Sangiin election 1956

The Sangiin election in 1956 , formally the “4th Ordinary election of Sangiin MPs ”( Japanese 第 4 回 参議院 議員 通常 選 挙 , dai-yon-kai Sangiin giin tsūjō seitenkyo ), to the Japanese council house ( Sangiin ) , the upper house (jōin) of the national parliament ( Kokkai ) took place on July 8th Held in 1956. Half of the chamber was re-elected for six years by simple, non-transferable vote : 75 members in the prefectures , 52 others (including two by-elections for three years) in the nationwide constituency ( zenkoku-ku ).

The 1956 election was the first Sangiin election under the so-called "55 system": in 1955, the "Conservative Fusion" and the reunification of the Socialist Party almost resulted in a two-party system. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Hatoyama Ichirō did not have its own majority in the Sangiin and was dependent on the votes of independents and the Ryokufūkai . Hatoyama had only taken over the party leadership in April. The opposition Socialist Party of Japan (SPJ) was led by Suzuki Mosaburō , who briefly held the party chairmanship in 1951 before the left and right wings split over the dispute over the security treaty with the United States. The Communist Party of Japan (CPJ) under the Central Committee Chairman Nosaka Sanzo and the Workers 'and Peasants' Party of Kuroda Hisao could only count on a few mandates given the escalation of the two major parties.

Around 50 million Japanese, men and women over 20 years of age were eligible to vote. The Ryūkyū Islands ( Okinawa ) were under US administration and did not take part in the election.

The issues of the election campaign included the 1954 rearmament, the Security Treaty with the United States, and education policy. Hatoyama hoped to work with conservative independents to win a two-thirds majority in the Sangiin for a planned amendment to the constitution in connection with rearmament. In March 1956 Hatoyama had set up the “Committee of Inquiry into the Constitution” ( kempō chōsakai ), and at the beginning of July the “National Defense Council” ( kokubō kaigi , forerunner of today's Security Council ) began its work. The election goal of the left parties was to get at least a third of the seats in order to prevent such a majority. The confrontational stance of the left parties was reinforced by the so-called Hatomander ( ハ ト マ ン ダ ー ; from Hatoyama and Gerrymandering ): Hatoyama's plan to replace the “middle” multi-mandate constituencies for the Shūgiin , the lower house, with “small” individual constituencies was not implemented until May 1956 failed in Sangiin. The change would have made it easier for the LDP to gain a two-thirds majority in the Shūgiin so that it could overrule the Sangiin on most of the legislative proposals. The government's attempt to appoint the elected school councils in the future and to change the admission process for school books had led to massive protests by the SPJ and the Nikkyoso teachers' union . During the “deliberations” in Sangiin in June 1956, the police had to intervene to restore order.

Result

Distribution of seats after the election

The turnout was 63.18% in the prefectures and 62.10% in the national constituency.

Political party		Not an option	Prefectures			nationwide constituency			Elected in 1956	Composition according to the choice
			be right	proportion of	Seats	be right	proportion of	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party	61	14,353,960	48.35%	42	11,356,874	39.69%	19th	61	122
	Socialist Party of Japan	31	11.156.060	37.58%	28	8,549,940	29.88%	21st	49	80
	Ryokufūkai	26th	653.843	2.20%	0	2,877,102	10.05%	5	5	31
	Communist Party of Japan	0	599.254	2.09%	1	1,149,009	3.87%	1	2	2
	Workers 'and Peasants' Party ( rōdōshanōmintō )	0	181.414	0.41%	0	181,524	0.63%	0	0	0
	Other (*)	0	115,862	0.39%	0	607.832	2.12%	1	1	1
	Independent	5	2,136,498	7.20%	4th	4,443,886	15.53%	5	9	14th
total		123	29,685,646	100%	75	28,616,411	100%	52	127	250

(*) Sole elected candidate: Takenaka Tsuneo for the Japanese Dental Association, later for the LDP.

Constituencies

The SPJ was able to win more seats in the national constituency than the LDP. However, it won only four of the 25 single-seat constituencies compared to 19 for the LDP, which thus won a total of 42 of the 75 seats in the prefectures.

The religious community Sōka Gakkai supported several independent candidates for the first time.

1956 constituency results
Party affiliation of the election winners (status: election day) : Liberal Democratic Party Socialist Party of Japan Ryokufūkai Communist Party of Japan Other (Japanese Dental Association) Independent										Hokkaidō
									Aomori
									Akita	Iwate
								Niigata	Yamagata	Miyagi
							Ishikawa	Toyama	Tochigi	Fukushima
						Fukui	Nagano	Gunma	Saitama	Ibaraki
		Shimane	Tottori	Hyogo	Kyoto	Shiga	Gifu	Yamanashi	Tokyo	Chiba
		Yamaguchi	Hiroshima	Okayama	Osaka	Nara	Aichi	Shizuoka	Kanagawa
saga	Fukuoka					Wakayama	Mie
Nagasaki	Kumamoto	Ōita		Ehime	Kagawa	Nationwide constituency until 1962:     18               20         5      1         1      5  until 1959:  1         1
	Kagoshima	Miyazaki		Kochi	Tokushima
( Okinawa )

Effects

The LDP missed an absolute majority. The rearmament in the form of the strictly defensive self - defense forces continued without a constitutional change. Hatoyama traveled to Moscow in September to negotiate Japan's admission to the United Nations , where the joint Japanese-Soviet declaration was adopted in October, and resigned on his return in November. In the election for the LDP party chairmanship in December 1956, Ishibashi Tanzan narrowly prevailed against Kishi Nobusuke as his successor.

In the United States, the election result was seen as a possible strengthening of anti-American forces.

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Hatoyama is the family name, Ichirō the first name.

Web links

• 参議院> 第 4 回 参議院 議員 選 挙 . In:ザ ・ 選 挙 . JANJAN(Japan Alternative News for Justices and New Cultures), September 18, 2008,accessed January 9, 2010(Japanese). 
• Mayumi Itoh: The Hatoyama dynasty: Japanese political leadership through the generations. Palgrave Macmillan 2003. ISBN 1403963312 , Chapter 5, pp. 159 ff .: The Creation of the LDP and the Third Hatoyama Cabinet.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication , Statistics Office, 日本 の 長期 統計 系列 , chap. 27 公務員 ・ 選 挙 , Table 11: 参議院 議員 通常 選 挙 の 定 数 ， 立 候補 者 数 ， 選 挙 当日 有 権 者 数 ， 投票者 数 及 及 び 投票 率 （昭和 22 年 ～ 平 成 16 年） / Allotted Number, Candidates, Candidates, Candidates, Allotted Number Day, Voters and Voting Percentages of Ordinary Elections for the House of Councilors (1947--2004) (Japanese, English; MS Excel ; 34 kB)
2. ↑ ^{a b} Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication , Statistics Office, 日本 の 長期 統計 系列 , chap. 27 公務員 ・ 選 挙 , Table 13: 参議院 議員 通常 選 挙 の 党派 別 当選 者 数 及 び 得票 率 （昭和 22 年 ～ 平 成 16 年） / Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councilors (1947- -2004) (Japanese, English; MS Excel ; 48 kB)
3. ↑ Japan: Swing to the Left. In: Time . July 23, 1956, accessed January 9, 2010 .