1956 Japanese House of Councillors election

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 8 July 1956,^[1] electing half the seats in the House plus two vacant seats in the other half. The Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats, but failed to win a majority. It was the first national election under the 1955 System, approximately a two party system of Ichirō Hatoyama's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that was created in the "conservative merger" of 1955 and Suzuki Mosaburō's reunified Japan Socialist Party (JSP). The later dominant LDP failed to win a majority.

1956 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 1953 8 July 1956 1959 →
127 of the 250 seats in the House of Councillors 126 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader Ichirō Hatoyama Mosaburō Suzuki Party LDP Socialist Seats after 122 80 Seat change 12 14 Popular vote 11,356,874 8,549,940 Percentage 36.7% 29.9% Swing N/A N/A   Third party Fourth party   Leader Sanzō Nosaka Party Ryokufūkai JCP Seats after 31 2 Seat change 3 2 Popular vote 2,877,102 599,254 Percentage 10.1% 2.1% Swing 2.1pp 1.0pp
President of the House of Councillors before election Yūzō Shigemune LDP President of the House of Councillors-designate Yutaka Terao LDP

A key campaign issue was Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama's plan to revise Article 9 of the constitution – any change of the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Diet. The left parties aimed to win at least a third of seats to prevent any constitutional change. Another issue was the government's plan to replace the elected prefectural boards of education with appointed ones, a plan fiercely opposed by the left: In June 1956, on the LDP's request the police intervened in the "deliberations" in the Diet when Socialist Councillors resorted to violence.

Results

Two by-elections for the class of Councillors elected in 1953 were held simultaneously: The candidates with the 51st and 52nd highest vote shares in the national vote (one Socialist and one Liberal Democrat) were elected for three-year terms. Takenaka Tsuneo, who was elected as a member of the Japan Dentists' Federation, later joined the LDP.

Party		National			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Not up	Won	Total after	+/–
	Liberal Democratic Party	11,356,874	39.69	19	14,353,960	48.35	42	61	61	122	New
	Japan Socialist Party	8,549,940	29.88	21	11,156,060	37.58	28	31	49	80	New
	Ryokufūkai	2,877,102	10.05	5	653,843	2.20	0	26	5	31	–3
	Japanese Communist Party	599,254	2.09	1	1,149,009	3.87	1	0	2	2	+1
	Labourers and Farmers Party	181,524	0.63	0	120,414	0.41	0	0	0	0	–2
	Other parties	607,832	2.12	1	115,862	0.39	0	0	1	1	0
	Independents	4,443,886	15.53	5	2,136,498	7.20	4	5	9	14	–22
Total		28,616,412	100.00	52	29,685,646	100.00	75	123	127	250	0
Valid votes		28,616,412	91.83		29,685,646	95.25
Invalid/blank votes		2,545,797	8.17		1,479,521	4.75
Total votes		31,162,209	100.00		31,165,167	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		50,177,888	62.10		50,177,888	62.11
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,[1][2] National Diet

By constituency

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	JSP	Ryokufūkai	JCP	Others	Ind.
Aichi	3	2	1
Akita	1		1
Aomori	1	1
Chiba	2	1	1
Ehime	1	1
Fukui	1	1
Fukuoka	3	1	2
Fukushima	2	1	1
Gifu	1	1
Gunma	2	1	1
Hiroshima	2	1	1
Hokkaido	4	2	2
Hyōgo	3	2	1
Ibaraki	2	1	1
Ishikawa	1	1
Iwate	1						1
Kagawa	1	1
Kagoshima	2	1	1
Kanagawa	2		2
Kōchi	1		1
Kumamoto	2		1				1
Kyoto	2	1	1
Mie	1	1
Miyagi	1	1
Miyazaki	1	1
Nagano	2	1	1
Nagasaki	1	1
Nara	1	1
Niigata	2	1	1
Ōita	1	1
Okayama	2	1	1
Osaka	3	1	1				1
Saga	1						1
Saitama	2	2
Shiga	1	1
Shimane	1	1
Shizuoka	2	1	1
Tochigi	2	1	1
Tokushima	1	1
Tokyo	4	1	2		1
Tottori	1	1
Toyama	1	1
Wakayama	1	1
Yamagata	1		1
Yamaguchi	1		1
Yamanashi	1	1
National	52	19	21	5	1	1	5
Total	127	61	49	5	2	1	9

See also

• Hatomander

References

• Time, July 23, 1956: Japan: Swing to the Left
• The Senkyo election archive: Full results of the 1956 Councillors elections by electoral district

1. 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. "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 2012-02-20.