What exactly is the Civil Liberties Movement? It was a movement to establish a parliament to reflect the opinion of the general public in politics, and to have the opinions of elected representatives incorporated into policy. The basis for this movement was found in the "Five Articles of Oath "promulgated on March 14, 1868. In reality, however, politics was controlled by the Satcho clique and the political merchants connected to them, while the common people suffered from heavy taxes, it was far from the ideal of the Oath. Nevertheless, the government itself believed that it would eventually need to issue a constitution and open a parliament in order to gain recognition from Western countries. So, as a compromise, they authorized the opening of a local council first. A congress was also established in Tochigi Prefecture, Shozo Tanaka's hometown, and naturally, Shozo ran for the congress and was elected. He then joined the Rikken Kaishin party, founded by Shigenobu Okuma. However, during his time as a prefectural councilor, he had a conflict with Michitune Mishima, the prefectural governor at that time, and was imprisoned for the third time.
