General elections were held in Japan on 10 April 1946, the first after World War II, during the Allied occupation. All 468 seats in the House of Representatives were elected by limited voting. The result was a victory for the Liberal Party, which won 141 of the 468 seats.[1] Voter turnout was 72.1 percent.
Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, who had been appointed by the Emperor Hirohito in October 1945, dissolved the House of Representatives in December 1945. Shidehara had been working with Allied occupation commander Douglas MacArthur to implement a new constitution and other political reforms.
This was the first time Japanese women were allowed to vote. 39 women were elected to office; this was the largest number of women deputies elected until 2005. On the other hand, Taiwanese and Koreans in Japan had their rights to vote and to run for office suspended inasmuch as their home territories had ceased to be part of Japan.
The electoral system use was a special type of Limited voting with district magnitude mostly ranging from 6 to 23, many parties (usually 4 to 7 or more) elected representatives in almost every district.[2]
Following the election, there was a brief attempt to have Shidehara join the Progressive Party and remain in power, which the other major parties opposed. The Liberals and Progressives agreed to form a government under Liberal leader Ichiro Hatoyama on 2 May, but Hatoyama was promptly purged on 4 May and a new government formed under Foreign Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who officially became Prime Minister on 22 May.
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