Tanaka Calls an Election In Bid to Tighten Control

TOKYO, Nov. 13 — Premier Kakuei Tanaka dissolved the lower and more powerful house Of Parliament today and called a general election for Dec. 10.

The outcome of the election is expected to determine the political balance within Japan for about the next three years. That, in turn, will have a direct impact on Japan's polities in her emerging role as a major political and economic power in Asia.

For Mr. Tanaka, who came to office last July as head of a coalition of factions, within the Liberal‐Democratic party, the campaign will be an effort to strengthen his hold on the party as well as to increase the party's majority in Parliament.

Economic Steps Approved

Just before the dissolution today, Parliament approved a Supplementary budget of $3.8billion and adopted legislation for a five‐point Government Program to increase imports and thus cut Japan's mounting trade surplus and ward off another revaluation of the yen. [Details on Page 65.]

Under the Japanese Constitution, the House of Representatives is elected for a four‐year term. But it can be dissolved by a vote of no confidence in the Government, or, as in this case, by the advice of the Premier and his Cabinet to the Emperor when the Premier wants to obtain a new mandate from the electorate.

Shortly after 6 P.M., the Chief Cabinet Secretary, Susumu Nikaido, strode into the chamber of the House bearing a black lacquered tray containing the dissolution order from Emperor Hirohito wrapped in purple silk. It was handed to the Speaker of the House, Naka Funada, who stood and proclaimed, ‘'This house is dissolved.” That was greeted with cheers of “Banzai!” and applause.

Immediately after, members of the various parties gathered in their party headquarters to toast the coming campaign and to put plans into action. This will be the 12th general election in Japan since the end of World War II the last having been held in December, 1969.

Although Mr. Tanaka had repeatedly vowed in public that he would not dissolve Parliament this year, the pressures from within his party were too strong. The Liberal‐Democrats wanted to take advantage of the “Tanaka boom” generated by the Premier's successful negotiation to open diplomatic relations. with China and his pledge to remodel the Japanese archipelago.

It has also been customary for a new Premier to go to the electorate within six months of his coming to power. Moreover, the Opposition parties believe that Mr. Tanaka is vulnerable on domestic issues despite his successes in foreign policy.

Line‐Up in Outgoing House

In the present 491‐seat House of Representatives, the strength of the parties is as follows:

Liberal ‐Democratic party, 297. It draws important support from big business and the rural populace.

Socialist party, 87. Its backing comes largely from labor and from Marxist intellectuals.

Komeito, or Clean Government party, 47. It draws its support from the Soka Gakkai, or Value Creation Society, the largest of the “new religions” of Japan. But the Komeito has formally severed its ties with Soka Gakkai and will be running for the first time as secular party.

Democratic Socialist party, 29 A splinter off the Socialist party, the Democratic Socialists are backed by smaller labor groups and by moderate intellectuals.

Communist party, 14. Its strength comes mainly from party members but it won some votes in the last election from voters disillusioned with internal quarrels in the Socialist party.

There are also 14 vacancies.

Complex Voting System

In Japan's complicated proportional representation system, under which as many as five members of Parliament are elected from single voting districts, candidates from the ruling Liberal‐Democrats will be running against one another as well as against opponents from the Opposition parties.

In those battles, Mr. Tanaka will be seeking to increase the strength in Parliament of members in his faction of the party and those of his allies, Takeo Miki, the Deputy Premier, Masayoshi Ohira, the Foreign Minister, and Yasuhiro Nakasone, the Minister of International Trade and Industry.

They will try to take seats away from the factions headed by the former Premier, Eisaku Sato, and his Foreign Minister, Takeo Fukuda, whom , Mr. Tanaka defeated in the party election that made him Premier last July.

The outcome of those battles will influence Mr. Tanaka's selections for the new Cabinet that he is expected to name shortly after the election next month.

Although foreign policy will be a secondary issue in the campaign, the Opposition parties are expected to attack Japan's mutual security treaty with the United States, their favorite target. Mr. Tanaka, during debates in Parliament over the last three weeks, has been rather forthright in de fending it as a necessity for Japan's security.

The Opposition parties are expected to focus their campaigns on Mr. Tanaka's plan to remodel Japan in a fashion as sweeping as the New Deal in America during the nineteenthirties. The Opposition parties have indicated that they will charge that the plan, which calls for transferring industry and people from crowded areas to more remote parts of the nation, will only spread pollution and other environmental ills without improving the livelihood of the people.

The. Opposition is further expected to attack the Five‐Year Defense Plan for the years 1972 to 1976, totaling $15‐billion in expenditures, which was recently adopted by Mr. Tanaka's Cabinet. They have argued that the plan is unnecessary, as tensions in Asia are lessening with the ending of the war in Vietnam and the improvement in relations between the United States and China and Japan and China.

Two other issues may come into the campaign. In Parliament last week, Zenmei Matsumoto of the Communist party charged Mr. Tanaka with having improperly manipulated a land deal for his own profit and with having kept a mistress. Mr. Tanaka vigorously denied any wrongdoing on both counts.