General elections were held in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on 20 November 1960.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...

, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p363 The result was a victory for the Liberal Democratic Party, which won 296 of the 467 seats. Voter turnout was 73.5%, the lowest since the 1947 general elections.

Background

The elections came near the end of a turbulent year marked by violent labour disputes at Mitsui Miike Coal Mine, the "May 19th Incident" in which

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...

and LDP lawmakers in the Diet forced the revised US-Japan Security Treaty through parliament (causing an upsurge in the Anpo protests), and the assassination of

Japan Socialist Party The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...

(JSP) leader

Inejirō Asanuma was a Japanese politician and leader of the Japan Socialist Party. During World War II, Asanuma was aligned with the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and advocated for war in Asia. Asanuma later became a forceful advocate of socialism in p ...

by ''

wakizashi The is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords (''nihontō'') worn by the samurai in feudal Japan. History and use The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:

''-wielding right-wing youth named

Otoya Yamaguchi was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi short sword while Asanuma was partic ...

. Prior to the elections there were a number of left-wing street protests and right-wing vigilante actions.

Campaign

As public antipathy was largely towards Kishi and his cabinet, rather than flagship LDP policies, the election was not a setback for the party. Kishi's successor,

Hayato Ikeda was a Japanese bureaucrat and later politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1960 to 1964. He is best known for his Income Doubling Plan, which promised to double Japan's GDP in ten years. Ikeda is also known for repairing U.S.-J ...

, was popular for his moderate attitude and public image as a practical finance minister, and LDP candidates focused heavily on issues such as maintaining already-strong economic growth. Ikeda made a splash with his promise to double the national income in ten years, known as the "

Income Doubling Plan The was a long-term economic development plan initiated by Japanese prime minister Hayato Ikeda in the fall of 1960. The plan called for doubling the size of Japan's economy in ten years through a combination of tax breaks, targeted investment, a ...

," which also promised economic benefits such as tax cuts to small businesses, farmers, and consumers. The LDP also benefitted from factionalism in the JSP, as the more moderate and

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

Democratic Socialist Party seceded from the JSP at the beginning of the year, leading to a

spoiler effect Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. Vote spl ...

Results

Although the LDP saw a small reduction in its vote share compared to the 1958 elections and the JSP and DSP collectively received around 1.3 million more votes than the united JSP did in the 1958 elections, the LDP gained nine seats, while the JSP and DSP lost a net four seats.

By prefecture

References

{{Japanese elections

1960 elections in Japan General elections in Japan November 1960 events in Asia Election and referendum articles with incomplete results