Abstract
This article analyzed the election campaign for the 1937 General Election in Ishikawa first district in order to revisit the nature the “Clean-Up” (Shukusei) election.
The Clean-Up election of 1937 resulted in a crushing defeat of the government parties because of the unpopularity of the Hayashi cabinet. Government parties elected few new candidates. One exception was Choji Hase in Ishikawa first district. I find that Hase's victory was due to the fact that Ishikawa first district was Prime Minister Hayashi's hometown. Though the cabinet was unpopular nationwide, local support was strong and this produced the exceptional victory of a government candidate in this district. Therefore, this article concludes that the Clean-Up election did not work against those existing parties, including the government parties, as opposed to the conclusions of the previous studies.
