Uniform regional elections in Japan 1947

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The 1st uniform regional elections ( Japanese 第 1 回 統一 地方 選 挙 dai-ikkai tōitsu chihōotenyo ) in Japan took place in April 1947. There was a choice of governors and parliaments in the 46 prefectures and mayors and municipal councils in over 1,000 independent cities , special districts , towns and villages for a four-year term.

Governors and mayors were elected by majority vote, members of parliament by non-transferable individual votes (in single- mandate constituencies identical to simple majority voting) predominantly in multi-mandate constituencies.

prehistory

After the reorganization of local self-government by the "Law on Local Self-Government" ( chihō-jichi-hō ) and the constitution of the state of Japan , which was to come into force on May 3, 1947, from 1947 onwards, unlike in the Empire, were no longer just the Municipal and prefecture parliaments elected by the people; the mayors and governors were also elected directly from now on. In addition, the right to vote for women was introduced, which, although approved by the national lower house for local elections in the 1930s , was blocked by the manor house . In April 1947 the 23rd lower house elections and the first elections for the new upper house took place in preparation for the new constitution .

For the reorganization, all elections at the prefectural and municipal level were combined in the form of uniform regional elections: In the first phase, the governors and mayors across the country were elected on April 5, followed by the prefectural parliaments and municipal councils on April 30.

The prefecture of Okinawa was just like the Amami- ( Kagoshima Prefecture ), Izu- and Ogasawara Islands ( Tokyo ) under direct US jurisdiction and did not participate in the elections.

Elected governors

In several prefectures, governors were elected who had previously been official, appointed governors and who had resigned to run in the first elections.

prefecture Election winner Support parties
Hokkaidō Tanaka Toshibumi SPJ
Aomori Tsushima Bunji DP
Iwate Kokubun Kenkichi Iwate Nōseisha (Farmers Union)
Miyagi Chiba Saburō
Akita Hasuike Kosaku DP
Yamagata Musayama Michio
Fukushima Ishihara Kan'ichirō
Ibaraki Tomosue Yōji
Tochigi Kodaira Jūkichi
Gunma Kitano Shigeo DP
Saitama Nishimura Jitsuzo
Chiba Kawaguchi Tamenosuke LPJ
Tokyo Yasui Seiichirō
Kanagawa Uchiyama Iwatarō
Niigata Okada Shōhei
Toyama Tachi Tetsuji LPJ, DP, Nōhontō ("Agricultural Party ")
Ishikawa Shibano Wakio
Fukui Obata Harukazu
Yamanashi Yoshie Katsuyasu
Nagano Hayashi Torao SPJ
Gifu Mutō Kamon
Shizuoka Kobayashi Takeji
Aichi Aoyagi Hideo
Mie Aoki Masaru
Shiga Hattori Iwakichi
Kyoto Kimura Atsushi
Osaka Akama Bunzō LPJ
Hyogo Kishida Yukio
Nara Nomura Mansaku
Wakayama Ono Shinji LPJ
Tottori Nishio Aiji
Shimane Hara Fujirō DP
Okayama Nishioka Hirokichi
Hiroshima Kusunose Tsunoi
Yamaguchi Tanaka Tatsuo
Tokushima Abe Gorō SPJ
Kagawa Masuhara Keikichi
Ehime Aoki Shigeomi
Kochi Kawamura Wakaji
Fukuoka Sugimoto Katsuji SPJ
saga Okinori Gen'ichi
Nagasaki Sugiyama Sōjirō SPJ
Kumamoto Sakurai Saburō
Ōita Hosoda Tokuju
Miyazaki Annaka Tadao
Kagoshima Shigenari Kaku

Selected individual results

Gubernatorial election in Tokyo

In Tokyo Prefecture , the conservative independent Yasui Seiichirō , former official of the Interior Ministry and appointed governor of the prefectures of Gyeonggi ( Keiki ) and Niigata and from 1946 to 1947 head of the Tokyo prefecture administration, prevailed against the former socialist member of the lower house of Commons Tagawa Daikichirō and six rejected applicants. Tagawa was former Vice Mayor of the City of Tokyo under Ozaki Yukio and was an opponent of the dissolution of the City of Tokyo, which the Interior Ministry had imposed under the Tōjō cabinet in 1943 in the Pacific War.

candidate Political party be right proportion of
Yasui Seiichirō More independent 705.040 48.2%
Tagawa Daikichirō Socialist Party of Japan ( CPY support ) 615,622 42.1%
Ōyama Yoshinaga (?, 大 山 善良 ) Hikiagesha dōmei ("League of the Displaced") 50,086 3.4%
Fukuda Chōtaro Democratic Party 42,242 2.9%
Hashimoto Shōnosuke Nippon Rōdōtō ("Japanese Labor Party") 18,665 1.3%
Hibi Tatsusaburō More independent 16,492 1.1%
Tanno Torakichi (?, 丹野 虎 吉 ) Shinsei Nihontō 10,962 0.7%
Kijima Tōryū Kokusai Nihontō ("International Japan Party") 4,601 0.3%

Osaka gubernatorial election

In Osaka Prefecture joined Akama Bunzo , a former official of the Interior Ministry, for the LPJ and could the Socialists Katsuki Tamotsu beat.

candidate Political party be right proportion of
Akama Bunzō Liberal Party of Japan 446.509 47.2%
Katsuki Tamotsu Socialist Party of Japan 389,526 41.2%
Shida Shigeo Communist Party of Japan 59,896 6.3%
Hayashi Kōzō (?, 林幸 三 ) More independent 50.005 5.3%

Web links

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . So Yoshida is the family name, Shigeru the first name.