1947 Japanese general election

Last updated

1947 Japanese general election
Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg
  1946 25 April 1947 1949  

All 468 seats in the House of Representatives
235 seats needed for a majority
Turnout67.95% (Decrease2.svg4.13pp)
 First partySecond party
 
Pian Shan Zhe  (cropped).jpg
Shigeru Yoshida smiling2.jpg
Leader Tetsu Katayama Shigeru Yoshida
Party Socialist Liberal
Last election17.90%, 93 seats24.36%, 141 seats
Seats won143131
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 50Decrease2.svg 10
Popular vote7,176,8827,312,524
Percentage26.23%26.73%
SwingIncrease2.svg8.33ppIncrease2.svg2.37pp

 Third partyFourth party
 
Hitoshi Ashida.jpg
Takeo Miki-2-1.jpg
Leader Hitoshi Ashida Takeo Miki
Party Democratic National Cooperative
Last electionDid not existDid not exist
Seats won12431
Seat changeNewNew
Popular vote6,960,2701,915,948
Percentage25.44%7.00%
SwingNewNew

1947 JAPAN GENERAL ELECTION, combined vote share.svg
Districts shaded according to winners' vote strength

Prime Minister before election

Shigeru Yoshida
Liberal

Elected Prime Minister

Tetsu Katayama
Socialist

General elections were held in Japan on 25 April 1947. The Japan Socialist Party won 143 of the 468 seats, making it the largest party in the House of Representatives following the election. Voter turnout was 68%. [1] It was the last election technically held under the Meiji Constitution in preparation for the current Constitution of Japan which became effective several days later on 3 May 1947. The upper house of the Diet was also elected by the people under the new constitution, the first ordinary election of members of the House of Councillors had been held five days before.

Numerous prominent figures were elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in this election, including former Prime Minister and House of Peers member Kijuro Shidehara, then-Prime Minister and former House of Peers member Shigeru Yoshida, and future Prime Ministers Tanzan Ishibashi, Zenko Suzuki and Kakuei Tanaka.

Yoshida remained Prime Minister following the election, acting until a successor was appointed – under the new Constitution, the cabinet depends on parliamentary support and must resign in the first Diet session after a House of Representatives election.

Results

Japan House of Representatives 1947.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Liberal Party 7,312,52426.73131–10
Japan Socialist Party 7,176,88226.23143+50
Democratic Party 6,960,27025.44124New
National Cooperative Party 1,915,9487.0031New
Japanese Communist Party 1,002,8833.674–1
Japan Farmers Party 214,7540.784New
Other parties1,174,6624.2917
Independents1,603,6845.8612–69
Vacant2
Total27,361,607100.004680
Valid votes27,361,60798.43
Invalid/blank votes436,1411.57
Total votes27,797,748100.00
Registered voters/turnout40,907,49367.95
Source: Oscarsson, Masumi

By prefecture

PrefectureTotal
seats
Seats won
JSP LP DP NCP JFP JCP OthersInd.Vacant
Aichi 1964621
Akita 83212
Aomori 72311
Chiba 131831
Ehime 9333
Fukui 431
Fukuoka 1973621
Fukushima 123441
Gifu 9243
Gunma 103151
Hiroshima 126312
Hokkaido 2287313
Hyōgo 1852101
Ibaraki 1232511
Ishikawa 6141
Iwate 8242
Kagawa 62211
Kagoshima 10214111
Kanagawa 136511
Kōchi 51211
Kumamoto 10235
Kyoto 10532
Mie 912411
Miyagi 93411
Miyazaki 6321
Nagano 13233311
Nagasaki 92421
Nara 51112
Niigata 15654
Ōita 72131
Okayama 103412
Okinawa 22
Osaka 199451
Saga 51211
Saitama 13463
Shiga 51211
Shimane 5221
Shizuoka 145522
Tochigi 1031411
Tokushima 5113
Tokyo 27128412
Tottori 4211
Toyama 61221
Wakayama 6231
Yamagata 8332
Yamaguchi 923211
Yamanashi 5221
Total468143131124315416122

Aftermath

Government formation

The 1st National Diet convened on 20 May. [2] After early coalition negotiations, Socialist Komakichi Matsuoka was elected Speaker of the lower house on 21 May, Democrat Man'itsu Tanaka Vice-Speaker. [3] The new constitution introduced a parliamentary system of government: the prime minister became elected by and responsible to the National Diet, with the House of Representatives now being able to override the upper house. On 23 May, both houses of the Diet elected the leader of the Socialist Party, Tetsu Katayama, as prime minister – virtually unopposed as Liberals and Democrats agreed to vote for Katayama even though coalition negotiations had not yet produced final results. SCAP Douglas MacArthur welcomed the choice, thereby reducing resistance by some politicians to a Socialist-led coalition government. The Socialists initially sought a Grand Coalition with the Liberals and possibly including Democrats and Cooperativists, but the Liberals refused. [4] Katayama eventually formed a coalition with the Democratic Party and the Kokumin Kyōdōtō (People's/National Cooperative Party), it could also count on support by the Ryokufūkai (Green Breeze Society), the largest group in the House of Councillors. Katayama was ceremonially appointed by the Emperor on 24 May, the other ministers in the Katayama Cabinet on 1 June after the conclusion of the coalition negotiations.

New government

The new government enacted several reforms sought by the SCAP, such as the dissolution of the powerful Home Ministry and anti-trust legislation to dismantle the zaibatsu. However, internal divisions in the Socialist Party soon surfaced and led to Katayama's resignation in February 1948 when the lower house budget committee, chaired by left-wing Socialist Mosaburō Suzuki, rejected the cabinet's draft budget. After an even shorter government under Katayama's deputy, Democrat Hitoshi Ashida, the coalition collapsed, and Liberal Shigeru Yoshida returned as prime minister in October 1948 by which time the Liberals (reformed as Democratic Liberal Party in March 1948) had gained the position as first party in the lower house by defectors from the Democratic Party and independents joining, though by far not an absolute majority. In December 1948, Yoshida staged a no-confidence vote (under the prevailing (SCAP) interpretation of the Constitution at the time, the House of Representatives could only be dissolved under the provisions of article 69; [5] referred to in Japanese as nareai kaisan (馴れ合い解散, "collusive dissolution")) to gain an outright DLP majority in the ensuing 1949 lower house election.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Japan</span>

Politics of Japan are conducted in a framework of a dominant-party bicameral parliamentary constitutional monarchy, in which the Emperor is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government and the head of the Cabinet, which directs the executive branch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shigeru Yoshida</span> Prime Minister of Japan (1878–1967)

Shigeru Yoshida was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the American occupation following the Pacific War. He played a significant part in determining the course for post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tetsu Katayama</span> Prime Minister of Japan from 1947 to 1948

Tetsu Katayama was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1947 to 1948. A Christian pacifist, he bears the distinction of having been the first socialist to serve as Prime Minister of Japan. He was a Christian socialist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitoshi Ashida</span> Prime Minister of Japan in 1948

Hitoshi Ashida was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan in 1948. He was a prominent figure in the immediate postwar political landscape, but was forced to resign his leadership responsibilities after a corruption scandal targeting two of his cabinet ministers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ichirō Hatoyama</span> Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956

Ichirō Hatoyama was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. During his tenure he oversaw the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party and restored official relations with the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Representatives (Japan)</span> Lower house of the National Diet of Japan

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by Article 41 and Article 42 of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, and 289 are elected from single-member constituencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japan Socialist Party</span> Political party active in Japan from 1945 to 1996

The Japan Socialist Party was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including the Social Mass Party, the Labour-Farmer Party, and the Japan Labour-Farmer Party. The party represented the Japanese left after the war, and was a major opponent of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief Cabinet Secretary</span> Leader of the Japanese Cabinet

The chief cabinet secretary of Japan is a member of the cabinet and is the leader and chief executive of the Cabinet Secretariat of Japan. The chief cabinet secretary coordinates the policies of ministries and agencies in the executive branch, and also serves as the government's press secretary. The secretary is a statutory member of the National Security Council, and is appointed by the emperor upon the nomination by the prime minister. The chief cabinet secretary is the second in line of succession to the prime minister, and 1st if the office of the deputy prime minister is unoccupied.

Events in the year 1947 in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takeru Inukai</span> Japanese politician and novelist

Takeru Inukai was a Japanese politician and novelist active in Shōwa period Japan. Also known as "Inukai Ken", he was the third son of Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1955 System</span> Japanese dominant party system since 1955

The 1955 system (55年体制), also known as the one-and-a-half party system, is a term used by scholars to describe the dominant-party system that has existed in Japan since 1955, in which the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has successfully held by itself or in coalition with Komeito a majority government nearly uninterrupted, with opposition parties largely incapable of forming significant or long lasting alternatives, other than for brief stints in 1993–1994 and 2009–2012. The terms 1955 system and the one-and-a-half party system are credited to Junnosuke Masumi, who described the 1955 system as "a grand political dam into which the history of Japanese politics surge".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Factions in the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)</span> Japanese political factions

Factions are an accepted part of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), the ruling party of Japan, which began with eight formal factions when it was first formed by merger in 1955. A political faction may be defined as a sub-group within a larger organization. While factions characterize other political parties in Pacific Asia, Japanese factionalism is distinguished by its stability and institutionalization. Although factions reconstitute themselves from time to time, the habatsu active today can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1949 Japanese general election</span>

General elections were held in Japan on 23 January 1949. The result was a landslide victory for the Democratic Liberal Party, which won 269 of the 466 seats. Voter turnout was 74.0%. It was the first election held following the enactment of the current Constitution of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1946 Japanese general election</span> General election in Japan held in 1946

General elections were held in Japan on 10 April 1946, the first after World War II, during the Allied occupation. Voters had one, two or three votes, depending on how many MPs were elected from their constituency. The result was a victory for the Liberal Party, which won 141 of the 468 seats. Voter turnout was 72.1 percent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yonezō Maeda</span> Japanese politician (d. 1954)

Yonezō Maeda was a politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murayama Cabinet</span> Cabinet of Japan (1994–1995)

The Murayama Cabinet governed Japan under the leadership of Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama from 1994 until a 1995 Cabinet Reshuffle. Murayama was elected prime minister by the National Diet on 29 June 1994 after the threat of a no-confidence vote had brought down the previous minority Hata Cabinet. Murayama's and his cabinet's formal investiture by the Emperor took place one day later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katayama Cabinet</span> Cabinet of Japan (1947–1948)

The Katayama Cabinet governed Japan under the premiership of Tetsu Katayama from 24 May 1947 to 10 March 1948, during the Allied occupation. It was the first cabinet under the postwar constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2017 Japanese general election</span>

General elections were held in Japan on 22 October 2017. Voting took place in all Representatives constituencies of Japan – 289 single-member districts and eleven proportional blocks – in order to appoint all 465 members of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the then 707-member bicameral National Diet of Japan. Incumbent Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Komeito party retained their seats in signs of what was perceived as weak opposition. The PM won his fourth term in office and held on to the two-thirds supermajority in order to implement policies on revising the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eiichi Nishimura (socialist politician)</span> Japanese politician

Eiichi Nishimura was a Japanese politician who served as the second chairman of the Democratic Socialist Party from 1967 to his death in 1971.

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p381 ISBN   0-19-924959-8
  2. House of Representatives: Diet sessions
  3. House of Representatives: 衆議院歴代議長・副議長一覧
  4. Kohno, Masaru (1997): Japan’s Postwar Party Politics. Princeton, pp. 50–53
  5. Peter J. Herzog: Japan's Pseudo-Democracy, p. 35: The 1948 dissolution