from September 15th" fapan,
A study of the censuses and elections during the past decade in Japan reveals an interesting parallel between the degree of industrialisation and the growth of popular support for the leftist parties. "This wes most palpably demonstrated," writes Kiyoaki Murata,"by data concerning what the nation's demographers have come to call the Tokaido Megalopolis- the vast industrial belt stretching from the Canto region to Kansai, comprising 13 prefectures and -:etropolitan Tokyo. The prefectures are(from east to west) Chiba, Saitama, Kanagawa, Shizuoka, Aichi, Gifu, Mie, Shiga, Kyoto, Nara, “lakayama, Osaka and Hyogo. In this urban region pqulation increased by ten million between 1955 and 1965. This is roughly 10% of the nation's total. The increase was from 42.2% in 1955 to 47% in 1965. During the same period, the country's population increased by only 9 million. The increase in Tokaida ‘iegalopolis is thus ascribable to a pop ulation shift rather than births, Further evidence of this is that the eligible number of voters in the region rose from 35% of the nation's total in 1958 to 40% in 1960 and tien to 49% in 1963. "In other words," Murata points out, "almost half of the nation's voters are found living in the Tokaida Megalopolis." The voting trend has paralleled these figures. The total popular vote received by the Socialist, Democratic-Socislist and Comunist parties in the 1958 general election was 40.2%. But it went.up to 44.3% in 1960 and to 4703% in 1963. The ruling Liberal-Democratic party declined proportionately from 55.9% in 1958 to 54.6% in 1960 and to 50.9% in 1963. In the July 1965 election for the House of Councillors, the trend reached the point of actually reversing the relationship between the Conservative and +eftist vote as shown by the following tables
; Conservative Leftist Chiba 13.2% 51.1% Tokyo 21.8 5569 Kanagawa sh65 58.1 Kyoto 34.2 65.8 Osaka 30.1 46.4 Hyogo 3307 49.0