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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 15 July 1964 to elect the 486 members of the House of Representatives. The Japan Socialist Party retained its position as largest party with 157 seats at 32.3% of the popular vote, ahead of the Liberal Democratic Party, with 132 seats and 27.1% of the vote. Saburō Eda continued as Prime Minister in a minority coalition between the Socialists and Democratic Socialists, with extra-cabinet cooperation from the Clean Government Party. Voter turnout was 79.0%.

These elections were the first to be held under a proportional representation system introduced by the previous JSP-DSP coalition government, and saw both major parties see some losses both in vote share and seats, while the minor parties saw gains in their representation. In particular, the newly formed Clean Government Party (Kōmeitō) performed well and became the fifth largest party with 6.3% of the vote and 29 seats, while the Communists more than doubled their representation to 26 seats and saw modest vote share gains. The Democratic Socialist Party and the National Reform Party both saw some seat gains, although the NRP saw a marginal decline in its vote share.

Background

Following the 1960 general election a minority coalition Cabinet between the Japan Socialist Party and Democratic Socialist Party under Prime Minister Saburō Eda was formed, with extra-cabinet cooperation from progressive independents, unseating the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Even then, the Cabinet lacked an overall majority, and relied on abstentions from the Japan Communist Party Representatives, and its position in the House of Councillors was even worse, where the LDP remained the largest party.

Despite its unstable position, the government performed well in the 1962 House of Councillors election and passed a number of landmark pieces of domestic legislation, including an expansion to the National Pension scheme, overhaul of the National Health Insurance system to guarantee all citizens access to healthcare free at the point of use, nationalised the coal and steel industries, strengthened the rights of trade unions and collective bargaining (including by resolving the Miike Struggle in favour of the miners), and introduced women's rights legislation, such as allowing women to keep their maiden name after marriage and improving childcare services to support working mothers.

With the support of all parties except the LDP, the JSP-DSP coalition also passed an overhaul of the electoral law for both chambers of the National Diet. The 100 nationally-elected seats in the House of Councillors were changed to be elected via proportional representation (50 every election cycle), while the House of Representatives was completely overhauled to be elected via a proportional system, with seat allocations recalibrated to stop favouring rural areas.

In foreign policy the JSP-DSP Cabinet was less successful. Attempts to renegotiate the United States–Japan Security Treaty to be more favourable to Japan were stalled by the Kennedy administration, in the hopes that the left-wing coalition would collapse and give way for another LDP administration. To this end, as later declassified documents revealed, the CIA covertly funneled money to DSP elements opposed to treaty renegotiation and more amenable to the American alliance. Despite opposition from the left-wing of the JSP, Prime Minister Eda moderated some of his demands to maintain the DSP coalition and convince the United States to agree, but despite these efforts, the requirement that Okinawa be returned to Japanese sovereignty immediately meant these efforts were stonewalled. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the new Johnson administration was even less willing to entertain renegotiation, especially as the Japanese government had withdrawn its recognition of the Republic of China in favour of the People's Republic of China.

Despite the failure to get the Security Treaty renegotiated, the government saw a normalisation of relations with communist states, namely the Soviet Union and mainland China. Reassurances from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev even indicated that, should the government succeed in getting the United States military presence removed from the country, the USSR would consider the transfer of the southernmost Kuril Islands (Kunashir, Habomai, Iturup and Shikotan) as part of a formal peace treaty. In addition, a Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan and China was signed in 1963 as part of Japan's recognition of the PRC as the sole legal government of China. While the DSP attempted to push for a recognition of "both Chinas", this failed due to the One China policy. The DSP eventually relented, but did not do so on the question of Korea: attempts to recognise both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea failed, and the government could not agree on which to recognise (the JSP supported DPRK recognition, while the DSP supported ROK recognition).

The Japan Self-Defence Forces' already meagre size was further downsized, although full abolition of the JSDF was blocked by the DSP. The intention to make Japan a neutral country, the neutrality, security and sovereignty of which would be guaranteed by the United States, China and the Soviet Union, was formally declared, although the failure to abrogate the Security Treaty meant this remained simply an intention, despite the warming relations with China and the USSR.

JSP internal struggles: Structural Reform and the "Eda Vision"

While Eda had been in the Left Socialist Party and was opposed to the Nishio faction of the JSP that ended up forming the core of the DSP, now that the right of the party had left, he found himself among the most moderate members of a Socialist Party that was radically left-wing. While he successfully mustered the support for the platform of "structural reform" (inspired by the same line adopted by the Italian Communist Party under Palmiro Togliatti), calling on combining parliamentary pressure and extraparliamentary mass movements to achieve a hegemonic position for the Socialist movement across society that will be able to overthrow capitalism and establish socialism, at the 19th Party Congress held shortly after Asanuma's assassination, his moderate line still faced considerable opposition from the left-wing factions, including most notably the Socialist Association. His experience in government with the DSP led to further compromises and his further shift to the centre, far more rapidly than many in the party who initially supported him were willing to accept, galvanising internal party opposition, including his erstwhile ally, chief theoretician of the structural reform tendency, and new Secretary-General ever since Eda was elected as permanent Chairman in 1961, Tomomi Narita. When Eda attempted to push through his "Eda Vision" of socialism, seeking to emulate the United States' high living standards, Britain's parliamentary democracy, the USSR's social security and preserve Japan's peace constitution, at the 22nd Congress in 1962, Narita joined with the left to speak out against it. While the Eda Vision was soundly rejected by the Party Congress, Eda was retained as Chairman to allow him to continue as Prime Minister in the coalition government. Nonetheless, Narita also retained his position as the number 2 figure in the party, staying on as Secretary-General, as his pro-structural reform anti-Eda Vision faction became dominant in the Central Executive.

Campaign

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.

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.

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.