1949 Japanese general election

1949 Japanese general election

← 1947 23 January 1949 1952 →
All 466 seats in the House of Representatives 234 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Shigeru Yoshida Takeru Inukai Tetsu Katayama Party Democratic Liberal Democratic Socialist Last election Did not exist 124 seats, 25.4% 143 seats, 26.2% Seats won 264 70 48 Seat change New 54 95 Popular vote 13,420,269 4,798,352 4,129,794 Percentage 43.9% 15.9% 13.5% Swing New 9.5pp 12.7pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kyuichi Tokuda Takeo Miki Party Communist National Cooperative Labourers–Farmers Last election 3 seats, 3.7% 31 seats, 7.0% Did not exist Seats won 35 14 7 Seat change 31 17 New Popular vote 2,984,780 1,041,879 606,840 Percentage 9.8% 3.4% 2.0% Swing 6.1pp 3.6pp New
Prime Minister before election Shigeru Yoshida Democratic Liberal Prime Minister after election Shigeru Yoshida Democratic Liberal

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General elections were held in Japan on 23 January 1949. The result was a victory for the Democratic Liberal Party, which won 269 of the 466 seats.^[1] Voter turnout was 74.0%. It was the first election held following the enactment of the current Constitution of Japan.

Future prime ministers Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Satō and future Foreign Minister and Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsuo Okazaki were first elected in this election.

The second cabinet of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was formed following the election.

Results[]

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Democratic Liberal Party	13,420,269	43.87	264	New
	Democratic Party	4,798,352	15.68	69	–55
	Japan Socialist Party	4,129,794	13.50	48	–95
	Japanese Communist Party	2,984,780	9.76	35	+31
	National Cooperative Party	1,041,879	3.41	14	–17
	Labourers and Farmers Party	606,840	1.98	7	New
	Other parties	1,602,496	5.24	17	–
	Independents	2,008,109	6.56	12	0
Total		30,592,519	100.00	466	–2
Valid votes		30,592,519	98.13
Invalid/blank votes		582,438	1.87
Total votes		31,174,957	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		42,105,300	74.04
Source: Oscarsson, Nohlen et al.

References[]