Doll-Eyed Victory

To Japan's ruling Liberal-Democratic Party, the nation's eighth postwar general election seemed from the start to be under a curse. To begin with, there was the humiliating fact that the election had been made necessary by the riots against the U.S.-Japanese Security Treaty that five months ago toppled former Premier Nobusuke Kishi (TIME, May 9 et seq.). Then, as if determined to swing the sympathies of Japan's emotional voters behind the opposition Socialists, a right-wing fanatic assassinated Socialist Party Boss Inejiro Asanuma. But last week, when election workers finished counting up nearly 40 million ballots, elated Liberal-Democratic Premier Hayato Ikeda carefully began to ink in the eyes of a papier-mache daruma doll--a duty prescribed by Japanese custom for a man who has attained a cherished goal.

Determined to overcome the reputation for arrogance that Kishi had earned for the Liberal-Democrats, Ikeda, 60, had adopted a conciliatory "low posture" before the voters. Between his ceremonial humility and his campaign reminders that his party had given booming Japan one of the world's highest rates of economic growth (an annual 9% increase in gross national product), Ikeda came through handsomely: his Liberal-Democrats won 296 out of the 467 seats in the lower house of Japan's Diet, an increase of 13 seats and the largest number won by a single Japanese party since World War II.

Paradoxically, Ikeda's left-wing Socialist foes also gained, increasing their Diet seats from 122 to 145. But all 23 of their new seats were taken from the middle-roading Democratic Socialists, who until they broke away a year ago had belonged to the Socialist Party anyway. Big losers were Japan's minor parties--though the Communists, who had a 1949 peak of 35 seats, increased their representation in the Diet from one to three members.

At week's end, as Tokyo fish markets did a roaring trade in fresh sea bream, the traditional Japanese presents to newlyweds and election victors, Ikeda reminded the world that he had campaigned on a solidly pro-U.S. platform. Said he with satisfaction: "The Socialist Party has no authority any more to say that the majority of the Japanese people are against the security pact with the U.S."

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