sentences:  The merger gave the new party an overwhelming majority in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan; the two parties had won 208 seats in the March 1898 elections.After the collapse of the Itō administration, Ōkuma became Prime Minister of Japan, despite concerns by Yamagata Aritomo and other members of the Meiji oligarchy and "genrō" that this would result in a dilution of their authority.One of Ōkuma's first acts as prime minister was to pass much-needed fiscal retrenchment legislation, trimming the number of bureaucrats on the government payroll.