Japanese general election, 1908

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Japanese general election, 1908
Merchant flag of Japan (1870).svg
  1904 15 May 1908 1912  

All 379 seats to the House of Representatives
190 seats were needed for a majority

  First party Second party
  Kinmochi Saionji 2.jpg
Leader Saionji Kinmochi  
Party Seiyūkai Kensei Hontō
Last election 133 seats, 33.5% 90 seats, 26.2%
Seats won 187 70
Seat changeIncrease2.svg54Decrease2.svg20
Popular vote 649,858 288,243
Percentage 48.4% 21.5%
SwingIncrease2.svg14.9%Decrease2.svg4.7%

Japanese General election, 1908 ja.svg


Prime Minister before election

Saionji Kinmochi
Seiyūkai

Subsequent Prime Minister

Saionji Kinmochi
Seiyūkai

Imperial Seal of Japan.svg
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Japan

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General elections were held in Japan on 15 May 1908. [1] The result was a victory for the Rikken Seiyūkai party, which won 187 of the 379 seats.

Japan Constitutional monarchy in East Asia

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asian continent and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea in the south.

Rikken Seiyūkai early 20th century Japanese political party

The Rikken Seiyūkai was one of the main political parties in the pre-war Empire of Japan. It was also known simply as the "Seiyūkai".

Contents

Electoral system

The 379 members of the House of Representatives were elected in 51 multi-member constituencies based on prefectures and cities. Voting was restricted to men aged over 25 who paid at least 10 yen a year in direct taxation. [2]

House of Representatives (Japan) lower house of Japan

The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house.

Prefectures of Japan countrys 47 first-order subnational jurisdictions

Japan is divided into 47 prefectures, forming the first level of jurisdiction and administrative division. They consist of 43 prefectures proper, two urban prefectures, one "circuit" or "territory" and one "metropolis". The Meiji Fuhanken sanchisei administration created the first prefectures from 1868 to replace the urban and rural administrators in the parts of the country previously controlled directly by the shogunate and a few territories of rebels/shogunate loyalists who had not submitted to the new government such as Aizu/Wakamatsu. In 1871, all remaining feudal domains (han) were also transformed into prefectures, so that prefectures subdivided the whole country. In several waves of territorial consolidation, today's 47 prefectures were formed by the turn of the century. In many instances, these are contiguous with the ancient ritsuryō provinces of Japan.

Campaign

A total of 900 candidates contested the 379 seats.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Rikken Seiyūkai 649,85848.4187+54
Kensei Hontō 288,24321.570–20
Yūkōkai 99,6907.429New
Daidō Club 92,4776.929New
Others212,37715.864+9
Invalid/blank votes13,534
Total1,356,1791003790
Registered voters/turnout1,590,04585.3
Source: Mackie & Rose

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References

  1. Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, p281
  2. Mackie & Rose, p276