1956 Japanese House of Councillors election

none Japan 1870 parliamentary 1953 Japanese House of Councillors election 1953 1959 Japanese House of Councillors election 1959 127 of the 250 seats in the House of Councillors 126 8 July 1956 150x150px Hatoyama Ichirō (cropped).jpg Ichirō Hatoyama Liberal Democratic Party (Japan, pre-2017) 122 12 11,356,874 36.7% N/A Suzuki Mosaburo.JPG Mosaburō Suzuki Japan Socialist Party 80 14 8,549,940 29.9% N/A Ryokufūkai (1947–1960) 31 3 2,877,102 10.1% 2.1pp Sanzō Nosaka photographed by Shigeru Tamura.jpg Sanzō Nosaka Japanese Communist Party 2 2 599,254 2.1% 1.0pp 350px Results of the election, showing the winning candidates in each prefecture and the national block. President of the House of Councillors President of the House of Councillors-designate Yūzō Shigemune Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) Yutaka Terao Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 8 July 1956,Table 13: Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947–2004) https://web.archive.org/web/20110323055016/http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-13.xls 2011-03-23 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications electing half the seats in the House plus two vacant seats in the other half. The Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats, but failed to win a majority. It was the first national election under the 1955 System, approximately a two party system of Ichirō Hatoyama's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that was created in the "conservative merger" of 1955 and Suzuki Mosaburō's reunified Japan Socialist Party (JSP). The later dominant LDP failed to win a majority. A key campaign issue was Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama's plan to revise Article 9 of the constitution – any change of the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Diet. The left parties aimed to win at least a third of seats to prevent any constitutional change. Another issue was the government's plan to replace the elected prefectural boards of education with appointed ones, a plan fiercely opposed by the left: In June 1956, on the LDP's request the police intervened in the "deliberations" in the Diet when Socialist Councillors resorted to violence. Results Two by-elections for the class of Councillors elected in 1953 were held simultaneously: The candidates with the 51st and 52nd highest vote shares in the national vote (one Socialist and one Liberal Democrat) were elected for three-year terms. Takenaka Tsuneo, who was elected as a member of the Japan Dentists' Federation, later joined the LDP. File:Japan_House_of_Councillors_1956.svg National Constituency Not up Won Totalafter +/– Liberal Democratic Party 11356874 19 14353960 42 61 61 122 New Japan Socialist Party 8549940 21 11156060 28 31 49 80 New Ryokufūkai 2877102 5 653843 0 26 5 31 –3 Japanese Communist Party 599254 1 1149009 1 0 2 2 +1 Labourers and Farmers Party 181524 0 120414 0 0 0 0 –2 Other parties 607832 1 115862 0 0 1 1 0 Independents 4443886 5 2136498 4 5 9 14 –22 2545797 1479521 123 127 250 0 50177888 50177888 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,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) http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-11.xls https://web.archive.org/web/20120220130348/http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-11.xls 2012-02-20 live Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications National Diet By constituency PrefectureTotalseatsSeats wonLDPJSPRyokufūkaiJCPOthersInd. Aichi321Akita11Aomori11Chiba211Ehime11Fukui11Fukuoka312Fukushima211Gifu11Gunma211Hiroshima211Hokkaido422Hyōgo321Ibaraki211Ishikawa11Iwate11Kagawa11Kagoshima211Kanagawa22Kōchi11Kumamoto211Kyoto211Mie11Miyagi11Miyazaki11Nagano211Nagasaki11Nara11Niigata211Ōita11Okayama211Osaka3111Saga11Saitama22Shiga11Shimane11Shizuoka211Tochigi211Tokushima11Tokyo4121Tottori11Toyama11Wakayama11Yamagata11Yamaguchi11Yamanashi11National5219215115Total12761495219 See also Hatomander References Time, July 23, 1956: Japan: Swing to the Left The Senkyo election archive: Full results of the 1956 Councillors elections by electoral district Japan Category:House of Councillors (Japan) elections Category:1956 elections in Japan Category:July 1956 in Asia Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results