1947 Japanese general election explained

Country:Japan
Flag Year:1870
Type:parliamentary
Previous Election:1946 Japanese general election
Previous Year:1946
Election Date:25 April 1947
Next Election:1949 Japanese general election
Next Year:1949
Seats For Election:All 468 seats in the House of Representatives
Majority Seats:235
Turnout:67.95% (4.13pp)
Leader1:Tetsu Katayama
Party1:Japan Socialist Party
Last Election1:17.90%, 93 seats
Seats1:143
Seat Change1: 50
Popular Vote1:7,176,882
Percentage1:26.23%
Swing1:8.33pp
Leader2:Shigeru Yoshida
Party2:Liberal Party (Japan, 1945)
Last Election2:24.36%, 141 seats
Seats2:131
Seat Change2: 10
Popular Vote2:7,312,524
Percentage2:26.73%
Swing2:2.37pp
Leader4:Hitoshi Ashida
Party4:Democratic Party (Japan, 1947)
Last Election4:Did not exist
Seats4:124
Seat Change4:New
Popular Vote4:6,960,270
Percentage4:25.44%
Swing4:New
Leader5:Takeo Miki
Party5:National Cooperative Party
Last Election5:Did not exist
Seats5:31
Seat Change5:New
Popular Vote5:1,915,948
Percentage5:7.00%
Swing5:New
Prime Minister
Before Party:Liberal Party (Japan, 1945)
After Party:Japan Socialist Party

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

By prefecture

PrefectureTotal
seats
Seats won
JSPLPDPNCPJFPJCPOthersInd.Vacant
Aichi1964621
Akita83212
Aomori72311
Chiba131831
Ehime9333
Fukui431
Fukuoka1973621
Fukushima123441
Gifu9243
Gunma103151
Hiroshima126312
Hokkaido2287313
Hyōgo1852101
Ibaraki1232511
Ishikawa6141
Iwate8242
Kagawa62211
Kagoshima10214111
Kanagawa136511
Kōchi51211
Kumamoto10235
Kyoto10532
Mie912411
Miyagi93411
Miyazaki6321
Nagano13233311
Nagasaki92421
Nara51112
Niigata15654
Ōita72131
Okayama103412
Okinawa22
Osaka199451
Saga51211
Saitama13463
Shiga51211
Shimane5221
Shizuoka145522
Tochigi1031411
Tokushima5113
Tokyo27128412
Tottori4211
Toyama61221
Wakayama6231
Yamagata8332
Yamaguchi923211
Yamanashi5221
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 (馴れ合い解散, "collusive dissolution")) to gain an outright DLP majority in the ensuing 1949 lower house election.

Notes and References

  1. [Dieter Nohlen]
  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