Meiji period (1890–1912) ,
Satsuma samurai and prime minister in the late 1880s, coined the term "transcendentalism" (超然主義, chōzen shugi) on the occasion of the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in 1889. The oligarchs should try to "transcend" electoral politics and govern without partisan majorities the House of Representatives. , a
Chōshū samurai, member of the
House of Peers and
prime minister of Japan on three non-consecutive occasions between 1885 and 1901. He was a main architect of the Imperial Constitution which created the Imperial Diet. When the oligarchs attempts to govern "transcendentally" mostly failed in the 1890s, he saw the necessity for permanent allies among elected political parties. , although born a
Morioka noble, made his career as commoner-politician and became the first and one of only three prime ministers from the House of Representatives in the Empire. The Japanese parliament, then known as the Imperial Diet, was established in 1890 as a result of the 1889
Meiji Constitution. It was modeled on the parliaments of several Western countries, particularly the
German Empire and the United Kingdom, because of the
Emperor Meiji's westernizing reforms. The Imperial Diet consisted of
two chambers, the elected House of Representatives which was the lower house, and the
House of Peers which was the upper house. This format was similar to the
House of Lords in the
Westminster system, or the
Herrenhaus in
Prussia, where the upper house represented the
aristocracy. Both houses, and also the Emperor, had to agree on legislation, and even at the height of party-based constitutional government, the House of Peers could simply vote down bills deemed too liberal by the
Meiji oligarchy, such as the introduction of
women's suffrage, increases in local autonomy, or trade union rights. The
prime minister and his government served
at the Emperor's pleasure, and could not be removed by the Imperial Diet. However, the right to vote on, and if necessary to block, legislation including the budget, gave the House of Representatives leverage to force the government into negotiations. After an early period of frequent confrontation and temporary alliances between the cabinet and political parties in the lower house, parts of the Meiji oligarchy more sympathetic to political parties around
Itō Hirobumi and parts of the liberal parties eventually formed a more permanent alliance, in the form of the
Rikken Seiyūkai in 1900. The confidence of the House of Representatives was never a formal requirement to govern, but between 1905 and 1918, only one cabinet took office that did not enjoy majority support in the House of Representatives.
Taisho and early Showa periods (1912–1937) During the
Taishō political crisis in 1913, a
no-confidence vote against the
third Katsura government, accompanied by major demonstrations outside the Diet, was followed shortly by resignation. Subsequently, in the period often referred to as
Taishō democracy, it became increasingly customary to appoint many ministers, including several prime ministers, from the House of Representatives –
Hara Takashi was the first commoner to become prime minister in 1918. In the same year, the
Rice Riots had confronted the government with an unprecedented scale of domestic unrest, and a
German Revolution brought the Prusso-German monarchy to an end, the very system Meiji oligarchs had used as the main model for the Meiji constitution to consolidate and preserve Imperial power. Even
Yamagata Aritomo and other oligarchs that had been fundamentally opposed to political parties, became more inclined to cooperate with the still mainly
bourgeoisie parties, to prevent a rise of socialism or other movements that might threaten Imperial rule. Socialist parties would not be represented in significant numbers in the lower house until the 1930s. The initially very high
census suffrage requirement was reduced several times, until the introduction of
universal male suffrage in 1925. The electoral system to the House of Representatives was also fundamentally changed several times: between systems of "small" mostly single- and few multi-member electoral districts (1890s, 1920, 1924), "medium" mostly multi-member districts (1928–1942) and "large" electoral districts (usually only one, rarely two city and one counties district per prefecture; 1900s and 1910s), using
first-past-the-post in single-member districts,
plurality-at-large voting (1890s) or
single non-transferable vote in the multi-member districts. Influence of the House of Representatives on the government increased, and the party cabinets of the 1920s brought Japan apparently closer to a
parliamentary system of government, and there were several reforms to the upper house in 1925. However, the balance of powers between the two houses and the influential role of extra-constitutional actors such as the
Genrō (who still selected the prime minister) or the military (that had brought down several cabinets) remained in essence untouched. Within a year of the
Japanese invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, a series of assassinations and coup attempts followed. Party governments were replaced by
governments of "national unity" (
kyokoku itchi) which were dominated by nobles, bureaucrats and increasingly the military.
World War II and aftermath (1937–1947) After the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the start of war in 1937, the influence of the Imperial Diet was further diminished, though never eliminated, by special laws such as the
National Mobilization Law and expanded powers for cabinet agencies such as the Planning Board. The House of Representatives in the Empire had a four-year term and could be dissolved by the
Emperor. In contrast, members of the House of Peers had either
life tenure (subject to revocation by the Emperor) or a seven-year term in the case of members elected in mutual peerage elections among the three lower peerage ranks, top taxpayer and academic peerage elections. During the war, the term of the members of the House of Representatives elected in the last pre-war
election of 1937 was extended by one year. In the
1946 election to the House of Representatives, held under the U.S.-led
Allied occupation of Japan,
women's suffrage was introduced, and a system of "large" electoral districts (one or two per prefecture) with
limited voting was used. A change in the electoral law in April 1945 had for the first time allocated 30 seats to the established colonies of the Empire: Karafuto (
Sakhalin),
Taiwan, and Chōsen (
Korea); but this change was never implemented. Similarly, Korea and Taiwan were granted several appointed members of the
House of Peers in 1945. In 1946, both houses of the Imperial Diet (together with the Emperor) passed the
postwar constitutional amendment which took effect in 1947. The Imperial Diet was renamed the National Diet, the House of Peers was replaced by an elected upper house called the
House of Councillors, and the House of Representatives would now be able to override the upper house in important matters. The constitution also gave the Diet exclusive legislative authority, without involvement of the Emperor, and explicitly made the cabinet responsible to the Diet and requires that the
prime minister has the support of a majority in the House of Representatives.
Late Showa period (1947–1989) , prime minister 1946–1947 as a member of the House of Peers and 1948–1954 as a member of the House of Representatives, oversaw the end of the
American-led occupation and the beginning of the
Japanese economic miracle. The Diet first met under the new constitution on May 20, 1947. Four days later,
Tetsu Katayama of the
Democratic Socialist Party became Japan's first socialist prime minister and the first since the introduction of parliamentarianism. Since the end of US rule in 1952, it has been the norm that the prime minister dissolves the House of Representatives before its 4-year term expires. Only once, in 1976, did the House last a full 4 years. It has become tradition to give nicknames to each dissolution, usually referencing a major political issue or controversy. One infamous example was on March 14, 1953, when
Shigeru Yoshida dissolved the House and called for new election, after he name called people during a meeting of the budget committee. This came to be known as the ''''. In 1955, prime minister
Ichirō Hatoyama oversaw the creation of the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which since
his third government has dominated Japanese politics under the
1955 System. The LDP would govern without interruption for nearly 40 years until the
1993 election, alone save for a three-year coalition government with the
New Liberal Club after the
1983 election. Hatoyama planned to change the electoral system to
first past the post, introducing a bill to that effect in March 1956. This was met with opposition from the
Socialist Party, who criticized Hatoyama's plan as a "
Hatomander". The bill passed the House of Representatives in May 1956, but was never voted on by the House of Councillors. Electoral reform came into vogue again in the 1970s, but
Kakuei Tanaka's plan met opposition internally in the LDP and never came to a vote in either chamber of the Diet.
Heisei and Reiwa periods (since 1989) , prime minister 2006–2007 and again 2012–2020, was the longest-serving PM in Japanese history. Japan entered a lengthy recession in the 1990s (see
Lost Decades), which many people blamed on the LDP. In the
1993 election, the party lost power for the first time under the 1955 System, when an eight-party coalition led by
Morihiro Hosokawa of the
Japan New Party were able to form
a government. This government fell apart after nine months, and was succeeded by the
Hata Cabinet, another short-lived non-LDP government. The LDP returned to power in 1994 with the
Murayama Cabinet, this time in a coalition with their old rivals the Socialists, whose leader
Tomiichi Murayama became prime minister. As with party colleagues
Ichirō Hatoyama and
Kakuei Tanaka before him, prime minister
Toshiki Kaifu of the LDP unsuccessfully tried to reform the electoral system in 1991. However, the Morihiro Hosokawa government got the
1994 Japanese electoral reform through the Diet, introducing a
parallel voting system which went into effect at the
next election in 1996. Under this system, which remains in effect as of 2022, 300 (since reduced to 289) members of the House of Representatives are elected using
first past the post in single-member constituencies, while 200 (since reduced to 176) members are elected in regional blocs using
party-list proportional representation. Prime minister
Junichiro Koizumi introduced a bill to the House of Representatives in 2006 on changing the
Imperial Household Law to allow a woman to ascend the
Chrysanthemum Throne (see
Japanese imperial succession debate), but he withdrew the bill after the birth of
Prince Hisahito of Akishino the same year. The LDP once again lost power at the
2009 election, when the
Democratic Party-led
Hatoyama Cabinet took over, followed in rapid succession by the
Kan Cabinet and
Noda Cabinet. The LDP and
Komeito, who had formed a two-party government between 2003 and 2009, came to power again after the
2012 election.
Shinzo Abe, who had previously led the
First Abe Cabinet, was prime minister for another stint lasting eight years, stepping down for health reasons in 2020. He was succeeded by
Yoshihide Suga. When the Emperor
Akihito expressed interest in abdicating, the Diet passed the
Emperor Abdication Law in 2017, allowing for the
2019 Japanese imperial transition and the succession to the throne of
Naruhito. In December 2022, in light of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine and increased
military cooperation between China and Russia, prime minister
Fumio Kishida announced plans to significantly increase funding for the
Japan Self-Defense Forces; this was continued under his successor as prime minister,
Shigeru Ishiba. == List of House of Representatives general elections ==