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1964 Japanese general election
All 486 seats in the House of Representatives of Japan; 244 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	79.0% ( 0.9pp)
Cabinet before election; First Eda Cabinet; JSP-DSP	Cabinet after election ; Second Eda Cabinet; JSP-DSP

General elections were held in Japan on 20 July 1960 to elect the 467 members of the House of Representatives. The opposition Japan Socialist Party emerged as the largest party with 181 seats at 34.6% of the popular vote, unseating the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, with 148 seats and 30.8% of the vote. Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi resigned from both the premiership and LDP presidency shortly after the election, and a coalition government between the Japan Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Party was formed, headed by JSP General Secretary and Acting Chairman Saburō Eda. Voter turnout was 79.9%.

The elections came in the midst of a turbulent year which tarnished the reputation of the Second Kishi Cabinet, culminating in a split in the LDP, the seceding factions of which formed the National Reform Party. The ensuing successful vote of no confidence in the cabinet, and the failure of an alternative government to be formed, triggered a general election. The electorate decisively rejected the political line adopted by Prime Minister Kishi and the LDP-mainstream, allowing the JSP to form a government for the first time since the formation of both parties, marking the end of the 1955 System. Because of the controversial question of the renewal of the US–Japan Security Treaty and subsequent protests that were happening before and during the election campaign, the election came to be colloquially known as the Anpo election (安保選挙, Anpo senkyo). This was also the first election to feature a televised political party leader debate.

Background

The election was overshadowed by the ongoing labour dispute at the Miike coal mine and protests against the US–Japan Security Treaty (Anpo protests). Prime Minister Kishi had been widely condemned across the political spectrum, including from his own political party, for his actions in dealing with both. In particular, the heavy-handed intervention on behalf of the businesses affected by the Miike strike, involving clashes between police and strikers, and the "May 19th Incident" where Kishi rammed the US–Japan Security Treaty through the House of Representatives after forcing opposition Representatives out of the chamber. Following the "June 15th Incident" where ultra-right counter-protesters attacked the Anpo protesters, and the Diet building itself was briefly occupied by militant Zengakuren activists, Kishi faced overwhelming pressure to resign and to cancel the visit of US President Eisenhower. However Kishi continued to refuse to resign, and even considered sending in the Japan Self-Defense Forces and yakuza-affiliated right-wing thugs to break up the protests. While he was talked down by his Cabinet, and cancelled the Eisenhower visit, he continued to refuse to resign.

This was the last straw for Kishi's internal opponents in the party, including figures such as Tanzan Ishibashi, Hirohide Ishida, Takeo Miki, Kenzō Matsumura and Ichirō Kōno, who seceded as the Reform Group and later formed the National Reform Party. The day after, 16 June, the JSP and Reform Group successfully mustered the necessary signatures to summon an extraordinary session of the National Diet, only one day after the ordinary session had expired, in which the House of Councillors refused to ratify the US–Japan Security Treaty just before the 18 June automatic ratification, and the House of Representatives passed a motion of no confidence in the Kishi Cabinet, both with narrow margins. Kishi responded by dissolving the lower house and calling a snap election for 20 July.

Campaign

Masses of protestors flood the streets around Japan's National Diet building, 16 June 1960.

The left was jubilant after the successful vote of no confidence, and block of the ratification of the Anpo treaty, while the right was split and demoralised. The Socialists were widely expected to win, but their efforts suffered a serious setback when charismatic JSP Chairman Inejirō Asanuma was assassinated by wakizashi-wielding right-wing youth Otoya Yamaguchi on national television. Saburō Eda, General-Secretary of the JSP was thrust into the role of Acting Chairman, but was not as well-equipped to handle the internal factional strife of the JSP. The election was generally marred by left-wing protests, and right-wing vigilante violence, which only increased in number following the assassination, and Kishi's failure at addressing those continued to tarnish his reputation. The JSP also benefitted from a sympathy vote following the assassination, although vote splitting with the Democratic Socialist Party, which split from the JSP in January, offset some of these gains.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph by Yasushi Nagao. The photo was taken directly after Yamaguchi stabbed Asanuma and is here seen attempting a second stab, although he was restrained before that could happen.

The Japan Socialist Party focused their campaign on ending the US–Japan Security Treaty, protecting the Constitution and Article 9 in particular, resolving the ongoing Miike labour dispute in favour of the workers, progressive social policy and conducting far-reaching structural reforms to the Japanese economy to begin moving toward a socialist society. The party struggled to appeal outside of the urban areas however, which was compounded by the vote splitting from the DSP.

The Liberal Democratic Party was in chaos following the departure of the Reform Group. While they retained a strong institutional advantage, they also overestimated their chances following the political shakeup, and put up far too many candidates, thus suffering from split votes at a disastrous rate. The party also struggled to put up a coherent message in the unstable political climate. But the greatest issue for the party was the continued leadership of Kishi, who was widely blamed for the ongoing crisis and faced overwhelming public antipathy.

The National Reform Party sought to establish itself as a viable third force in Japanese politics, adopting a moderate political line on foreign and domestic policy alike. Opposed to constitutional revisions without public consultation, and to the "May 19th Incident", the party nonetheless supported the US–Japan alliance in principle. Takeo Miki was put up as the party's lead candidate, a comparatively young figure with a reformist image. Internally, the party was split over whether it should favour a coalition with the left or with the LDP once its sheds Kishi however, which led to an election strategy which was a little confused. Vote splitting between the LDP and NRP largely handed the JSP the electoral victory.

The Democratic Socialist Party, founded in January 1960, split from the JSP over the latter's cooperation with the Japanese Communist Party as part of the Anpo protests. They took a much more moderate tone compared to the JSP, promoting social welfare policies instead of a socialist transition, but nonetheless were also opposed to any change to Article 9 of the Constitution. Despite talks of a potential "Democratic Socialist boom", the party's ambivalence on the Anpo protests limited its success and it failed to supplant the JSP as the main party of the left.

The Japanese Communist Party was in the process of reforming itself and shedding its doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist ideology and rigid adherence to the Soviet line. It shared the JSP's antipathy to the Anpo treaty, although its opposition to the treaty was framed more as opposition to American imperialism, as opposed to the JSP's line of opposing Japanese monopoly capitalism. Similarly, the JCP did not see Japan as a fully developed capitalist society and argued that a democratic revolution was necessary before a socialist one could occur.

Results

For the first time since 1947, the Japan Socialist Party emerged as the largest party in the chamber, achieving the highest vote share and seat total in its history up to this point. With over a third of the vote and 181 seats, as opposed to the LDP's 148, the party was well-positioned to negotiate a coalition government in which it would be the leading force. In contrast, the Liberal Democratic Party lost its first election since it was formed as a unified party in 1955, forcing Kishi to announce his resignation from both the premiership and the presidency of the LDP. His more moderate younger brother Eisaku Satō was elected to succeed him as president of the party.

The leftist parties struggled to make ground in rural areas, but in contrast the Liberal Democrats suffered a complete collapse in the urban areas, being entirely eliminated in some urban constituencies, such as Osaka city, Nagoya and northern Kyūshū. Vote splitting between the LDP and NRP benefited the leftists, meanwhile vote splitting between the JSP, DSP and JCP benefitted the right; however, because of the extent of erstwhile LDP dominance, the LDP suffered much more from NRP competition, meanwhile the JSP and DSP collectively garnered around 5.7 million votes more than the united JSP had in the 1958 election, gaining a net 56 seats.

The DSP and NRP were the big winners of the election, winning 73 and 41 seats respectively in their first elections, while the JCP saw respectable gains as well, rising from one to ten seats. Since no single party won an overall majority, a coalition was required for a government to be formed. However, apart from an unlikely JSP–NRP coalition, or an even more remote grand JSP–LDP coalition, no workable coalition had a majority in the House of Representatives nor the House of Councillors.



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Japan Socialist Party	14,650,681	34.56	181	+15
	Liberal Democratic Party	13,035,547	30.75	148	–139
	National Reform Party	7,049,792	16.63	72	New
	Democratic Socialist Party	4,099,308	9.67	41	New
	Japanese Communist Party	2,132,318	5.03	10	+9
	Other parties	137,395	0.32	0	–1
	Independents	1,286,976	3.04	15	+3
Total		42,392,017	100.00	467	0

Valid votes		42,392,017	97.74
Invalid/blank votes		982,341	2.26
Total votes		43,374,358	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		54,312,993	79.86
Source: Baerwald, Mackie

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		JSP	LDP	NRP	DSP	JCP	Ind.

Aichi	19	7	5	4	1	1	1
Akita	8	3	1	2	1		1
Aomori	7	2	2	1		1	1
Chiba	13	4	4	4	1
Ehime	9	3	4	1		1
Fukui	4	2	2
Fukuoka	19	9	3	2	4	1
Fukushima	12	5	4	1	2
Gifu	9	4	3	1			1
Gunma	10	4	2	4
Hiroshima	12	3	5	1	2		1
Hokkaido	22	12	4	3	1	1	1
Hyōgo	18	7	5	2	3		1
Ibaraki	12	6	3	2			1
Ishikawa	6	1	4				1
Iwate	8	3	3	1			1
Kagawa	6	2	2	1			1
Kagoshima	11	3	6	2
Kanagawa	13	5	2	3	3
Kōchi	5	1	4
Kumamoto	10	3	4	3
Kyoto	10	4	1	2	2	1
Mie	9	2	1	3	2		1
Miyagi	9	3	4	1	1
Miyazaki	6	2	3	1
Nagano	13	5	3	2	2	1
Nagasaki	9	3	3	2			1
Nara	5	1	3				1
Niigata	15	9	4	2
Ōita	7	2	3	2
Okayama	10	5	5
Osaka	19	11	1		4	3
Saga	5	2	1	2
Saitama	13	5	5	3
Shiga	5	2		1	1		1
Shimane	5	1	2	1	1
Shizuoka	14	4	7	3
Tochigi	10	4	4	2
Tokushima	5	1	1	3
Tokyo	27	16	4	1	5	1
Tottori	4	1	1	2
Toyama	6	2	1	3
Wakayama	6	2	4
Yamagata	8	2	6
Yamaguchi	9	3	4	2
Yamanashi	5	2	2	1
Total	467	182	149	70	41	10	15

Aftermath

Government formation

Despite the mutual enmity between the Japan Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Party following the party split, Saburō Eda and Jōtarō Kawakami of the JSP and Suehiro Nishio and Eiichi Nishimura of the DSP successfully negotiated a coalition deal, with Eda becoming Prime Minister. The agreement promised electoral reform, expansion of the National Pension and National Health Insurance systems, legislation strengthening trade unions and collective bargaining, nationalisation of the coal and steel industries, and comprehensive women's rights legislation. Most importantly however, the government would seek a complete rengotiation and abrogation of the United States–Japan Security Treaty involving a complete withdrawal of the United States military from Japan, return of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty and establishment of an equal relationship between the two countries. Seiichi Katsumada of the JSP became Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Despite the success of negotiations, the JSP-DSP coalition still lacked an overall majority in the House of Representatives. The coalition would seek votes with the Japanese Communist Party, National Reform Party or progressive independents on individual policy items, and would rely on abstentions by the Communists and National Reformists in confidence votes. The government's position was even worse in the House of Councillors, where the LDP remained the largest party (although it had lost its narrow majority due to defections to the NRP). Nonetheless Eda was elected Prime Minister on 5 August 1960 on the run-off ballot with 224 votes of the JSP, DSP and two independents, with the JCP and NRP submitting blank ballots, with only the LDP voting against.

Reactions

Domestic

The Anpo protests took on a different character following the election, celebrating the left's victory and Kishi's defeat just as much as protesting the Security Treaty. Organised labour, in particular the pro-JSP Sōhyō trade union centre, was also receptive to the new left coalition, especially following the announcement of the coalition's intention to strengthen trade unions. The strikers at Miike coal mine reinvigorated their activity, expecting the new government to intervene on their behalf, which it did in September, enforcing a pro-worker deal on the management of the mine. Businesses reacted negatively and threatened to jeopardise the stable economic growth of Japan should the new government not make concessions.

Mainichi Daily News (English-language publication of Mainichi Shimbun) on 21 July 1960, the day after the election

Political commentators predicted the government would not last long given its lack of parliamentary majority in either house, overly ambitious political programme and factional strife within the JSP. However this government proved surprisingly stable after it performed well in the 1962 House of Councillors election and 1963 local elections, and lasted the full term of the House of Representatives from 1960 to 1964.

International

The election received a large amount of international media attention given the huge role the US–Japan relationship, and the Anpo treaty in particular, played in the run-up and course of the election. Following the election, US President Dwight Eisenhower issued a strongly worded statement urging the new government to adopt the new draft of the Security Treaty in the interest of maintaining and protecting democracy in Asia. With the 1960 United States presidential election approaching, the failure to ratify the Security Treaty and the ousting of the LDP was seen as a significant defeat for the Eisenhower administration, and contributed to Richard Nixon's defeat by John F. Kennedy in the election.

Negative reactions also followed from the Republic of China, given the intention of the new coalition government to recognise the People's Republic of China as the sole legal government of China. President of Taiwan Chiang Kai-shek warned against derecognition of the ROC and emphasised the threat of communism in the Asia-Pacific. In contrast, the PRC welcomed the new government and hoped to establish relations and reciprocal trade on a swift schedule. Similarly, both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea congratulated the new government, and hoped relations may be established, provided Japan formally and officially acknowledge its responsibility for the occupation and colonisation of Korea.