1989 Japanese House of Councillors election

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 23 July 1989.

1989 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 1986 23 July 1989 1992 →
126 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors 127 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Sōsuke Uno Takako Doi Koshiro Ishida Party Liberal Democratic Socialist Kōmeitō Last election 140 seats, 38.6% 41 seats, 17.2% 24 seats, 13.0% Seats after 109 66 20 Seat change 31 25 4 Popular vote 15,343,455 19,688,252 6,097,971 Percentage 27.3% 35.1% 10.9% Swing 11.3% 17.9% 2.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kenji Miyamoto – Eiichi Nagasue Party Communist Democratic Reform Democratic Socialist Last election 16 seats, 9.5% – 12 seats, 6.9% Seats after 14 12 8 Seat change 2 New 4 Popular vote 3,954,408 – 2,726,419 Percentage 7.0% – 4.9% Swing 2.5% New 2.0%
President of the House of Councillors before election Yoshihiro Tsuchiya Liberal Democratic Elected President of the House of Councillors Yoshihiro Tsuchiya Liberal Democratic

There were several controversial issues dominating the pre-election atmosphere, all of which reflected negatively on the ruling LDP. The most important, according to most polls, was the introduction of an unpopular 3% consumption tax law which had been forced through the Diet by Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita despite boycotts by the opposition parties, an act which hurt the LDP's image with the public. A second issue was the infamous Recruit scandal, which induced the resignation of Takeshita and his cabinet members and left a major stain on the LDP's integrity to the public. There was also resistance to the LDP's gradual adoption of import liberalisation of food products, which lost the party their traditional rural voters resentful of farm imports.^[1] Even more, there was incumbent Prime Minister Sōsuke Uno's sex scandal which had come to light only a month earlier.

The result of all of this negative feeling towards the LDP was an unprecedented victory for the Japan Socialist Party (JSP), roughly doubling its share of the popular vote when compared to the previous House of Councillors election, and being the only major pre-existing party to see a net increase in its share of the popular vote; the other opposition parties, which had more success in the past while the JSP stagnated, saw net decreases in both popular votes as well as seat numbers. Moreover, although the Japanese Communist Party has historically contributed to vote splitting by fielding candidates in every district, the overall decline in support for the JCP is thought to have helped jointly-backed opposition candidates in this election. In any event, the JSP would cooperate with the other opposition parties in order to form a majority coalition over a minority LDP, a historical first for the House of Councillors.^[2]

Meanwhile, the LDP lost the popular vote in an election for the first time in its history, and the only one-seat districts won by the LDP were Toyama, Shiga, and Wakayama. The LDP's losses were strongest in single-member constituencies, but less strongly felt in multi-member constituencies, no doubt partly due to the above-mentioned relative lack of vote splitting in this election. After this election, the LDP designated as its new leader Toshiki Kaifu, who belonged to the same historical faction as Takeo Miki, and who, like Miki, was reform-minded; ironically, Kaifu later defected from the LDP in the mid-1990s in order to join the opposition, although he eventually returned to the LDP in the 21st century.^[2]

Results

Party		National			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Not up	Won	Total after	+/–
	Japan Socialist Party	19,688,252	35.05	20	15,009,451	26.38	26	20	46	66	+25
	Liberal Democratic Party	15,343,455	27.32	15	17,466,406	30.70	21	73	36	109	–31
	Kōmeitō	6,097,971	10.86	6	2,900,947	5.10	4	10	10	20	–4
	Japanese Communist Party	3,954,408	7.04	4	5,012,424	8.81	1	9	5	14	–2
	Democratic Socialist Party	2,726,419	4.85	2	2,066,533	3.63	1	5	3	8	–4
	Dainiin Club	1,250,022	2.23	1				1	1	2	–1
	Tax Affairs Party	1,179,939	2.10	1	889,633	1.56	1	1	2	3	+1
	Sports and Peace Party	993,989	1.77	1				0	1	1	New
	Democratic Reform Party				3,878,783	6.82	11	1	11	12	New
	Other parties	4,936,873	8.79	0	2,312,733	4.06	1	1	1	2	–
	Independents				7,362,723	12.94	10	5	10	15	+8
Total		56,171,328	100.00	50	56,899,633	100.00	76	126	126	252	0
Valid votes		56,171,328	96.13		56,899,633	97.35
Invalid/blank votes		2,262,734	3.87		1,546,732	2.65
Total votes		58,434,062	100.00		58,446,365	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		89,891,358	65.01		89,891,358	65.02
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,[3][4] National Diet

By constituency

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		JSP	LDP	DRP	Kōmeitō	JCP	DSP	TAP	DC	SPP	Others	Ind.
Aichi	3	1	1				1
Akita	1	1
Aomori	1											1
Chiba	2	1	1
Ehime	1			1
Fukui	1			1
Fukuoka	3	1	1		1
Fukushima	2	1	1
Gifu	1			1
Gunma	2	1	1
Hiroshima	2	1	1
Hokkaido	4	1	1			1						1
Hyōgo	3	1	1		1
Ibaraki	2	1	1
Ishikawa	1			1
Iwate	1	1
Kagawa	1	1
Kagoshima	2	1	1
Kanagawa	2	1	1
Kōchi	1	1
Kumamoto	2											2
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
Okinawa	1										1
Okayama	2	1	1
Osaka	3	1			1							1
Saga	1		1
Saitama	2	1										1
Shiga	1			1
Shimane	1											1
Shizuoka	2		1									1
Tochigi	2	1	1
Tokushima	1			1
Tokyo	4		1		1			1				1
Tottori	1											1
Toyama	1		1
Wakayama	1		1
Yamagata	1			1
Yamaguchi	1	1
Yamanashi	1			1
National	50	20	15		6	4	2	1	1	1
Total	126	46	36	11	10	5	3	2	1	1	1	10

References

1. Smith, Charles (10 August 1989). "Life after harakiri". Far Eastern Economic Review. p. 15–17.
2. Baerwald, Hans H. (1989). "Japan's House of Councillors Election: A Mini-Revolution?". Asian Survey. 29 (9): 833–841. doi:10.2307/2644829. ISSN 0004-4687. JSTOR 2644829.
3. 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
4. "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 4 January 2006.

• About Japan Series (1999), Changing Japanese Politics, No. 24, Tokyo: Foreign Press Center.
• Mahendra Prakash (2004), Coalition Experience in Japanese Politics: 1993-2003, New Delhi: JNU.