Japanese general election, 1993

← 1990

23 July 1993

1996 →

All 511 seats to the House of Representatives of Japan
256 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

67.26%

	Majority party	Minority party

Leader	Morihiro Hosokawa	Kiichi Miyazawa
Party	Eight-Party Coalition (JSP/S/KP/JNP/DSP/NPS/SDF)	Liberal Democratic
Last election	—	275 seats, 46.1%
Seats before	—	222
Seats won	243	223
Seat change	—	1
Popular vote	30,522,232	22,999,646
Percentage	48.6%	36.6%

Prime Minister before election

Kiichi Miyazawa
Liberal Democratic

Prime Minister-designate

Morihiro Hosokawa
New Party

Kiichi Miyazawa
Liberal Democratic

Morihiro Hosokawa
New Party

Japan held a nationwide election to the House of Representatives, the more powerful lower house of the National Diet, on July 18, 1993.

Japan's relatively larger growth compared to other developed countries during the 80's that was the result of the real estate bubble had crashed and the 1993 election occurred at a time when the economy went into recession, dimming prospects for the ruling LDP. The consumption tax and the Recruit scandal as well, seriously affected the popularity of the long-time ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Along with the opposition MPs, members of some factions of the LDP cast a vote of no confidence against prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa; in response Miyazawa decided to dissolve the House of Representatives. Some LDP dissidents then left the party and formed new parties. The rebellion within the LDP was largely led by former finance and agriculture minister Tsutomu Hata and political fixer Ichiro Ozawa.

Until the 1993 election, rural voters effectively had three times the weight in elections that urban voters had, and the LDP governments had subsidized rural areas at the expense or urban taxpayers. The LDP had also promoted regulations that helped entrenched businesses at the expense of consumers, and its leaders had historically had difficulty being prominent on the world stage. There were hopes prior to the election that the Hata-led coalition could change this situation.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party lost its overall majority for the first time since 1983 and also failed to form the government for the first time since 1955. They were replaced by an eight-party coalition headed by Morihiro Hosokawa, who was elected prime minister.

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