1953 Japanese House of Councillors election

1953 Japanese House of Councillors election

24 April 1953
128 of the 250 seats in the House of Councillors 126 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Shigeru Yoshida Mosaburō Suzuki Party Liberal Left Socialist Ryokufūkai Seats after 93 40 34 Seat change 17 New 16 Popular vote 6,149,927 3,917,837 3,301,011 Percentage 22.7% 14.3% 12.2% Swing 6.6% N/A 0.9%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Jōtarō Kawakami Mamoru Shigemitsu Party Right Socialist Kaishintō Seats after 26 15 Seat change New New Popular vote 1,740,423 1,630,507 Percentage 6.4% 6.0% Swing New N/A
President of the House of Councillors before election Naotake Satō Ryokufūkai President of the House of Councillors-designate Yahachi Kawai Ryokufūkai

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 24 April 1953,^[1] electing half the seats in the House. The Yoshida faction of the Liberal Party won the most seats.

Results

Party		National			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Not up	Won	Total after	+/–
	Liberal Party	6,149,927	22.75	16	8,803,131	31.43	30	47	46	93	+17
	Left Socialist Party of Japan	3,858,552	14.27	8	3,917,837	13.99	10	22	18	40	New
	Ryokufūkai	3,301,011	12.21	8	2,096,103	7.48	8	18	16	34	–16
	Right Socialist Party of Japan	1,740,423	6.44	3	2,952,803	10.54	7	16	10	26	New
	Kaishintō	1,630,507	6.03	3	2,840,345	10.14	5	7	8	15	New
	Japanese Communist Party	293,877	1.09	0	264,729	0.95	0	1	0	1	–3
	Labourers and Farmers Party	112,535	0.42	0	277,442	0.99	0	2	0	2	–3
	Liberal Party–Hatoyama	110,889	0.41	0	522,540	1.87	0	2	0	2	New
	Other parties	332,898	1.23	0	322,674	1.15	1	0	1	1	–2
	Independents	9,504,220	35.16	15	6,013,363	21.47	14	7	29	36	+14
Total		27,034,839	100.00	53	28,010,967	100.00	75	122	128	250	0
Valid votes		27,034,839	90.97		28,010,967	94.25
Invalid/blank votes		2,682,584	9.03		1,707,952	5.75
Total votes		29,717,423	100.00		29,718,919	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		47,036,554	63.18		47,036,554	63.18
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,[1][2] National Diet

By constituency

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LP	LSPJ	Ryokufūkai	RSPJ	Kaishintō	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	2
Kanagawa	2				1			1
Kōchi	1	1
Kumamoto	2	1				1
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
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	2	1					1
Tottori	1							1
Toyama	1	1
Wakayama	1	1
Yamagata	1		1
Yamaguchi	1							1
Yamanashi	1							1
National	53	16	8	8	3	3		15
Total	128	47	19	15	10	8	1	28

Aftermath

In the national constituency, a polling station in Sano, Tochigi accidentally had Japan Socialist Party candidate Takeshi Hirabayashi labelled as belonging to the Japanese Communist Party. As a result, the results in Sano were invalidated through an appeal decision of the Supreme Court on 24 September 1954. A re-vote was held on 17 October 1954 with proper labels, and Hirabayashi narrowly won a spot in the lower ranks of the national constituency results.^[3]

References

1. 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
2. "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 2006-01-04.
3. 参議院事務局編『参議院議員選挙一覧 第3回』参議院事務局、1955年。