalition, causing it to collapse. Hata lost leadership of his party when it merged with the New Frontier Party, then formed his own Sun Party, which in turn merged with the Good Governance Party then Democratic Party in 1998. Hata became secretary-general of the party, and remained one of its senior advisors until his death.