1963 Japanese general election

General elections were held in Japan on 21 November 1963. The result was a victory for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which won 283 of the 467 seats.^[1] Voter turnout was 71.1%.

1963 Japanese general election

← 1960 21 November 1963 1967 →
All 467 seats in the House of Representatives of Japan 234 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.1% ( 2.4%)
First party Second party   Leader Hayato Ikeda Jōtarō Kawakami Party Liberal Democratic Socialist Leader's seat Hiroshima–2nd Hyōgo–1st Last election 57.6%, 296 seats 27.6%, 145 seats Seats won 283 144 Seat change 13 1 Popular vote 22,423,915 11,906,766 Percentage 54.7% 29.0% Swing 2.9pp 1.5pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Suehiro Nishio Kenji Miyamoto Party Democratic Socialist Communist Leader's seat Osaka–2nd Did not contest Last election 8.8%, 17 seats 2.9%, 3 seats Seats won 23 5 Seat change 6 2 Popular vote 3,023,302 1,646,477 Percentage 7.4% 4.0% Swing 1.4pp 1.1pp
Prime Minister before election Hayato Ikeda Liberal Democratic Prime Minister after election Hayato Ikeda Liberal Democratic

Most commentators believed that the election results would not radically alter the Japanese political landscape, and this was confirmed in the results, which did not see any party win or lose a large amount of seats. Although the LDP lost 13 seats, 12 LDP-aligned independents were also elected. The highest gain in seats came from the Democratic Socialist Party (DSP), which tactically fielded far fewer candidates than the previous elections and concentrated on fewer districts, gaining six seats, which was more than any of the other opposition parties gained. The elections also saw the defeat of two former prime ministers; Tetsu Katayama of the DSP (formerly of the JSP) and Tanzan Ishibashi of the LDP.^[2]