1974 Japanese House of Councillors election

Last updated
1974 Japanese House of Councillors election
Flag of Japan (1870-1999).svg
  1971 7 July 1974 1977  

130 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors
127 seats needed for a majority
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Kakuei Tanaka 19720707.jpg Tomomi-Narita-1.png Yoshikatsu-Takeiri-3.png
Leader Kakuei Tanaka Tomomi Narita Yoshikatsu Takeiri
Party LDP Socialist Kōmeitō
Seats after1266224
Seat changeDecrease2.svg11Decrease2.svg4Increase2.svg2
Popular vote23,332,7737,990,4576,360,419
Percentage44.3%15.2%12.1%
SwingDecrease2.svg0.2ppDecrease2.svg6.1ppDecrease2.svg2.0pp

 Fourth partyFifth party
  Kenji Miyamoto (cropped).jpg Kasuga-Ikko-1.jpg
Leader Kenji Miyamoto Kasuga Ikkō
Party JCP Democratic Socialist
Seats after2010
Seat changeIncrease2.svg10Decrease2.svg3
Popular vote4,931,6503,114,895
Percentage9.4%5.9%
SwingIncrease2.svg1.3ppDecrease2.svg0.2pp

President of the House of Councillors before election

Yasoichi Mori
LDP

President of the House of Councillors-designate

Kazuo Maeda
LDP

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 7 July 1974, [1] electing half the seats in the House. The Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats.

Contents

This election has been marked by polar opposite predictions by political commentators, some claiming that the LDP would see disastrous results following severe price inflation and the 1973 oil crisis, although as the election approached, others confidently believed the LDP would see marked success following shifts in forecasts. The results ended up somewhere in between, with the LDP falling down to 126 seats, exactly half barely holding onto a thin majority by enlisting the help of two LDP-aligned independents. The biggest winner among the opposition was the Japanese Communist Party, the only major party to see an increase in the popular vote. Its number of seats was doubled, thanks to skillful allocation of votes for specific candidates, with many JCP candidates spread equitably among the lower ranks of the national district results, instead of wasting many votes on a few candidates and thereby causing a few others to fell below the threshold. LDP factional infighting and the subsequent vote splitting ended up hurting the LDP severely, such as in the four-member Hokkaido district. Here, only two LDP candidates were fielded, but a conservative independent running against them caused the conservative vote to be split and all three failed to be elected, giving all of the seats to the opposition. [2]

The election also weakened Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's standing within his own party. This was most evident when Kentarō Kujime, who belonged to the same faction as anti-Tanaka LDP politician and future Prime Minister Takeo Miki, ran as an independent candidate against the LDP-approved candidate Masaharu Gotōda in the Tokushima district and won (an event dubbed the "Awa War," after the birthplace of Miki). Along with Tokushima, the LDP also lost to the opposition in the single-seat district for Okinawa, but won in all of the other ones, instead seeing their losses in the urban districts with more seats, a typical situation for older Japanese elections. Despite all of this, Tanaka saw his faction increase in number of Diet seats, whereas both Miki and former Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda, another Tanaka critic, saw their factions decrease in power. [2]

Results

Japan House of Councillors 1974.svg
PartyNationalConstituencySeats
Votes%SeatsVotes%SeatsNot upWonTotal
after
+/–
Liberal Democratic Party 23,332,77344.341921,132,37239.50436462126–8
Japan Socialist Party 7,990,45715.181013,907,86526.0018342862–4
Komeitō 6,360,41912.0996,732,93712.595101424+1
Japanese Communist Party 4,931,6509.3786,428,91912.02571320+10
Democratic Socialist Party 3,114,8955.9242,353,3974.4015510–3
Other parties74,3460.140332,7160.621011
Independents6,820,19912.9642,609,1954.883279+4
Total52,624,739100.005453,497,401100.0076122130252+1
Valid votes52,624,73995.4153,497,40196.98
Invalid/blank votes2,532,7964.591,666,4993.02
Total votes55,157,535100.0055,163,900100.00
Registered voters/turnout75,356,06873.2075,356,06873.20
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, [1] [3] National Diet

By constituency

ConstituencyTotal
seats
Seats won
LDP JSP Kōmeitō JCP DSP Ind.
Aichi 3111
Akita 11
Aomori 11
Chiba 211
Ehime 11
Fukui 11
Fukuoka 3111
Fukushima 211
Gifu 11
Gunma 211
Hiroshima 211
Hokkaido 4211
Hyōgo 3111
Ibaraki 211
Ishikawa 11
Iwate 11
Kagawa 11
Kagoshima 211
Kanagawa 211
Kōchi 11
Kumamoto 22
Kyoto 211
Mie 11
Miyagi 11
Miyazaki 11
Nagano 211
Nagasaki 11
Nara 11
Niigata 211
Ōita 11
Okinawa 11
Okayama 211
Osaka 3111
Saga 11
Saitama 211
Shiga 11
Shimane 11
Shizuoka 211
Tochigi 211
Tokushima 11
Tokyo 41111
Tottori 11
Toyama 11
Wakayama 11
Yamagata 11
Yamaguchi 11
Yamanashi 11
National5419109844
Total1306328141357

References

  1. 1 2 Table 13: Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947–2004) Archived 2011-03-23 at the Wayback Machine Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
  2. 1 2 Baerwald, Hans H. (1974). "The Tanabata House of Councillors Election in Japan" . Asian Survey. 14 (10): 900–906. doi:10.2307/2643364. ISSN   0004-4687.
  3. "27-11 Allotted Number, Candidates, Eligible Voters as of Election Day, Voters and Voting Percentages of Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947-2004)". Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Archived from the original on 2006-01-04.