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A Japanese House of Councillors Election: Support Mobilization and Political Recruitment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Bradley M. Richardson
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Extract

Research on the Japanese electoral process has quite legitimately focused on a broad range of topics. Elections in Japan have been studied from the perspective of national issues and evaluation of their popular appeal, description and analysis of voting behaviour patterns, and identification of the support mobilization efforts and campaign postures of individual candidates. Of the various kinds of electoral contests, those of the House of Representatives and local elections have received the greatest attention.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , July 1967 , pp. 385 - 402
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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References

For studies of various dimensions of House of Representatives elections see Scalapino, A. Robert and Masumi, Junnosuke, Parties and Polities in Contemporary Japan, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962), pp. 108–24;Google Scholar

Beardsley, Richard K., Hall, John W. and Ward, Robert E., Village Japan, (Chicago, 1959), pp. 416–35;Google Scholar

Kyogoku, Junichi and Ike, Nobutaka, ‘Urban-rural Differences in Voting Behaviour in Postwar Japan’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, 9, I, 1960, Part II, pp. 167–85;CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Scalapino, A. Robert, ‘Japan and the General Elections’, Far Eastern Survey, 21, 15, 1952, pp. 149–54;CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Dull, Paul S., ‘The General Election of 1952’, The American Political Science Review, 47, I 1953, pp. 199–204;CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Mendel, Douglas H. Jr, ‘Behind the 1955 Japanese Elections’, Far Eastern Survey, 24, 1955, pp. 65–70;CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Morris, I. I., ‘Foreign Policy Issues in Japan's 1958 Elections’, Pacific Affairs, 31, 3, 1958, pp. 219–40;CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Dore, R. P., ‘Japanese Election Candidates in 1955’, Pacific Affairs, 29, 2, 1956, pp. 174–81;Google Scholar

Ukai, Nobushige, ‘Japanese Election Results Reconsidered’, Pacfic Affairs, 26, 2, 1953, pp. 139–46.Google Scholar Local elections have been discussed in Beardsley, , Hall and Ward, op. cit., pp. 409–16;Google ScholarDore, R. P., Land Reform in Japan, (London, 1959), pp. 326–7 and 337–43;Google Scholar

Kurt, Steiner, ‘A Japanese Village and its Government’, Far Eastern Quarterly, 15, 2, 1956, pp. 185–99; and idem.Google Scholar

Local Government in Japan, (Stanford, 1965), pp. 323–35.Google Scholar

House of Councillors elections have been described in Mendel, Douglas H. Jr, ‘Behind the 1959 Japanese Elections’, Pacific Affairs, 32, 3, 1959, pp. 298–306Google Scholar

and Nobushige, Ukai, ‘The Japanese House of Councillors Election of July 1962’, Asian Survey, 2, 6, 1962, pp. 1–8.Google Scholar

2 The Japanese Diet is bicameral. Members of the House of Representatives, the Lower House, are elected every four years or irregularly after dissolution. Half of the membership of the Upper House, the House of Councillors, is renewed every three years in scheduled elections.

3 There are two kinds of districts in House of Councillors elections. Roughly 40 per cent of the seats at stake in a given election are contested in a nation-wide constituency, while the remainder are assigned to prefecture-wide districts. Although there are a few prefecture-wide constituencies in House of Representatives elections, namely in Yama nashi, Fukui, Saga, Shiga, Nara, Tottori, Shimane, Tokushima, and Kochi, most Lower House contests take place in smaller districts.

4 The responses of the electorate to House of Councillors elections are also markedly distinctive, but consideration of these patterns is beyond the scope of this article. For information on differences in the levels of popular interest and voting motivations between House of Councillors and other contests, see Senkyo, Remmei Komei, Toitsu Chiho Senkyo no Jittai, (Tokyo, 1964) pp. 24 and 50;Google Scholar

idem, Sosenkyo no Jittai, (Tokyo, 1964), p. 48Google Scholar

and Chosasha, Chuo, Sanqiin Giin Senkyo ni tsuite no Seron Chosa, (Tokyo, 1965), pp. 109 and 115. Distinctiveness in the areas of political recruitment and support mobilization, it should be remembered, is a matter of both content and degree.Google Scholar

5 Accounts of the 1959 and 1962 elections were also studied. Although there were some differences, e.g., in specific organizational affiliations of candidates, the 1965 experiences were representative of conditions in the other elections in terms of general patterns.

6 Scalapino, Robert A. and Junnosuke, Masumi, op. cit., Chapter 3 and pp. 164–7 of the Appendix.Google Scholar

7 These are Japan's two major parties. Japan's minor parties include the Japan Communists, the Democratic Socialists and the Komeito, the political arm of the Soka Gakkai religion. The discussion here will focus on the Liberal Democrats and the Japan Socialists.

8 Background information on unsuccessful candidates was less complete than that for elected Councillors. For this reason, data and generalizations made here are based solely on characteristics of successful candidates.

9 Statistics from the 1958 House of Representatives election, which are representative of those of recent general elections, are used here (Table I). See Scalapino, and Masumi, , op. cit., pp. 164–6, for data on other Lower House elections. Figures on candidacies from other than agricultural, labour and business groups were not available for Lower House contests.Google Scholar

10 The omission of the category of ‘other groups’ from the House of Representatives figures detracts from the conclusiveness of the statistical data presented here for Conservative candidacies, but the high ratio of candidacies by persons holding association positions in the national district affords persuasive support for our observations.

11 Tokyo Shimbun, 8 May 1965. It is said to be a common practice for members of the national civil service to take positions in groups related to their speciality upon retirement. Such practices presumably serve to cement clientele relationships between governmental agencies and private groups.

12 See Beardsley, Richard K., Hall, John W. and Ward, Robert E., op. cit. pp. 424–45.Google Scholar

13 Although the title of Minister is often said to have considerable appeal, it is difficult to say to what extent attainment of lesser positions in the bureaucracy adds to electoral attraction at the polls. But bureaucratic contacts are certainly important to clientele interests.

14 My own research on three election districts—Kanagawa I, Kanagawa III and Shimane—would suggest that this is the case.

15 Ward, in Beardsley, , Hall and Ward, op. cit., p. 428, for example, suggests the importance of local associational ties to a Lower House candidate. Some organizations—e.g., the Japan Medical Association, the Agricultural Co-operatives and the Medium and Small Enterprise Political League—have also endorsed candidates in Lower House contests, but one observer suggests that these endorsements were not necessarily critical to success in one case, and that they were more of the nature of an appeal by the groups for the support of the candidates for their programmes. See William Steslicke, ‘The Japan Medical Association and the Liberal Democratic Party: A Case Study of Interest Group Polities in Japan’, Studies on Asia, 1965, p. 155, and Sankei Shimbun, 13–16 May 1958. Labour union officers' candidacies may be similar in terms of support patterns in both kinds of elections.Google Scholar

16 Perceptions of the special character of the Upper House could have an impact on candidacies in several ways. Certain kinds of candidacies, e.g. those of exbureaucrats and well-educated people, might be seen as conducive to attracting votes among the public, if the latter is viewed as sharing these perceptions about the nature of the upper body.

17 Candidacy in the July election depended upon decisions made within the contours of a complex process involving national and local party organizations, national factions, local factions, ‘veto’ organizations and the candidates themselves. Although national domination was not infrequent, local elements apparently had some ‘say’ at times. National party domination was clear, e.g., in the case of the Liberal Democrat nomination in Fukui prefecture. The party prefectural organization's proposal of a former governor was overriden by the national leadership which insisted that the incumbent Councillor run on the basis that he was a cabinet minister in office. This principle was also applied in Yamaguchi and Mie prefectures. (See Tokyo Shimbun, 17 April and 27 May 1965.) This is a response to one or another, or a combination of the following: (1) the desire to uphold the prestige of the members of the cabinet; (2) deference to the accommodation between the factions which produced the cabinet; (3) the related desire to avoid the problems which would emerge if a new cabinet member had to be selected (in terms of factional rivalries); and (4) recognition of the electoral appeal of cabinet titles. National factionalism also entered into the rivalries between the Fukui federation and national headquarters, in that the prefectural group's choice was supported by Aichiro Fujiyama, a national faction leader, who came to Fukui to promote the cause of the former governor, albeit unsuccessfully. Intervention by national factions or leadership elements was also present in the Tochigi contest, where the son of House of Representatives Speaker Naka Funada received the party nod after the incumbent was persuaded to step down. Ibid., April 1965. Local elements made significant contributions to decisions elsewhere. In Gifu prefecture, selection of a candidate was the result of intervention by the prefectural governor. There were factional undercurrents there, also, but this time local elements predominated. In at least five prefectures individual Conservative candidates refused to give up running after other persons were given the party's official endorsement and chose to stand as independents. In Tochigi a Socialist did the same thing, vowing that he would ‘commit double suicide’, or contribute to his own and his party's defeat, rather than give up. In at least one prefecture a local labour union exercised some kind of veto, in that final decisions on candidacies were withheld until union officials could be convinced that a particular candidate had a good chance of election. Ibid., 7 and 12 April and 9 May 1965.

18 Asahi Shimbun, 12 April 1965.

19 Western studies of Japanese political processes have often stressed the importance of jiban, especially in regard to House of Representatives elections. Nobutaka Ike in his Japanese Politics—an Introductory Survey discussed their importance briefly and cites the reportedly common adage which says that politicians must have three bans to be successful: kamban (literally ‘sign-board’ but meaning reputation), kaban (a satchel, presumably filled with money) and jiban. See pp. 193–202. Robert Ward describes the post-war changes in a traditional jiban in Okayama prefecture in Village Japan, 424–45. In the post-war period organization of votes in blocs in specific rural districts was more difficult, according to Ward, and jiban tended to encompass areas wherein support was not as concentrated as in the pre-war period.

20 Tokyo Shimbun, 5 April 1965.

21 The major exceptions to this pattern occurred in the case of the national constituency, where some Socialist and Komeito candidates were arbitrarily assigned specific parts of the country as spheres of influence, apparently without regard to their own personal connexions. For example, Japan Teachers' Union votes were divided between three candidates in north-eastern, central and south-western Japan respectively. Komeito candidates were assigned support quotas from the major cities and from traditional districts such as Tokai, Kinki, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Chubu, Kanto, and Chugoku. Ibid., 7 May 1965.

22 Ibid., 10 April 1965.

23 Jichicho, , Senkyobu, , Shugiin Giin Sosenkyo, Sangiin Giin Tsujo Senkyo Kekka Shirabe, 1953, p. 231; Jichicho, Senkyokyoku, Sangiin Giin Tsujo Senkyo Kekka Shirabe, 1959, p. 221; and Yomiuri Shimbun, 6 July 1965.Google Scholar

24 Ibid. Yomiuri Shimbun, 9 April 1965

25 Press accounts afford little insight into the ways in which spheres of influence are organized and cultivated. Some local assemblymen and House of Representatives members (who, of course, ran from smaller districts) in areas I studied in 1963–64 maintained frequent contact with supporters through personal support organizations (koenkai). The activities of these groups included, among other things, trips to hot springs or famous places (partially or largely at a candidates' expense, depending on the case) or establishment of mutual aid associations and social clubs. Various kinds of ‘attentions’ such as the sending of New Year's greeting cards, condolences and presents at the time of funerals and weddings, and making frequent personal appearances were also utilized within and without personal organizations. Such activities are probably less common or less intensively organized and individual voters less frequently contacted, in some of the larger prefectural constituencies in House of Councillors' elections.

26 Asahi Shimbun, 12 April 1965. The candidate had been assigned support in the Tokai, Sanyo, and Kyushu districts. In these areas Socialist party prefectural elements and prefecture trade union councils were supposed to support him fully, while other candidates were not supposed to seek votes there except from unions where they were members.

27 The national constituency patterns were somewhat similar, but there candidacies by persons having ties with a single national organization were common.

28 Tokyo Shimbun, 10 May 1965. Goro Ito, the Conservative candidate, in addition to his areal base, was backed by a party organized local assemblymen's association set up for the purpose of extending his influence, while Socialist Tadao Kanazawa, who had the support of the prefectural Council of Trade Unions, was reported to have sought votes from among the estimated 40,000 farmers who spent part of the year working in other prefectures.

29 The pattern in Akita was similar, except that both parties had penetrated the rural areas and there were also said to be large numbers of rural 'floating' votes.See Ibid.., 26 April 1965.

30 Ibid.., 9 May 1965.

31 Tomiuri Shimbun, 6 July 1965.

32 Chiba is a rapidly developing prefecture and Ozawa, a Tokyo University engineering graduate, bad spent part of bis administrative career in charge of regional construction bureau of the post-war Special Procurement Agency.

33 Sankei Shimbun, 25 July 1964 and Tokyo Shimbun, 12 April 1965.

34 Tokyo Shimbun, loc. cit.

35 Senkyokyoku, Jichicho, Sangiin Giin Tsujo Senkyo Kekka Shirabc, 1959, p. 22.Google Scholar

36 Yomiuri Shimbun, loc. cit.

37 Robert, A. Scalapino and Junnosuke Masumi, op. cit., pp. 85 and 95–96.Google Scholar

38 Philip, E. Converse and Georges Dupeux, ‘Politicization of the Electorate in France and the United States», in Public Opinion Quarterly, 26, 1, 1962, pp. 15 and 23Google Scholar

39 SeeRobert, A. Scalapino and Junnosuke Masumi, op. cit., p. 120Google Scholar, and Bradley, Richardson, ‘Political Behaviour and Attitudes in Contemporary Japan: Urban and Rural Differences’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1966, pp. 176–7 and 193–6.Google Scholar

40 Kenkyukai, Minshushugi, Sosenkyo no Tokeiteki Bunseki (Tokyo, 1963), p. 37Google Scholar. Support for the Liberal Democrats in terms of shares of the total vote has declined from 66 per cent in 1952 to 55 per cent in 1963, while Japan Socialist support has ranged between 22 and 29 per cent in the same period.

41 For an analysis of the impact of suburbanization and change in old urban districts see Junnosuke Masumi, ‘A Profile of the Japanese Conservative Party’, in Asian Survey, 3, 8, 1963, p. 400.

42 Senkyokyoku, Jichisho, Sangiin Giin Tsujo Senkyo Kekka Shirabe (Tokyo, 1962), pp. 8 and 14, and Naikaku Kanbo, Naikaku Chosashitsu, Chosa Geppo, no. 118, October 1965, pp. 52 and 55.Google Scholar