Japanese general election, 1928

20 February 1928

All 466 seats to the House of Representatives 234 seats needed for a majority

	First party	Second party

Leader	Tanaka Giichi	Hamaguchi Osachi
Party	Seiyūkai	Minseitō
Last election	113 seats
Seats won	217	216
Seat change	+114	New

Prime Minister before election

Tanaka Giichi
Seiyūkai

Prime Minister-designate

Tanaka Giichi
Seiyūkai

Japan

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General elections were held in Japan on 20 February 1928,^[1] the first after the introduction of universal male suffrage. The ruling Rikken Seiyūkai led by Prime Minister Tanaka Giichi won one more seat than the opposition Rikken Minseitō led by Hamaguchi Osachi, although Rikken Minseitō had received slightly more votes. The hung parliament led to the Tanaka government continuing in office.

Electoral system

Following 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.^[2] As a result, the electorate increased from 3.3 million in the 1924 elections to 12.4 million.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Rikken Minseitō	4,251,771	43.1	216	New
Rikken Seiyūkai	4,244,385	43.1	217	+114
Labour-Farmer Party	184,040	1.9	2	New
Jitsugo Doshikai	166,250	1.7	4	New
Social Democratic Party	120,044	1.2	4	New
Japan Labour-Farmer Party	94,626	0.9	1	New
Kakushintō	81,324	0.8	3	New
Japan Farmers Party	44,000	0.5	0	New
Others	669,756	6.8	19	–50
Invalid/blank votes	111,888	–	–	–
Total	9,968,084	100	466	+2
Registered voters/turnout	12,408,678	80.3	–	–
Source: Mackie & Rose, Voice Japan

Aftermath

The 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

↑ Thomas T Mackie & Richard Rose (1991) The International Almanac of Electoral History, Macmillan, p281
↑ Mackie & Rose, p276

Elections in Japan

General elections	1890 1892 1894 (Mar) 1894 (Sep) 1898 (Mar) 1898 (Sep) 1902 1903 1904 1908 1912 1915 1917 1920 1924 1928 1930 1932 1936 1937 1942 1946 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1958 1960 1963 1967 1969 1972 1976 1979 1980 1983 1986 1990 1993 1996 2000 2003 2005 2009 2012 2014 next

Councillors elections	1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016

Unified local elections	1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015

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