Kōchikai

was a leading faction within Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), founded by bureaucrat-turned-politician Hayato Ikeda in 1957. The faction has produced five prime ministers (Ikeda, Masayoshi Ōhira, Zenkō Suzuki, Kiichi Miyazawa, and Fumio Kishida), two LDP presidents (Yōhei Kōno and Sadakazu Tanigaki), and a large number of cabinet officeholders. The faction was officially dissolved on January 23, 2024, after Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to dissolve the faction in the aftermath of a political funds scandal. However, former faction members still meet frequently as a group, exchange information, and collectively exert pressure on other politicians.

==History== thumb|right|120px|Hayato Ikeda Kōchikai was founded in 1957 by Hayato Ikeda as he prepared to contest against his rivals for Liberal Democratic Party leadership and the premiership itself. Originally, it was modeled on a think tank, and was initially called the "Kōchikai Policy Study Group" (宏池会政策研究会). The name Kōchikai ("Broad Pond Society") was given to the group by right-wing power broker Masahiro Yasuoka, and was taken from a line from the Eastern Han dynasty poet Ma Rong: "Let's go lie in the pavilion on the hill, and gaze at the broad pond." It was also a pun on Ikeda's surname, which means "rice field by the pond."