Vote of Confidence for Ikeda

Japan's new election regulations severely limit campaign activities, but the country's politicians are masters at circumventing the rules. Faced with a $7,000 limit on campaign expenditures, many a candidate in last week's general elections simply followed an old practice of having contributions funneled through "research institutes." Since candidates were restricted to three posters each (v. the previous limit of 12,000), many "accidentally" dropped cards, complete with picture and slogan, in telephone booths, department stores, bars and buses. On rainy days, one aspirant even had his campaign workers approach commuters and hand out armloads of umbrellas; when they were opened, the candidate's name spread out in huge characters painted on the umbrella surface.

For all the uproar over procedures, the election amounted to an important vote of confidence for precapitalist, pro-Western Premier Hayato Ikeda, 63.

The Socialist opposition zeroed in on the nagging inflation that has accompanied Japan's phenomenal economic boom. Economist Ikeda, whistle-stopping across the nation, retorted that incomes have risen 52% in the past three years, while prices have risen only 14% . At a Kyoto rally, he asked: "Which do you think is better? The Socialists' advocacy of dividing three eggs among four people? Or Ikeda's policy of dividing eight eggs among four people?" On election day, amid the shriek of sirens that reminded people to vote, Ikeda's Liberal-Democratic Party won control of the 467-seat House of Representatives for another four years, although the government's 283-seat total fell three short of its share in the old House. The Socialists gained seven seats for a total of 144. The more moderate Democratic Socialists picked up nine additional seats, for a total of 23.

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