Press translations [Japan]. Political Series 0285, 1946-02-06.
Date6 February, 1946
translation numberpolitical-1161
call numberDS801 .S85
Persistent Identifier
POLITICAL SERIES: 285
ITEM 1 Round Table Conference Regarding the General Election - Provincial Newspaper Hyuga Michinichi Shimbun (Kyushu) - 29 Jan 46. Translator: S. Sano.
Summary:
A round table conference for raising the political sense of the people was held under
the auspices of the HYUGA NICHINICHI
SHIMBUN Company, in MIYAZAKI Shi. Various opinions contained in the articles before
the conference, as published in the press,
dated 29 January, are as follows:
Mr. MIZUNO, the Chief of the Department of Domestic Affairs of the ken office:
"To prevent abstention from voting, especially in the case of women, it is necessary
to humanize the atmosphere of the voting
place. For policemen or town heads to keep a viglant eye on the voting is merely a
relic of the feudal ages.
Another measure is the increase in the number of polling places. Some people will
be inclined to abstain from voting. This
will also apply to women who are too busy with everyday affairs of life to circumvent
the distance from the polling place.
From this view point, it seems necessary to equip public nurseries temporarily to
enable women to vote, and to use all the
national schools in the ken for polling places."
Miss TANIGUCHI, a women teacher of a youth normal school:
"The public nursery as a polling place can be prepared by the women's association,
because it will only be needed for a few
hours."
Mr. KAWANO, a member of MIYAZAKI Shi assembly:
"It is to be desired that at least one woman candidate will stand from the ken to
educate women's political sense."
Mr. FUTAMI, the Mayor of MIYAZAKI Shi:
"Though women applicants run in the election, the majority of the women will vote
for male candidates. Generally, women are
inclined to be affected by strong men, meaning, of course, not just physical strength."
Miss TANIGUCHI:
"If men use white paper for voting, and women use red paper, it will be very useful
for investigating the abstention from
voting between men and women."
Mr. MATSUSHITA, the Chief of a Newspaper Company:
"Using different colored paper is an original plan, as we can not distinglish between
men and women by the existing system.
Such investiga-
POLITICAL SERIES: 285 (Continued)
ITEM 1 (Continued)
tion will be good for the future election."
Mr. OKAZONO, the head of MIYAZAKI National School:
"For taking partial responsibility in the establishment of a new JAPAN,, the educators
who have been ignorant of politics in
the past should run in the election."
Mr. ISHIKAWA, the chief of the planning section of the Agricultural Co-operative
Association:
"It will be a question whether representatives from the educational world should
run for election in the resent circumstances,
because educators should adopt a neutral position in any case."
Mr. NAKAMURA, the chief of general affairs of a newspaper company:
"Representatives of the commercial, industrial, and economic world, it is said, will
run in the election in the TOKYO and
OSAKA areas. The politics of the nation should not be handled only by professional
politicians. Representatives selected from
each profession should take part in national politics."
Mr. MIYENO, a member of MIYAZAKI Shi assembly:
"A suggestion has been put forward to send out a representative from the traffic
concerns. This is so necessary that the
question will probably be brought up at the West JAPAN Traffic Conference to be held
shortly. The Liberal and Social
Democratic Parties will win nearly equal numbers in the next general election. It
is said that some applicants are entering in
the Social Democratic party hoping to be elected."
Mr. MATSUSHITA:
"The youths of this ken, generally speaking, are inclined to dislike the Communist
Party and fully support the Emperor System
at present. The Communist Party cannot win in the election."
Mr. MIZUNO:
"Fairness and justice are the fundamental requirements for education in citizenship
in the ken in the case of individuals and
political parties alike,"
ITEM 2 The General Election - Provincial - Newspaper Chugoku Shimbun (Hiroshima) 31
Jan 46. Translators:
K. Murakami.
Summary:
It was decided that the 22nd general election should be held on 31 March nearly four
months after the dissolution of the last
Diet. At first, the Government had intended to make it the 22 January and asked the
sanction of SCAP. However, the Supreme
Headquarters ordered that the general election be held after 15 March, wishing the
Japanese Government to make the most of the
opportunity for democratization. At the same time SCAP issued a directive saying that
the Government will take all possible
measures to implement the free manifestation of the peoples' intentions, and for this,
the Government should adhere to the
Election Law and the secrecy of votes.
On 4 January, SCAP issued the sensational political purge order to banish members
of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association,
the Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association, and the JAPAN Political Association,
and 27 other rightist groups from
public office. This directive brought much confusion into the political world. It
was unfavorable to
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POLITICAL SERIES: 285 (Continued)
ITEM 2 (Continued)
old parties like the Progressive Party, while, the leftistio parties such as the
Communists and Social Democrats became more
powerful than ever thanks to this directive.
Under such circumstances, some people doubted whether the Supreme Headquarters intended
to exclude the existing parties and
support the leftists. In response to such suspicion, the spokeman for SCAP told correspondents
on 17 January, "The Supreme
Headquarters has no intention of supporting any special party. It is the duty of the
Japanese to select their own political
leaders. They are given the liberty to choose a party. It is only a historical contingency
that those who have been deprived
of their rights of candidacy mainly were of the old, conservative parties. For SCAP,
all parties are equal, so far as they are
democratic."
At present, there is an active movement towards formation of a democratic united
front. The Communist Party has often made
proposals on to the Social Democratic Party on the formation of a popular front, which
however, were rejected by the latter on
the ground that the time was not yet ripe for this. However, after the return of Mr.
NOZAKA, Sanzo, the situation changed
greatly. The Social Democratic Party has been shaken into two opposite cliques; one,
supporting the united front, the other
insisting that it is still too early. On the other hand, the Government has already
prepared for the method of [illegible]nishing those who affected by the purge order from public office. At the Cabinet Meeting
held on 29
January it was decided that the election day be officially fixed on 1 March and the
election held on 31 March. At the same
time, the Home Ministry Ordinance on the investigation of qualifications for candidacy
was issued on 30 January.
In the forthcoming general election, there will be various topics for discussions
in every party's policy; the Emperor System,
the revision of the Constitution, capitalistic and socialistic economics etc., based
on the problem of a democratic united
front. There are also some tendencies towards the establishment of an anti-fascistic
coalition cabinet, headed by the
Social-Democratic Party, with the Liberal Co-operative and Progressive Parties, or
of a democratic popular front cabinet with
the Social-Democratic, Communist, Co-operative and Liberal Parties.
The Emperor System, will be one of the most interesting topics of discussion; the
Progressives' view is that sovereignty
should rest in the hands of the Emperor; the Liberals', that it should rest with the
Nation; the Social-Democratic Party, of
which there are two factions, feels on the one hand that it should be with Nation
and in the hands of the nation, while on the
other that sovereignty should rest with the people. The Communists feel that it should
be in the hands of the people. The most
interesting features of the campaign will be the Emperor question and whether the
future Government will be socialistic or
capitalistic.
Now we Japanese have been given obsolute freedom to show our intentions. Whom and
what party should we elect? This choice will
be most significant.
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