1946 Japanese general election

← 1942 10 April 1946 1947 →
All 468 seats in the House of Representatives 235 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	72.08%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ichirō Hatoyama Chūji Machida Tetsu Katayama Party Liberal Progressive Socialist Seats won 141 94 93 Popular vote 13,505,746 10,350,530 9,924,930 Percentage 24.36% 18.67% 17.90%   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Kyuichi Tokuda Sanehiko Yamamoto Party Communist Cooperative Seats won 5 14 Popular vote 2,135,757 1,799,764 Percentage 3.85% 3.25%
Prime Minister before election Kijūrō Shidehara Independent Prime Minister after election Shigeru Yoshida Liberal

General elections were held in Japan on 10 April 1946, the first after World War II, during the Allied occupation. Voters had one, two or three votes, depending on how many MPs were elected from their constituency. The result was a victory for the Liberal Party, which won 141 of the 468 seats.^[1] Voter turnout was 72.1 percent.

Background

Prime Minister Kijūrō Shidehara, who had been appointed by the Emperor Hirohito in October 1945, dissolved the House of Representatives in December 1945. Shidehara had been working with Allied occupation commander Douglas MacArthur to implement a new constitution and other political reforms.

In the months following the war, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association caucus broke up and three major political parties emerged in the Diet, loosely based around the major parties that stood in the 1937 election prior to the war. The Liberal Party was mainly composed of former Rikken Seiyūkai members^{[citation needed]}, while the Progressive Party was mainly composed of former Rikken Minseitō members^{[citation needed]} and the Socialist Party was mainly composed of former Shakai Taishūtō members^{[citation needed]}.

This was the first time Japanese women were allowed to vote. 39 women were elected to office, the largest number elected until the 2005 elections. On the other hand, Taiwanese and Koreans in Japan had their rights to vote and to run for office suspended.

Following the election, there was a brief attempt to keep the Shidehara cabinet alive by having Shidehara join the Progressive Party, which the other major parties opposed. The Liberals and Progressives agreed to form a government under Liberal leader Ichiro Hatoyama on 2 May, but Hatoyama was promptly purged on 4 May and a new government formed under Foreign Minister Shigeru Yoshida, who officially became Prime Minister on 22 May.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Liberal Party	13,505,746	24.36	141
	Japan Progressive Party	10,350,530	18.67	94
	Japan Socialist Party	9,924,930	17.90	93
	Japanese Communist Party	2,135,757	3.85	5
	Japan Cooperative Party	1,799,764	3.25	14
	Other parties	6,488,032	11.70	38
	Independents	11,244,120	20.28	81
Vacant				2
Total		55,448,879	100.00	468
Valid votes		26,100,175	98.19
Invalid/blank votes		482,000	1.81
Total votes		26,582,175	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		36,878,417	72.08
Source: Oscarsson, Nohlen et al.

By prefecture