"Nisshin Shinjishi" no.206 (1874.1.18) in which was printed "The Petition for the Establishment of a Popularly elected Assembly"

In January 1874, several of the members who left the government in the "1873 (Meiji 6) Political Crisis", including ITAGAKI Taisuke, GOTO Shojiro, SOEJIMA Taneomi, and ETO Shinpei - joined hands with FURUSAWA Shigeru, who had returned from studies in Britain, to form Japan's first political party, the Aikoku Koto (Public Party of Patriots). On January 17 they submitted their "Petition for the Establishment of a Popularly Elected Assembly" to the Sain (Left Board). The document criticized the authoritarian government, and argued for the early establishment of a popularly elected assembly as a forum for public debate. The Petition was also reprinted in Editor John Reddie BLACK's Nisshin Shinjishi, and provided the impetus for the Freedom and People's Rights Movement. However, the Aikoku Koto itself dissolved a few months later.

The original transcript of the Petition calling for the establishment of a popularly-elected assembly can be found in the National Archives of Japan.