General elections were held in Japan on 20 February 1928,[1][2] the first after the introduction of universal male suffrage.[3] The ruling Rikken Seiyūkai led by Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi won one more seat than the opposition Constitutional Democratic Party led by Hamaguchi Osachi, although the Constitutional Democratic Party had received slightly more votes. The hung parliament led to the Tanaka government continuing in office.
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All 466 seats in the House of Representatives 234 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Districts shaded according to winners' vote strength | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Electoral system
editFollowing electoral reforms in 1925, the 466 members of the House of Representatives were elected from multi-member constituencies with between three and five seats. Voting had previously been restricted to men aged over 25 who paid at least 3 yen a year in direct taxation, but the reforms had also abolished the taxation requirement.[4] As a result, the electorate increased from 3.3 million in the 1924 elections to 12.4 million.
Results
editParty | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Constitutional Democratic Party | 4,251,771 | 43.14 | 216 | New | |
Rikken Seiyūkai | 4,244,385 | 43.06 | 217 | +114 | |
Labour-Farmer Party | 184,040 | 1.87 | 2 | New | |
Jitsugyo Doshikai | 166,250 | 1.69 | 4 | New | |
Social Democratic Party | 120,044 | 1.22 | 4 | New | |
Japan Labour-Farmer Party | 94,626 | 0.96 | 1 | New | |
Kakushintō | 81,324 | 0.83 | 3 | New | |
Japan Farmers Party | 44,000 | 0.45 | 0 | New | |
Others | 669,756 | 6.80 | 19 | –50 | |
Total | 9,856,196 | 100.00 | 466 | +2 | |
Valid votes | 9,856,196 | 98.88 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 111,888 | 1.12 | |||
Total votes | 9,968,084 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 12,408,678 | 80.33 | |||
Source: Mackie & Rose, Voice Japan |
By prefecture
editPrefecture | Total seats |
Seats won | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
RS | RM | JD | SDP | K | L-FP | JL-FP | Others | Ind. | ||
Aichi | 17 | 5 | 10 | 2 | ||||||
Akita | 7 | 4 | 3 | |||||||
Aomori | 6 | 4 | 2 | |||||||
Chiba | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Ehime | 9 | 7 | 2 | |||||||
Fukui | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
Fukuoka | 18 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Fukushima | 11 | 6 | 5 | |||||||
Gifu | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
Gunma | 9 | 4 | 5 | |||||||
Hiroshima | 13 | 7 | 6 | |||||||
Hokkaido | 20 | 10 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
Hyōgo | 19 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
Ibaraki | 11 | 6 | 5 | |||||||
Ishikawa | 6 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
Iwate | 7 | 6 | 1 | |||||||
Kagawa | 6 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
Kagoshima | 12 | 2 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
Kanagawa | 11 | 5 | 6 | |||||||
Kōchi | 6 | 2 | 4 | |||||||
Kumamoto | 10 | 5 | 5 | |||||||
Kyoto | 11 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Mie | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
Miyagi | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
Miyazaki | 5 | 1 | 4 | |||||||
Nagano | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | ||||||
Nagasaki | 9 | 3 | 6 | |||||||
Nara | 5 | 2 | 3 | |||||||
Niigata | 15 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Ōita | 7 | 4 | 3 | |||||||
Okayama | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
Okinawa | 5 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
Osaka | 21 | 5 | 13 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Saga | 6 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
Saitama | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
Shiga | 5 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
Shimane | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Shizuoka | 13 | 8 | 5 | |||||||
Tochigi | 9 | 4 | 5 | |||||||
Tokushima | 6 | 3 | 3 | |||||||
Tokyo | 31 | 14 | 16 | 1 | ||||||
Tottori | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||||
Toyama | 6 | 2 | 4 | |||||||
Wakayama | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
Yamagata | 8 | 4 | 4 | |||||||
Yamaguchi | 9 | 7 | 2 | |||||||
Yamanashi | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Total | 466 | 217 | 216 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 |
Aftermath
editThe Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin was assassinated by the Japanese army in June 1928. Tanaka denounced the army for this, but lost support and was forced to resign in July 1929. Opposition leader Hamaguchi became Prime Minister and formed a new government.
References
edit- ^ Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, p281
- ^ Colegrove, Kenneth (1928). "The Japanese General Election of 1928". American Political Science Review. 22 (2): 401–407. doi:10.2307/1945477. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1945477. S2CID 147606313.
- ^ Colegrove, Kenneth (1929). "Labor Parties in Japan". American Political Science Review. 23 (2): 329–363. doi:10.2307/1945218. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1945218. S2CID 145649163.
- ^ Mackie & Rose, p276