General elections were held in Japan on 18 December 1983 to elect the 511 members of the House of Representatives. The voter turnout was 67.94%, the lowest it had ever been in post-war history up to that point, and a low which would not be surpassed until ten years later.

Contrary to pre-election polls by national daily papers which projected a comfortable majority for the LDP, the latter party lost 34 seats compared to the previous election, falling six seats short of the 256 needed for majority control. As a result, the major conservative party was forced to form a majority coalition government for the first time since 1948. In order to do so, the LDP formed a coalition with the New Liberal Club, a move which JSP leader Masashi Ishibashi called a "betrayal of the electorate."

According to Baerwald (1984), it is likely that the LDP's losses resulted in great part due to running too many candidates and thus falling prey to vote splitting. At the time, Japan used a multimember single non-transferable vote system, where a voter had a single vote in a district that elected between 3-5 representatives. This system encourages parties to run enough candidates to maximize their seat count, but not enough to spread their support too thin.

The biggest winner among the opposition was Kōmeitō, which saw an increase in terms of both seats as well as the popular vote that exceeded all of the other parties. This election also saw considerable tactical voting cooperation between the Japan Socialist Party, Komeito, Socialist Democratic Federation, and Democratic Socialist Party in various combinations, which resulted in varying levels of success for the opposition, but primarily for Komeito's outcome.

Results

Seats won per district By prefecture PrefectureTotalseatsSeats wonLDPJSPKōmeitōDSPJCPNLCSDFInd.Aichi2294243Akita8431Aomori7511Chiba169331Ehime963Fukui4211Fukuoka1984322Fukushima127311Gifu95211Gunma10631Hiroshima127221Hokkaido2289113Hyōgo2065432Ibaraki1263111Ishikawa651Iwate8611Kagawa651Kagoshima1183Kanagawa1935443Kōchi52111Kumamoto10721Kyoto1041221Mie95211Miyagi9621Miyazaki6321Nagano138311Nagasaki95211Nara511111Niigata151041Ōita73211Okayama105221Okinawa52111Osaka26657341Saga541Saitama15723111Shiga52111Shimane5311Shizuoka1463122Tochigi105311Tokushima5311Tokyo43146113621Tottori431Toyama642Wakayama63111Yamagata8521Yamaguchi9621Yamanashi532Total5112501125838268316

References