894.00/4–2947
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Northeast Asian Affairs (Allison) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Vincent)67
The elections to the Japanese House of Representatives on April 25 returned 132 Liberals, 122 Democrats, 143 Socialists, 4 Communists and 65 minor party representatives and independents. Although the conservative Liberal and Democratic Parties, the parliamentary basis of the present Yoshida Government, thus retain a working majority if they continue to act together, the moderately leftish Social Democratic Party has markedly improved its position. The Communist Party lost two of the six seats it possessed in the last Diet.
The elections to the new upper house of the Diet, the House of Councillors, on April 20, returned 35 Liberals and 29 Democrats (out of a total membership of 250), plus 120 successful independent candidates of predominantly conservative stamp. The Socialists with their increased popular following achieved a plurality, winning 46 seats. The Communists elected 4.
The character of the next Japanese government and future course of Japanese politics would appear to depend on whether the two conservative parties continue to work together or whether the Democrats, some of whose leaders are ideologically closer to the Socialists than to the Liberals, decide to work with the Socialists. The Democratic Party holds the balance of power in the current negotiations for the formation of the new Cabinet.
It is gratifying that the Japanese should have rejected the extreme left even more decisively than a year ago, while at the same time moving a step further away from the extreme right. The Socialist pluralities in both houses of the Diet, the third ranking position of the new right-centrist Democratic Party, and the poor Communist showing all indicate a strengthening of the moderate right and left over the extreme right and left.
- Seen by the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary of State.↩