1949 Japanese general election

1949 Japanese general election

← 1947 23 January 1949 1952 →
All 466 seats in the House of Representatives 234 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	74.04% (6.09pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Shigeru Yoshida Takeru Inukai Tetsu Katayama Party Democratic Liberal Democratic Socialist Last election – 25.44%, 124 seats 26.23%, 143 seats Seats won 264 70 48 Seat change New 54 95 Popular vote 13,420,269 4,798,352 4,129,794 Percentage 43.87% 15.68% 13.50% Swing New 9.76pp 12.73pp   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kyuichi Tokuda Takeo Miki Hisao Kuroda Party JCP National Cooperative Labourers and Farmers Last election 3.67%, 4 seats 7.00%, 31 seats – Seats won 35 14 7 Seat change 31 17 New Popular vote 2,984,780 1,041,879 606,840 Percentage 9.76% 3.41% 1.98% Swing 6.09pp 3.59pp New
Districts shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Shigeru Yoshida Democratic Liberal Elected Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida Democratic Liberal

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General elections were held in Japan on 23 January 1949. The result was a landslide victory for the Democratic Liberal Party, which won 269 of the 466 seats.^[1] Voter turnout was 74.0%. It was the first election held following the enactment of the current Constitution of Japan.

Future prime ministers Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Satō and future Foreign Minister and Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsuo Okazaki were first elected in this election.

The second cabinet of Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida was formed following the election.

The Japanese Communist Party's best prefecture performance was 20.07% in Osaka and its worst was 2.63% in Kagoshima.^[2] This was the best performance of the JCP^[3] until the 1972 election.