2005 Japanese general election

2005 Japanese general election

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All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	67.51% (7.66pp; Const. votes) 67.46% (7.66pp; PR votes)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Junichiro Koizumi Katsuya Okada Takenori Kanzaki Party LDP Democratic Komeito Last election 241 seats [a] 177 seats 34 seats Seats won 296 113 31 Seat change 59 64 3 Constituency vote 32,518,390 24,804,787 981,105  % and swing 47.77% (3.92pp) 36.44% (0.22pp) 1.44% (0.05pp) Regional vote 25,887,798 21,036,425 8,987,620  % and swing 38.18% (3.22pp) 31.02% (6.37pp) 13.25% (4.53pp)   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Kazuo Shii Mizuho Fukushima Party JCP Social Democratic Last election 9 seats 6 seats Seats won 9 7 Seat change 1 Constituency vote 4,937,375 996,008  % and swing 7.25% (0.88pp) 1.46% (1.21pp) Regional vote 4,919,187 3,719,522  % and swing 7.25% (0.51pp) 5.49% (0.37pp)
Districts and PR districts, shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Junichiro Koizumi LDP Elected Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi LDP

General elections were held in Japan on 11 September 2005 for all 480 seats of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the election almost two years before the end of the term taken from the previous elections in 2003, after bills to privatize Japan Post were voted down in the upper house (which cannot be dissolved), despite strong opposition from within his own Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The elections resulted in a landslide victory for Koizumi's LDP, with the party winning 296 seats, the largest share since World War II, and marked the first time the LDP had won an overall majority in the House of Representatives since 1990. With its partner, New Komeito, the governing coalition then commanded a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing them to pass legislative bills over the objections of the upper house and (though the government did not attempt this) to approve amendments to the Constitution, then submit them to the upper house and a national referendum.

The opposition Democratic Party (DPJ), which advocated a change of government during campaign, suffered a devastating loss, winning only 113 seats against the 175 seats it had previously held. The setback led to the resignation of DPJ leader Katsuya Okada and raised fears regarding whether or not the DPJ could remain an alternative to the LDP in future elections.

The small parties made only small gains or losses, with Koizumi's ally, New Komeito, falling slightly from 34 seats to 31. Of the new parties contesting the election, the New Party Japan fell from three seats to one, while the People's New Party was unchanged at four seats. The Japanese Communist Party held its ground with nine seats, while the Social Democratic Party won seven, a gain of one.

Background

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives and called for new elections on 8 August 2005. The move was made in response to the defeat of bills that would have split Japan Post into four private companies over a period of ten years, on which Koizumi had staked the credibility of his reforms. The package was notably unpopular within Koizumi's own Liberal Democratic Party; retired employees of Japan Post had been strong supporters of the LDP in past elections, and its banking system had bankrolled expensive public work projects, providing business for the LDP's supporters in the construction industry. Koizumi used the threat of an early election to push the bills through the House of Representatives (the lower house), where they were approved by a margin of just 5 votes. The same threat was less effective in the upper chamber, the House of Councillors, which the prime minister does not have the power to dissolve. On 8 August 2005, 30 LDP members of the House of Councillors joined the opposition in voting 'no' or abstaining to block the legislation. Koizumi had announced that a 'no' vote would be considered equivalent to a no confidence vote against his administration, and thus called a snap election for the House of Representatives.

The dissolution act itself proceeded relatively without controversy, being based on Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan, which can be interpreted as saying that the Prime Minister has the power to dissolve the lower house after advising the Emperor accordingly. Many politicians from both the government and the opposition camps, however, had criticized the unusual move of dissolving the lower house following an upper house defeat as both illogical and adversarial. Polls from Asahi Shimbun and others showed public support for Koizumi's decision to call an election. ^[1] The approval rate for Koizumi's cabinet, in fact, leapt to 46 points when the election was called, and subsequently recovered to 50%, a very high rate by Japan's standards.

Before the dissolution, there was notable dissatisfaction with the decision to dissolve within the LDP, because the LDP and its government partner, New Kōmeitō, feared losing their majority in the lower house, which chooses the Prime Minister. In the previous lower-house election (2003) and upper-house election (2004), the Democratic Party (DPJ) had performed well, while the LDP was barely^{[ citation needed ]} able to keep its majorities with a reduced number of seats despite the popularity of Koizumi. Election analysts ascribed the poor performance of the LDP to Koizumi's reforms having eroded its traditional supporters such as farmers, mom-and-pop shop owners and construction workers; the reforms, including deregulation and tax cuts, were tuned to help larger global corporations like Toyota. Many in the LDP, including Yoshiro Mori, former prime minister and Koizumi's long-time backer, showed a concern that the widening splits between Koizumi and the rebels within his party would help the competing DPJ candidates win seats in highly contested districts. ^[2] At the height of the protest, Koizumi even had to dismiss his Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister, Yoshinobu Shimamura when he refused to sign the Imperial Ordinance for dissolution. There had also been concern that the so-called "political vacuum" created if both the LDP and the DPJ failed to gain a clear majority would impede the already sluggish recovery of the Japanese economy.

Campaign

Koizumi addresses a press conference at the Kantei following the dissolution of the House, 8 August 2005.

Prime Minister Koizumi had tried to make the election a referendum on the privatization of Japan Post and reforms that follow, saying that he would step down if the ruling bloc fails to secure a majority. Indeed, the DPJ, which did not have a clear position on the privatization issue previously, was forced to come up with an alternative plan to shrink public savings in Japan Post over years to come. In addition, his personality was featured as prominently as policy in the election, as the electorate were asked to determine whether Koizumi's behavior, variously described as either determined or pugnacious, was acceptable for a Japanese prime minister.

The main opposition, the liberal and center-left Democratic Party (DPJ), saw the election as a chance to end the LDP's nearly continuous 50-year control of the government and reform government spending and employment. Many analysts believed that the DPJ would be less beholden to special interests than the entrenched LDP, and a change of government was vital to maintain true democracy in Japan. On 10 August, Katsuya Okada, the leader of the DPJ, said that he would resign if the DPJ failed to take over the government, paralleling Koizumi's stated intention. ^[3]

In domestic policy, the ruling bloc and the DPJ differed little; both concurred in the need to seek small government in general by cutting public works spending and reducing government employees, in contrast to the views of other, smaller parties. Additionally, they did not deny the need for a future increase of the consumption tax and revocation of temporary tax cuts in order to improve the financial health of the government, then considered the worst among any developed country and nearing wartime levels, and to cover the rising social security costs due to Japan's aging and declining population. ^[4] The DPJ leadership even admitted that, if they won the control of the government, they would not revert Koizumi's four-year-long reforms but redo them more vigorously and thoroughly.

Outside Japan, there was much speculation about how the election could change foreign relations, since foreign policy constituted one of the major differences between the LDP and the DPJ. The LDP's Koizumi was notable for his foreign policies supportive of U.S. President George W. Bush. In particular, the administration faithfully supported the Iraq War, sending JSDF troops to Iraq in spite of public opposition and the country's pacifist constitution. Moreover, the relationship between Japan and China deteriorated in early 2005, when Koizumi and other conservative Japanese politicians angered China through their visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, amongst other actions. In contrast, Okada, the leader of the main opposition DPJ, said he would pull the troops out of Iraq by December 2005 if he won the government. He also pledged that he would not visit Yasukuni Shrine; this could noticeably improve foreign relations with South Korea and China. However, in Japan, foreign policy issues had drawn almost no attention during the campaign. ^[5]

DPJ candidate Akihisa Nagashima (who failed to win his district in Tachikawa, Tokyo) in his campaign bus.

Koizumi maintained, as he had pledged before calling the election, a position that he would not give official party endorsement to 37 members of his party who voted against the postal bills; that is, they were not allowed to run as members of the party. To compensate for the disadvantages that non-party members suffered under the current election law ( jp:公職選挙法 ), four LDP rebels, including Shizuka Kamei, announced on 17 August their formation of a new party, the People's New Party, to contest the elections. ^[6] Four other LDP rebels followed suit days after, forming New Party Japan (not to be confused with the Japan New Party of Morihiro Hosokawa) with a popular Nagano governor Yasuo Tanaka as head. ^[7] However, most rebels did not join the new parties, preferring to run as independents so as not to sever their ties with local LDP organizations.

The formation of the new parties, which were largely seen as necessary for the sole purpose of the election campaign, took place as Koizumi and his party's leadership were actively recruiting candidates to run in single-member districts against the rebels, and were pressuring local organizations to back the new candidates. New LDP candidates include celebrities, bureaucrats, and local politicians, and several rebels exited the race rather than run against their own party. Among the most publicized candidates was maverick businessman Takafumi Horie, who ran as an independent (with tacit LDP backing) against Kamei in Hiroshima District #6, a hot battleground in the last election between the then LDP's Kamei and a DPJ candidate. ^[8]

Opinion polls

Pre-election polls had been consistently showing the LDP's solid lead, especially among independent voters in urban areas like Tokyo and other big cities nationwide where its main opposition the DPJ had had a main support base. ^[9] Newspaper surveys predicted a big victory for the LDP, which could lead the DPJ, young and short on unity, to disintegrate. ^[10] Election analysts, however, warned that few LDP candidates were enjoying comfortable leads, and there was still a large number of undecided voters who went for the DPJ in the last election, thus the election results were far from being set.^{[ citation needed ]}

Results

Main article: Results of the 2005 Japanese general election

Constituency Cartogram

The actual election results closely matched those predicted by most polls, despite experts' predictions to the contrary. Election results gave the governing coalition 327 seats, more than a two-thirds majority in the lower house. ^[11] In general, the LDP roughly held its own in rural areas, retaking about half the seats held by rebels, but holding steady or even falling slightly against other parties. In urban areas the LDP had a devastating victory, reducing the DPJ from twelve single member constituencies to one in Tokyo, from nine to two in Osaka and from eight to zero in Kanagawa. The so-called 'assassin' candidates recruited by the LDP to stand against the disendorsed party rebels met with mixed success. Although 20 were elected, only 9 of these managed to defeat rebels in single-seat constituencies, with the remaining 11 elected by proportional representation. 5 'assassins' failed to be elected. Another casualty was the prominent independent candidate Takafumi Horie, who was defeated by the LDP rebel Shizuka Kamei, now representing the People's New Party.

One of the biggest landslides in Japanese politics came as a great surprise to virtually everyone, from politicians in both government and opposition camps to political analysts and the general public to finally Junichiro Koizumi himself, who reiterated after the election that he just asked for a majority. In particular, the DPJ's catastrophic defeats in the capital area (namely Tokyo and Kanagawa) shocked the party's members with no clear strategy to reverse the trends in future elections, as well as the LDP leadership who were now concerned that the LDP might have won such a great victory that it could lead to a swing against the party in the future. Analysis of the votes shows that the degree to which the electorate shifted their votes from the LDP to the DPJ was not as considerable as the number of seats exchanged; the LDP won 47.8% of the total votes, up from 43.8%, while the DPJ collected the same percentage (36.4%) as it did in the last lower-house election two years ago. Indeed, New Kōmeitō even lost three seats despite winning more votes than ever. Political analysts attribute this discrepancy to, in addition to the historically high turnout (67.5%), the switch of the election system a decade ago from the traditional medium-sized constituency system to today's system that combines single-seat constituencies and multi-member constituencies elected by proportional representation. The irony is that it was Koizumi who was a vocal critic of the switch and the likes of Okada and Ichirō Ozawa, the DPJ's deputy leader, who departed from the LDP to make the switch in a bid to create a two-party system.

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party	25,887,798	38.18	77	32,518,390	47.77	219	296	+54
	Democratic Party of Japan	21,036,425	31.02	61	24,804,787	36.44	52	113	–65
	New Komeito Party	8,987,620	13.25	23	981,105	1.44	8	31	–3
	Japanese Communist Party	4,919,187	7.25	9	4,937,375	7.25	0	9	0
	Social Democratic Party	3,719,522	5.49	6	996,008	1.46	1	7	+1
	New Party Nippon	1,643,506	2.42	1	137,172	0.20	0	1	New
	People's New Party	1,183,073	1.74	2	432,679	0.64	2	4	New
	New Party Daichi	433,938	0.64	1	16,698	0.02	0	1	New
	Other parties				1,557	0.00	0	0	–
	Independents				3,240,522	4.76	18	18	+7
Total		67,811,069	100.00	180	68,066,293	100.00	300	480	0
Valid votes		67,811,069	97.53		68,066,293	97.90
Invalid/blank votes		1,717,357	2.47		1,458,340	2.10
Total votes		69,528,426	100.00		69,524,633	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		103,067,966	67.46		102,985,213	67.51
Source: Election Resources, IPU

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	DPJ	NKP	PNP	SDP	Ind.
Aichi	15	9	6
Akita	3	1	1				1
Aomori	4	4
Chiba	13	12	1
Ehime	4	4
Fukui	3	3
Fukuoka	11	9	1				1
Fukushima	5	3	2
Gifu	5	3					2
Gunma	5	5
Hiroshima	7	6			1
Hokkaido	12	4	8
Hyōgo	12	10		2
Ibaraki	7	5	1				1
Ishikawa	3	3
Iwate	4	1	3
Kagawa	3	3
Kagoshima	5	3					2
Kanagawa	18	16		1			1
Kōchi	3	3
Kumamoto	5	4	1
Kyoto	6	3	3
Mie	5	3	2
Miyagi	6	5	1
Miyazaki	3	1					2
Nagano	5	3	2
Nagasaki	4	3	1
Nara	4	3	1
Niigata	6	2	3				1
Ōita	3	2	1
Okayama	5	2	2				1
Okinawa	4	2				1	1
Osaka	19	13	2	4
Saga	3	1					2
Saitama	15	12	3
Shiga	4	2	2
Shimane	2	2
Shizuoka	8	6	2
Tochigi	5	5
Tokushima	3	1	1				1
Tokyo	25	23	1	1
Tottori	2	2
Toyama	3	2			1
Wakayama	3	3
Yamagata	3	3
Yamaguchi	4	4
Yamanashi	3		1				2
Total	300	219	52	8	2	1	18

By PR block

PR block	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	DPJ	NKP	JCP	SDP	PNP	NPN	NPD
Chūgoku	11	5	3	2			1
Hokkaido	8	3	3	1					1
Hokuriku–Shinetsu	11	5	4	1			1
Kinki	29	11	9	4	3	1		1
Kyushu	21	9	7	3	1	1
Northern Kanto	20	9	7	2	1	1
Shikoku	6	3	2	1
Southern Kanto	22	10	7	3	1	1
Tohoku	14	6	5	1	1	1
Tokai	21	9	8	3	1
Tokyo	17	7	6	2	1	1
Total	180	77	61	23	9	6	2	1	1

Representatives

Members of House of Representatives elected from single-seat constituency

 LDP  DPJ  Komei  JCP  SDP  PNP  Independent 

Hokkaido	1st	Takahiro Yokomichi	2nd	Wakio Mitsui	3rd	Gaku Ishizaki	4th	Yoshio Hachiro	5th	Nobutaka Machimura
	6th	Takahiro Sasaki	7th	Hiroko Nakano	8th	Seiichi Kaneta	9th	Yukio Hatoyama	10th	Tadamasa Kodaira
	11th	Shōichi Nakagawa	12th	Tsutomu Takebe
Aomori	1st	Yūji Tsushima	2nd	Akinori Eto	3rd	Tadamori Ōshima	4th	Tarō Kimura
Iwate	1st	Takuya Tasso	2nd	Shunichi Suzuki	3rd	Toru Kikawada	4th	Ichirō Ozawa
Miyagi	1st	Tōru Doi	2nd	Kenya Akiba	3rd	Akihiro Nishimura	4th	Shintaro Ito	5th	Jun Azumi
	6th	Itsunori Onodera
Akita	1st	Manabu Terata	2nd	Hosei Norota	3rd	Nobuhide Minorikawa
Yamagata	1st	Toshiaki Endo	2nd	Takehiko Endo	3rd	Koichi Kato
Fukushima	1st	Yoshitami Kameoka	2nd	Takumi Nemoto	3rd	Kōichirō Genba	4th	Kōzō Watanabe	5th	Masayoshi Yoshino
Ibaraki	1st	Norihiko Akagi	2nd	Fukushiro Nukaga	3rd	Yasuhiro Hanashi	4th	Hiroshi Kajiyama	5th	Akihiro Ohata
	6th	Yuya Niwa	7th	Kishirō Nakamura
Tochigi	1st	Hajime Funada	2nd	Mayumi Moriyama	3rd	Yoshimi Watanabe	4th	Tsutomu Sato	5th	Toshimitsu Motegi
Gunma	1st	Genichiro Sata	2nd	Takashi Sasagawa	3rd	Yoshio Yatsu	4th	Yasuo Fukuda	5th	Yūko Obuchi
Saitama	1st	Koichi Takemasa	2nd	Yoshitaka Shindō	3rd	Hiroshi Imai	4th	Chuko Hayakawa	5th	Yukio Edano
	6th	Atsushi Oshima	7th	Kiyoshi Nakano	8th	Masahiko Shibayama	9th	Matsushige Ono	10th	Taimei Yamaguchi
	11th	Etsuji Arai	12th	Toshio Kojima	13th	Shinako Tsuchiya	14th	Takashi Mitsubayashi	15th	Ryosei Tanaka
Chiba	1st	Hideo Usui	2nd	Akiko Yamanaka	3rd	Hirokazu Matsuno	4th	Yoshihiko Noda	5th	Kentaro Sonoura
	6th	Hiromichi Watanabe	7th	Kazumi Matumoto	8th	Yoshitaka Sakurada	9th	Kenichi Mizuno	10th	Motoo Hayashi
	11th	Eisuke Mori	12th	Yasukazu Hamada	13th	Yukio Jitsukawa
Kanagawa	1st	Jun Matsumoto	2nd	Yoshihide Suga	3rd	Hachiro Okonogi	4th	Jun Hayashi	5th	Manabu Sakai
	6th	Isamu Ueda	7th	Tsuneo Suzuki	8th	Kenji Eda	9th	Koichi Yamauchi	10th	Kazunori Tanaka
	11th	Junichiro Koizumi	12th	Ikuzo Sakurai	13th	Akira Amari	14th	Jiro Akama	15th	Taro Kono
	16th	Yoshiyuki Kamei	17th	Yōhei Kōno	18th	Daishiro Yamagiwa
Yamanashi	1st	Sakihito Ozawa	2nd	Mitsuo Horiuchi	3rd	Takeshi Hosaka
Tokyo	1st	Kaoru Yosano	2nd	Takashi Fukaya	3rd	Hirotaka Ishihara	4th	Masaaki Taira	5th	Takashi Kosugi
	6th	Takao Ochi	7th	Fumiaki Matsumoto	8th	Nobuteru Ishihara	9th	Isshu Sugawara	10th	Yuriko Koike
	11th	Hakubun Shimomura	12th	Akihiro Ōta	13th	Ichiro Kamoshita	14th	Midori Matsushima	15th	Ben Kimura
	16th	Hideo Ōnishi	17th	Katsuei Hirasawa	18th	Naoto Kan	19th	Yohei Matsumoto	20th	Seiji Kihara
	21st	Yuichi Ogawa	22nd	Tatsuya Ito	23rd	Kosuke Ito	24th	Kōichi Hagiuda	25th	Shinji Inoue
Niigata	1st	Chinami Nishimura	2nd	Motohiko Kondo	3rd	Yamato Inaba	4th	Makiko Kikuta	5th	Makiko Tanaka
	6th	Nobutaka Tsutsui
Toyama	1st	Jinen Nagase	2nd	Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi	3rd	Tamisuke Watanuki
Ishikawa	1st	Hiroshi Hase	2nd	Yoshirō Mori	3rd	Shigeo Kitamura
Fukui	1st	Tomomi Inada	2nd	Taku Yamamoto	3rd	Tsuyoshi Takagi
Nagano	1st	Kenji Kosaka	2nd	Mitsu Shimojo	3rd	Tsutomu Hata	4th	Shigeyuki Goto	5th	Ichiro Miyashita
Gifu	1st	Seiko Noda	2nd	Yasufumi Tanahashi	3rd	Yoji Muto	4th	Kazuyoshi Kaneko	5th	Keiji Furuya
Shizuoka	1st	Yōko Kamikawa	2nd	Yoshitsugu Harada	3rd	Hakuo Yanagisawa	4th	Yoshio Mochizuki	5th	Goshi Hosono
	6th	Shu Watanabe	7th	Satsuki Katayama	8th	Ryu Shionoya
Aichi	1st	Takashi Kawamura	2nd	Motohisa Furukawa	3rd	Shoichi Kondo	4th	Yoshio Maki	5th	Takahide Kimura
	6th	Hideki Niwa	7th	Junji Suzuki	8th	Tadahiko Ito	9th	Toshiki Kaifu	10th	Tetsuma Esaki
	11th	Shinichiro Furumoto	12th	Seiken Sugiura	13th	Hideaki Ōmura	14th	Katsumasa Suzuki	15th	Akihiko Yamamoto
Mie	1st	Jiro Kawasaki	2nd	Masaharu Nakagawa	3rd	Katsuya Okada	4th	Norihisa Tamura	5th	Norio Mitsuya
Shiga	1st	Kenichiro Ueno	2nd	Issei Tajima	3rd	Taizō Mikazuki	4th	Mineichi Iwanaga
Kyoto	1st	Bunmei Ibuki	2nd	Seiji Maehara	3rd	Kenta Izumi	4th	Yasuhiro Nakagawa	5th	Sadakazu Tanigaki
	6th	Kazunori Yamanoi
Osaka	1st	Kōki Chūma	2nd	Shika Kawajo	3rd	Masahiro Tabata	4th	Yasuhide Nakayama	5th	Takayoshi Taniguchi
	6th	Yutaka Fukushima	7th	Naomi Tokashiki	8th	Takashi Ōtsuka	9th	Takashi Nishida	10th	Kenta Matsunami
	11th	Hirofumi Hirano	12th	Tomokatsu Kitagawa	13th	Akira Nishino	14th	Takashi Tanihata	15th	Naokazu Takemoto
	16th	Kazuo Kitagawa	17th	Nobuko Okashita	18th	Taro Nakayama	19th	Takashi Nagayasu
Hyōgo	1st	Masahito Moriyama	2nd	Kazuyoshi Akaba	3rd	Yoshihiro Seki	4th	Kiichi Inoue	5th	Koichi Tani
	6th	Tsukasa Kobiki	7th	Shigeo Omae	8th	Tetsuzo Fuyushiba	9th	Yasutoshi Nishimura	10th	Kisaburo Tokai
	11th	Tōru Toida	12th	Saburo Komoto
Nara	1st	Sumio Mabuchi	2nd	Sanae Takaichi	3rd	Shinsuke Okuno	4th	Ryotaro Tanose
Wakayama	1st	Tatsuya Tanimoto	2nd	Masatoshi Ishida	3rd	Toshihiro Nikai
Tottri	1st	Shigeru Ishiba	2nd	Ryosei Akazawa
Shimane	1st	Hiroyuki Hosoda	2nd	Wataru Takeshita
Okayama	1st	Ichiro Aisawa	2nd	Keisuke Tsumura	3rd	Takeo Hiranuma	4th	Michiyoshi Yunoki	5th	Yoshitaka Murata
Hiroshima	1st	Fumio Kishida	2nd	Hiroshi Hiraguchi	3rd	Katsuyuki Kawai	4th	Hidenao Nakagawa	5th	Minoru Terada
	6th	Shizuka Kamei	7th	Yoichi Miyazawa
Yamaguchi	1st	Masahiko Kōmura	2nd	Yoshihiko Fukuda	3rd	Takeo Kawamura	4th	Shinzo Abe
Tokushima	1st	Yoshito Sengoku	2nd	Shunichi Yamaguchi	3rd	Masazumi Gotoda
Kagawa	1st	Takuya Hirai	2nd	Yoshio Kimura	3rd	Yoshinori Ohno
Ehime	1st	Yasuhisa Shiozaki	2nd	Seiichiro Murakami	3rd	Shinya Ono	4th	Koichi Yamamoto
Kōchi	1st	Teru Fukui	2nd	Gen Nakatani	3rd	Yūji Yamamoto
Fukuoka	1st	Ryu Matsumoto	2nd	Taku Yamasaki	3rd	Seiichi Ota	4th	Tomoyoshi Watanabe	5th	Yoshiaki Harada
	6th	Kunio Hatoyama	7th	Makoto Koga	8th	Tarō Asō	9th	Asahiko Mihara	10th	Kyoko Nishikawa
	11th	Ryota Takeda
Saga	1st	Takamaro Fukuoka	2nd	Masahiro Imamura	3rd	Kosuke Hori
Nagasaki	1st	Yoshiaki Takaki	2nd	Fumio Kyūma	3rd	Yaichi Tanigawa	4th	Seigo Kitamura
Kumamoto	1st	Yorihisa Matsuno	2nd	Takeshi Noda	3rd	Toshikatsu Matsuoka	4th	Hiroyuki Sonoda	5th	Yasushi Kaneko
Ōita	1st	Shuji Kira	2nd	Seishiro Eto	3rd	Takeshi Iwaya
Miyazaki	1st	Nariaki Nakayama	2nd	Taku Etō	3rd	Yoshihisa Furukawa
Kagoshima	1st	Okiharu Yasuoka	2nd	Takeshi Tokuda	3rd	Kazuaki Miyaji	4th	Yasuhiro Ozato	5th	Hiroshi Moriyama
Okinawa	1st	Mikio Shimoji	2nd	Kantoku Teruya	3rd	Chiken Kakazu	4th	Kosaburo Nishime

Notes

1. Liberal Democratic Party and New Conservative Party

References

1. "The Asahi Shimbun" . Retrieved 11 August 2005.
2. "Asia Times Online :: Japan News and Japanese Business and Economy". Asia Times. 9 August 2005. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
3. http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=9&id=345895%5B%5D
4. "Aljazeera.Net - Japan faces big question of size". Archived from the original on 10 September 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2005.
5. Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
6. "Bing". Mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp. Retrieved 4 June 2010.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
7. Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
8. Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
9. "The Asahi Shimbun" . Retrieved 9 September 2005.
10. Archived 9 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
11. "asahi.com： 2005総選挙". .asahi.com. 18 September 2005. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2010.

External links

Articles

• BBC News (8 August 2005). "Japanese PM Calls Snap Election."
• Mainichi Shimbun (8 August 2005). "Koizumi Dissolves Lower House for Snap Election." ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
• Kajimoto, Tetsushi (9 August 2005). "Koizumi Calls Election for 11 September." Japan Times.
• Dore, Ronald (8 August 2005). "A Contemporary Dilemma Haunted by History." Times (London), pp. 11.
• Asahi Shimbun (9 August 2005). "Political Parties Scramble to Draw Up Manifestoes ahead of Snap Election Next Month."
• Hiroko Tabuchi (10 August 2005). Japan's leader steps up retaliation against renegade party members
• openDemocracy (10 August 2005). Japan’s fifty-year political itch
• Economist article (25 August 2005). "Out with the old guard?"
• Manichi Daily (11 September 2005). "Koizumi leads LDP to landslide." ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
• openDemocracy (12 September 2005). Japan's first presidential election

Polls

• CNN story (27 August 2005). "Poll: Opposition gains in Japan"
• Bloomberg (26 August 2005). Japan's Koizumi Gains Support With 16 Days to Vote (Update3)
• Manichi Daily (11 September 2005). "2005 Election Site" ^{[ permanent dead link ]}