The Hosokawa Cabinet governed Japan from August 9, 1993, to April 28, 1994, under the leadership of Prime Minister

Morihiro Hosokawa is a Japanese politician and Nobility, noble who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1993 to 1994, leading a coalition government which was the first non-Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) government of Japan since 1955 ...

. In Japan, the Hosokawa Cabinet is generally referred to as a representative example of

non-LDP and non-JCP Coalition Non-LDP and non-JCP Coalition (非自民・非共産連立政権) are terms used in Japanese politics and mean building an alliance between moderate parties excluding conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and left-wing Japanese Communist Par ...

Political background

Formed in the aftermath of the 1993 general election, this cabinet was a broad based coalition of parties of both left (the JSP and

DSP DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...

), right ( JRP, JNP and

NPS NPS may refer to: Organizations * National Park Service, U.S. * National Pension System, India * National Pension Service, Korea * National Phobics Society, UK charity * National Piers Society, UK charity * National Poetry Slam, competition * N ...

) and religious politics (

Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalitio ...

). A series of defections had cost the LDP its majority before the 1993 election, after which all non-

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

opposition parties coalesced with the aim of creating the first non-LDP government in 38 years and achieving electoral reform. Despite the fact that the conservative Japan Renewal Party and the left-wing Japan Socialist Party were the largest parties in the coalition,

Ichirō Ozawa is a Japanese politician and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1969, representing the Iwate 3rd district (Iwate 2nd district prior to the 1996 general election and Iwate 4th district prior to the 2017 general election). H ...

(who negotiated the formation of the government) and his allies in the JRP pushed for Morihiro Hosokawa, a former governor of

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...

and the leader of the small

Japan New Party The was a Japanese political party that existed briefly from 1992 to 1994. The party, considered liberal, was founded by Morihiro Hosokawa, a former Diet member and Kumamoto Prefecture governor, who left the Liberal Democratic Party to protest ...

, to lead the government. Hosokawa was elected by the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

on August 6, and took office as the first non-LDP Prime Minister for four decades. The Prime Minister himself was the only New Party member of the cabinet, which was mostly dominated by the JRP and the Socialists. The coalition achieved Hosokawa's goal of electoral reform, replacing the previous system of multi-member

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

with a combined system of

single-member districts A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

, elected by

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

, and blocs of

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

candidates. But having achieved this, and replaced the LDP, the unifying purpose of the coalition was lost and ideological differences between the parties, especially over tax and defence policy, began to split the cabinet. Following revelations of a campaign finance scandal, Hosokawa announced his surprise resignation on April 8, 1994. After several weeks of negotiations, foreign minister

Tsutomu Hata was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan for nine weeks in 1994. He took over from Morihiro Hosokawa at the head of a coalition government. Shortly after he had been appointed Prime Minister, the Japanese Socialist Party le ...

of the JRP became Prime Minister on April 28.

Election of the Prime Minister

Ministers

R = Member of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

C = Member of the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

Changes

* December 1 – Defence Minister Keisuke Nakanishi resigned over controversial remarks he made related to Japan's pacifist constitution, and was replaced by Kazuo Aichi.

References

External links

* List of Ministers at the

Kantei The Prime Minister's Official Residence is the official workplace and residence of the Prime Minister of Japan. It is commonly referred to as , , or simply . Located at 2-3-1 Nagata-chō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100–8968, it is diagonally adjacen ...

Hosokawa Cabinet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hosokawa Cabinet Cabinet of Japan 1993 establishments in Japan 1994 disestablishments in Japan Cabinets established in 1993 Cabinets disestablished in 1994