| Election Name: | 1989 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Country: | Japan |
| Flag Year: | 1870 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1986 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Previous Year: | 1986 |
| Next Election: | 1992 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Next Year: | 1992 |
| Seats For Election: | 126 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors |
| Majority Seats: | 127 |
| Election Date: | 23 July 1989 |
| Image1: | Sosuke Uno 1977.png |
| Leader1: | Sōsuke Uno |
| Party1: | Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) |
| Last Election1: | 140 seats, 38.6% |
| Seats After1: | 109 |
| Seat Change1: | 31 |
| Popular Vote1: | 15,343,455 |
| Percentage1: | 27.3% |
| Swing1: | 11.3% |
| Leader2: | Takako Doi |
| Party2: | Japan Socialist Party |
| Last Election2: | 41 seats, 17.2% |
| Seats After2: | 66 |
| Seat Change2: | 25 |
| Popular Vote2: | 19,688,252 |
| Percentage2: | 35.1% |
| Swing2: | 17.9% |
| Image3: | Kōshirō Ishida Hosokawa Cabinet 19930809 kaidan2.jpg |
| Leader3: | Koshiro Ishida |
| Party3: | Kōmeitō (1962–1998) |
| Last Election3: | 24 seats, 13.0% |
| Seats After3: | 20 |
| Seat Change3: | 4 |
| Popular Vote3: | 6,097,971 |
| Percentage3: | 10.9% |
| Swing3: | 2.1% |
| Image4: | Kenji Miyamoto (cropped).jpg |
| Leader4: | Kenji Miyamoto |
| Party4: | Japanese Communist Party |
| Last Election4: | 16 seats, 9.5% |
| Seats After4: | 14 |
| Seat Change4: | 2 |
| Popular Vote4: | 3,954,408 |
| Percentage4: | 7.0% |
| Swing4: | 2.5% |
| Leader5: | – |
| Party5: | Democratic Reform Party (Japan) |
| Last Election5: | – |
| Seats After5: | 12 |
| Seat Change5: | New |
| Popular Vote5: | – |
| Percentage5: | – |
| Swing5: | New |
| Image6: | Eiichi Nagasue 197102.jpg |
| Party6: | Democratic Socialist Party (Japan) |
| Last Election6: | 12 seats, 6.9% |
| Seats After6: | 8 |
| Seat Change6: | 4 |
| Popular Vote6: | 2,726,419 |
| Percentage6: | 4.9% |
| Swing6: | 2.0% |
| President of the House of Councillors | |
| Before Election: | Yoshihiro Tsuchiya |
| Before Party: | Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) |
| After Election: | Yoshihiro Tsuchiya |
| After Party: | Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) |
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 23 July 1989.
There were several controversial issues dominating the pre-election atmosphere, all of which reflected negatively of the ruling LDP. The most important, according to most polls, was the introduction of an unpopular 3% consumption tax law which had been forced through the Diet by Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita despite boycotts by the opposition parties, an act which hurt the LDP's image with the public. A second issue was the infamous Recruit scandal, which induced the resignation of Takeshita and his cabinet members and left a major stain on the LDP's integrity to the public. There was also resistance to the LDP's gradual adoption of import liberalisation of food products, which lost the party their traditional rural voters resentful of farm imports.[1] Even more, there was incumbent Prime Minister Sōsuke Uno's sex scandal which had come to light only a month earlier.
The result of all of this negative feeling towards the LDP was an unprecedented victory for the Japan Socialist Party (JSP), roughly doubling its share of the popular vote when compared to the previous House of Councillors election, and being the only major pre-existing party to see a net increase in its share of the popular vote; the other opposition parties, which had more success in the past while the JSP stagnated, saw net decreases in both popular votes as well as seat numbers. Moreover, although the Japanese Communist Party has historically contributed to vote splitting by fielding candidates in every district, the overall decline in support for the JCP is thought to have helped jointly-backed opposition candidates in this election. In any event, the JSP would cooperate with the other opposition parties in order to form a majority coalition over a minority LDP, a historical first for the House of Councillors.[2]
Meanwhile, the LDP lost the popular vote in an election for the first time in its history, and the only one-seat districts won by the LDP were Toyama, Shiga, and Wakayama. The LDP's losses were strongest in single-member constituencies, but less strongly felt in multi-member constituencies, no doubt partly due to the above-mentioned relative lack of vote splitting in this election. After this election, the LDP designated as its new leader Toshiki Kaifu, who belonged to the same historical faction as Takeo Miki, and who, like Miki, was reform-minded; ironically, Kaifu later defected from the LDP in the mid-1990s in order to join the opposition, although he eventually returned to the LDP in the 21st century.
| Constituency | Total seats | Seats won | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JSP | LDP | DRP | Kōmeitō | JCP | DSP | TAP | DC | SPP | Others | Ind. | |||
| Aichi | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Akita | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Aomori | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Chiba | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Ehime | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Fukui | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Fukuoka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Fukushima | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Gifu | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Gunma | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Hiroshima | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Hokkaido | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Hyōgo | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ibaraki | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Ishikawa | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Iwate | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Kagawa | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Kagoshima | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Kanagawa | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Kōchi | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Kumamoto | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Kyoto | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Mie | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Miyagi | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Miyazaki | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Nagano | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Nagasaki | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Nara | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Niigata | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Ōita | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Okinawa | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Okayama | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Osaka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Saga | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Saitama | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Shiga | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Shimane | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Shizuoka | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tochigi | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tokushima | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Tokyo | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Tottori | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Toyama | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Wakayama | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Yamagata | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Yamaguchi | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Yamanashi | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| National | 50 | 20 | 15 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Total | 126 | 46 | 36 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |