1963 Japanese general election

1963 Japanese general election

21 November 1963
All 467 seats in the House of Representatives 234 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.14% ( 2.36pp)
First party Second party   Leader Hayato Ikeda Jōtarō Kawakami Party LDP Socialist Last election 57.56%, 296 seats 27.56%, 145 seats Seats won 283 144 Seat change 13 1 Popular vote 22,423,915 11,906,766 Percentage 54.67% 29.03% Swing 2.89pp 1.53pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Suehiro Nishio Kenji Miyamoto Party Democratic Socialist JCP Last election 8.77%, 17 seats 2.93%, 3 seats Seats won 23 5 Seat change 6 2 Popular vote 3,023,302 1,646,477 Percentage 7.37% 4.01% Swing 1.40pp 1.08pp
Districts shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Hayato Ikeda LDP Elected Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda LDP

General elections were held in Japan on 21 November 1963. The result was a victory for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which won 283 of the 467 seats. Voter turnout was 71.1%.

Most commentators believed that the election results would not radically alter the Japanese political landscape, and this was confirmed in the results, which did not see any party win or lose a large amount of seats. Although the LDP lost 13 seats, 12 LDP-aligned independents were also elected. The highest gain in seats came from the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), which tactically fielded far fewer candidates than the previous elections and concentrated on fewer districts, gaining six seats, which was more than any of the other opposition parties gained. The elections also saw the defeat of two former prime ministers; Tetsu Katayama of the DSP (formerly of the JSP) and Tanzan Ishibashi of the LDP.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Liberal Democratic Party	22,423,915	54.67	283	–13
	Japan Socialist Party	11,906,766	29.03	144	–1
	Democratic Socialist Party	3,023,302	7.37	23	+6
	Japanese Communist Party	1,646,477	4.01	5	+2
	Other parties	59,765	0.15	0	–
	Independents	1,956,313	4.77	12	+7
Total		41,016,538	100.00	467	0
Valid votes		41,016,538	98.93
Invalid/blank votes		442,406	1.07
Total votes		41,458,944	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		58,281,678	71.14
Source: Baerwald, Mackie

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	JSP	DSP	JCP	Ind.
Aichi	19	11	6	1	1
Akita	8	4	3	1
Aomori	7	3	3			1
Chiba	13	10	2	1
Ehime	9	5	3	1
Fukui	4	3	1
Fukuoka	19	10	7	2
Fukushima	12	9	3
Gifu	9	6	3
Gunma	10	7	3
Hiroshima	12	9	2	1
Hokkaido	22	10	9	1		2
Hyōgo	18	8	6	3		1
Ibaraki	12	8	3			1
Ishikawa	6	4	1			1
Iwate	8	6	2
Kagawa	6	4	1			1
Kagoshima	11	6	4			1
Kanagawa	13	7	5	1
Kōchi	5	4	1
Kumamoto	10	8	2
Kyoto	10	4	3	2	1
Mie	9	6	2			1
Miyagi	9	5	3	1
Miyazaki	6	4	2
Nagano	13	8	4		1
Nagasaki	9	6	2			1
Nara	5	3	2
Niigata	15	9	5			1
Ōita	7	5	2
Okayama	10	6	4
Osaka	19	8	6	3	2
Saga	5	3	2
Saitama	13	8	5
Shiga	5	3	2
Shimane	5	4	1
Shizuoka	14	9	4	1
Tochigi	10	7	3
Tokushima	5	4				1
Tokyo	27	13	12	2
Tottori	4	3	1
Toyama	6	5	1
Wakayama	6	4	2
Yamagata	8	6	2
Yamaguchi	9	4	3	2
Yamanashi	5	4	1
Total	467	283	144	23	5	12