House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 8 July 1956,Table 13: Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947–2004) Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications electing half the seats in the House plus two vacant seats in the other half. The Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats, but failed to win a majority. It was the first national election under the 1955 System, approximately a two party system of Ichirō Hatoyama's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that was created in the "conservative merger" of 1955 and Suzuki Mosaburō's reunified Japan Socialist Party (JSP). The later dominant LDP failed to win a majority.

A key campaign issue was Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama's plan to revise Article 9 of the constitution – any change of the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Diet. The left parties aimed to win at least a third of seats to prevent any constitutional change. Another issue was the government's plan to replace the elected prefectural boards of education with appointed ones, a plan fiercely opposed by the left: In June 1956, on the LDP's request the police intervened in the "deliberations" in the Diet when Socialist Councillors resorted to violence.

Results Two by-elections for the class of Councillors elected in 1953 were held simultaneously: The candidates with the 51st and 52nd highest vote shares in the national vote (one Socialist and one Liberal Democrat) were elected for three-year terms. Takenaka Tsuneo, who was elected as a member of the Japan Dentists' Federation, later joined the LDP.

By constituency PrefectureTotalseatsSeats wonLDPJSPRyokufūkaiJCPOthersInd. Aichi321Akita11Aomori11Chiba211Ehime11Fukui11Fukuoka312Fukushima211Gifu11Gunma211Hiroshima211Hokkaido422Hyōgo321Ibaraki211Ishikawa11Iwate11Kagawa11Kagoshima211Kanagawa22Kōchi11Kumamoto211Kyoto211Mie11Miyagi11Miyazaki11Nagano211Nagasaki11Nara11Niigata211Ōita11Okayama211Osaka3111Saga11Saitama22Shiga11Shimane11Shizuoka211Tochigi211Tokushima11Tokyo4121Tottori11Toyama11Wakayama11Yamagata11Yamaguchi11Yamanashi11National5219215115Total12761495219

See also Hatomander

References Time, July 23, 1956: Japan: Swing to the Left The Senkyo election archive: Full results of the 1956 Councillors elections by electoral district