2009 Japanese general election

2009 Japanese general election

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All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	69.19% (1.70pp; Const. votes) 69.19% (1.73pp; PR votes)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Yukio Hatoyama Tarō Asō Akihiro Ota Party Democratic LDP Komeito Last election 113 seats 296 seats 31 seats Seats won 308 119 21 Seat change 195 177 10 Constituency vote 33,475,335 27,301,982 782,984  % and swing 47.43% (10.99pp) 38.68% (9.09pp) 1.11% (0.33pp) Regional vote 29,844,799 18,810,217 8,054,007  % and swing 42.41% (11.39pp) 26.73% (11.45pp) 11.45% (1.80pp)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kazuo Shii Mizuho Fukushima Yoshimi Watanabe Party JCP Social Democratic Your Last election 9 seats 7 seats New party Seats won 9 7 5 Seat change New Constituency vote 2,978,354 1,376,739 615,244  % and swing 4.22% (3.03pp) 1.95% (0.49pp) 0.87% (New) Regional vote 4,943,886 3,006,160 3,005,199  % and swing 7.03% (0.22pp) 4.27% (1.22pp) 4.27% (New)
Districts and PR districts shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Tarō Asō LDP Elected Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Democratic

General elections were held in Japan on August 30, 2009 to elect the 480 members of the House of Representatives. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) defeated the ruling coalition (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and New Komeito Party) in a landslide, winning 221 of the 300 constituency seats and receiving 42.4% of the proportional block votes for another 87 seats, a total of 308 seats to only 119 for the LDP (64 constituency seats and 26.7% of the proportional vote). ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Under Japan's constitution, this result virtually assured DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama would be the next Prime Minister of Japan. He was formally named to the post on September 16, 2009. ^[4] Prime Minister Tarō Asō conceded late on the night of August 30, 2009, that the LDP had lost control of the government, and announced his resignation as party president. ^[5] A leadership election was held on September 28, 2009.

The 2009 election was the first time since World War II that voters mandated a change in control of the government to an opposition political party. ^[6] It marked the worst defeat for a governing party in modern Japanese history, was only the second time that the LDP had not been able to form a government after an election since its formation in 1955, and was the first time that the LDP lost its status as the largest party in the lower house; the only other break in LDP control since 1955 had been for a 3-year period from 1993 to 1996 (first 11 months in opposition, then participating in a coalition government under a socialist prime minister). ^[7]

Background

The last general election took place in 2005 in which the LDP, led by popular prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, received 38.2% of the proportional block votes and 47.8% of the district votes cast (the next largest party, the DPJ, received 31% in the proportional and 36.4% in the district vote). Due to the characteristics of the Japanese election system, the LDP ended up with 296 seats in the Lower House (61.6%), which enabled Koizumi to complete the privatization of Japan Post. Since then Japan had three further prime ministers (Shinzō Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Tarō Asō) who came to power without there being a general election.

On September 1, 2008, Yasuo Fukuda abruptly announced he was retiring as leader. Taro Aso won the subsequent LDP leadership election, which was held on September 22, 2008. ^[8] Media sources speculated that, in the wake of a recent change in leadership, Prime Minister Taro Aso might call elections in late October or early November 2008 while his popularity was still high. ^[9]

There were expectations that the steady decline and numerous scandals of the LDP might lead to the complete extinction of the party and the creation of a new political system, with actual ideologically coherent parties emerging instead of the current system of a shared interest in power with stark ideological differences. ^[10]

In late June 2009 there were rumours of a planned election date in early August 2009. ^[11] In prefectural elections in Tokyo, the LDP again lost a lot of seats and was for the first time since 1965 not the largest party in the prefectural assembly. The next day, Aso confirmed these rumours by calling for an election on August 30, 2009. ^[12]

As soon as the election was called, a campaign was underway by a group of LDP Diet Members to replace Aso as leader. Fully one-third of the parliamentary party (including finance minister Kaoru Yosano) were reported to have signed a petition calling for an urgent party meeting to discuss the issue. The BBC reported LDP critics of Aso asserting that an election with him still as leader would be "political suicide". ^[13] Prime Minister Aso dissolved the House of Representatives on July 21, 2009. ^[14] The official campaign started on August 18, 2009. ^[15]

Former LDP minister Yoshimi Watanabe announced the foundation of a new party, Your Party, on August 8, 2009. ^[16]

Campaign

The DPJ's policy platforms include: a restructuring of civil service; a monthly allowance for families with children (at 26000 yen per child); a cut in the fuel tax; income support for farmers; free tuition for public high schools; the banning of temporary work in manufacturing; ^[17] raising the minimum wage to 1000 yen; and the halting of any increase in sales tax for the next four years. ^{[15] [18] [19]}

The LDP's policy platforms are similar to the DPJ's. A New York Times article on August 28, 2009 noted both platforms offer little on economic policies. ^[20]

Opinion polls

Before the dissolution of the lower house, National weekly magazines had been citing analysts predicting a big loss for the ruling coalition which held two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives. Some (e.g., Shūkan Gendai ^[21] ) warned that the LDP could lose as much as half of that. Many based their predictions on the low approval rating of the Prime Minister Taro Aso and the devastating loss that the LDP suffered in the earlier prefectural election in Tokyo. On August 20 and 21, 2009, Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun, leading national newspapers, and Nikkei Shimbun, a financial daily, reported that the DPJ was poised to win over 300 of the 480 contested seats. ^{[22] [23] [24]}

On August 22, 2009, Mainichi Shimbun went further to predict that the DPJ could win over 320 seats, meaning almost all DPJ candidates would win. ^[25] Mainichi noted that the DPJ appeared to be doing well in the western part of Japan, a traditional stronghold of the LDP, and that the LDP could lose all of its single-member constituency seats in 15 prefectures, including Hokkaidō, Aichi, and Saitama. ^[26] Also, according to Mainichi, the Japanese Communist Party will probably retain its previous 9 seats, while the Komeito Party and the Social Democratic Party may lose some of their shares.

According to a poll conducted on August 22, 2009 by the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's largest newspaper, 40 percent said they would vote for the DPJ, while 24 percent for the LDP. ^[27]

Candidates by party

Party	Number of Candidates		Gender of Candidates			Proportional representation			Holding seats at dissolution
			Male	Female		Constituencies	Proportional representation
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)	326		299	27		306	37		303
New Komeito Party (NKP)	51		47	4		8	43		31
Japan Renaissance Party (JRP)	1		1	0		1	0		1
Democratic Party (DPJ)	330		284	46		271	59		112
Social Democratic Party (SDP)	37		25	12		31	6		7
People's New Party (PNP)	18		17	1		9	9		5
New Party Nippon (NPN)	8		8	0		2	6		0
Japanese Communist Party (JCP)	171		119	52		152	19		9
Your Party (YP)	15		12	3		14	1		-
New Party Daichi (NPD)	4		3	1		0	4		1
Happiness Realization Party (HRP)	337		262	75		288	49		0
Essential Party (EP)	2		1	1		0	2		0
World Economic Community Party (WECP)	1		1	0		1	0		0
Freeway Club Party (FCP)	1		1	0		1	0		0
Smile Japan Party (SJP)	1		1	0		1	0		0
Forest Sea Party (FSP)	1		1	0		1	0		0
Independent	70		61	9		70	- [28]		9
Total	1,374		1,145	229		1,139	235		478 [29]

Results

Main article: Results of the 2009 Japanese general election

Constituency Cartogram

Headlines of Japanese newspapers
(August 31, 2009)

The DPJ swept the LDP from power in a massive landslide, winning 308 seats (out of a total of 480 seats), while the LDP won only 119 seats ^[1] - the worst defeat for a sitting government in modern Japanese history. This was a marked contrast to the 1993 election, the only other time the LDP has been forced into opposition status. In that election, the LDP remained by far the largest party in the House with well over 200 seats, despite losing its majority. However, in the 2009 election the LDP was nearly 200 seats behind the DPJ. Of 83 Koizumi Children who became new LDP representatives in 2005, only 10 were reelected. The unprecedented number of urban voters won by Koizumi's 2005 landslide mostly abandoned the LDP in this election. ^[30]

The DPJ won a strong majority in the House of Representatives, thus virtually assuring that Hatoyama would be the next prime minister. Under the Constitution, if the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors cannot agree on a choice for prime minister, the choice of the House of Representatives is deemed to be that of the Diet. Hatoyama was nominated as prime minister on September 16 and formally appointed later that day by Emperor Akihito.

However, the DPJ was just short of a majority in the House of Councillors, and fell just short of the 320 seats (a two-thirds majority) needed to override negative votes in the upper chamber. Hatoyama was thus forced to form a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and People's New Party to obtain a majority. ^[31]

There were a number of factors at play in the DPJ's unprecedented success. In addition to the unpopularity of LDP politicians and some of its policies, such as medical policies and 2000's neoliberal economic reforms, leading to widening income inequality, Japanese politics had seen a declining importance in local support groups ( koenkai ) which had previously allowed local LDP politicians to stay in power even if the incumbent prime minister or the LDP was suffering from low approval ratings. The DPJ also benefited from being a large and unified opposition party unlike in the past when the opposition tended to be splintered and lead to vote splitting losses for the opposition; in addition, the Japanese Communist Party, which normally fields candidates in every single district, fielded a historically low number of candidates, leading to a slight increase in votes for the DPJ in single-seat constituencies. ^[30]

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Party of Japan	29,844,799	42.41	87	33,475,335	47.43	221	308	+195
	Liberal Democratic Party	18,810,217	26.73	55	27,301,982	38.68	64	119	–177
	New Komeito Party	8,054,007	11.45	21	782,984	1.11	0	21	–10
	Japanese Communist Party	4,943,886	7.03	9	2,978,354	4.22	0	9	0
	Social Democratic Party	3,006,160	4.27	4	1,376,739	1.95	3	7	0
	Your Party	3,005,199	4.27	3	615,244	0.87	2	5	New
	People's New Party	1,219,767	1.73	0	730,570	1.04	3	3	–1
	New Party Nippon	528,171	0.75	0	220,223	0.31	1	1	0
	Happiness Realization Party	459,387	0.65	0	1,071,958	1.52	0	0	New
	New Party Daichi	433,122	0.62	1				1	0
	Reform Club	58,141	0.08	0	36,650	0.05	0	0	New
	Essential Party	7,399	0.01	0				0	New
	Freeway Club Party  [ ja ]				2,360	0.00	0	0	New
	Forest Sea Party				1,520	0.00	0	0	New
	Smile Japan Party				987	0.00	0	0	New
	World Economic Community Party				718	0.00	0	0	New
	Independents				1,986,056	2.81	6	6	–12
Total		70,370,255	100.00	180	70,581,680	100.00	300	480	0
Valid votes		70,370,255	97.74		70,581,680	98.01
Invalid/blank votes		1,628,866	2.26		1,435,587	1.99
Total votes		71,999,121	100.00		72,017,267	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		104,057,361	69.19		104,057,361	69.21
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Tsukada, CLEA

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		DPJ	LDP	SDP	PNP	YP	NPN	Ind.
Aichi	15	15
Akita	3	2						1
Aomori	4	1	3
Chiba	13	11	2
Ehime	4	1	3
Fukui	3		3
Fukuoka	11	7	4
Fukushima	5	5
Gifu	5	3	2
Gunma	5	3	2
Hiroshima	7	5	1		1
Hokkaido	12	11	1
Hyōgo	12	10	1				1
Ibaraki	7	5	1					1
Ishikawa	3	2	1
Iwate	4	4
Kagawa	3	2	1
Kagoshima	5	1	3		1
Kanagawa	18	14	3			1
Kōchi	3		3
Kumamoto	5	2	3
Kyoto	6	5	1
Mie	5	4	1
Miyagi	6	5	1
Miyazaki	3		2					1
Nagano	5	5
Nagasaki	4	4
Nara	4	3	1
Niigata	6	6
Ōita	3	2		1
Okayama	5	2	2					1
Okinawa	4	2		1	1
Osaka	19	17	1	1
Saga	3	2	1
Saitama	15	14						1
Shiga	4	4
Shimane	2		2
Shizuoka	8	7						1
Tochigi	5	3	1			1
Tokushima	3	2	1
Tokyo	25	21	4
Tottori	2		2
Toyama	3	1	2
Wakayama	3	2	1
Yamagata	3	2	1
Yamaguchi	4	1	3
Yamanashi	3	3
Total	300	221	64	3	3	2	1	6

By PR block

PR block	Total seats	Seats won
		DPJ	LDP	NKP	JCP	SDP	YP	NPD
Chūgoku	11	6	4	1
Hokkaido	8	4	2	1				1
Hokuriku–Shinetsu	11	6	4	1
Kinki	29	11	9	5	3	1
Kyushu	21	9	7	3	1	1
Northern Kanto	20	10	6	2	1		1
Shikoku	6	3	2	1
Southern Kanto	22	11	6	2	1	1	1
Tohoku	14	7	4	1	1	1
Tokai	21	12	6	2	1
Tokyo	17	8	5	2	1		1
Total	180	87	55	21	9	4	3	1

Had the parties nominated a sufficient number of candidates on their proportional "block" lists, the election result would have given the DPJ two additional seats in Kinki, the YP seat in Kinki, and one in Tōkai. In Kinki, two seats went to the LDP, one to Kōmeitō, and one in Tōkai to the DPJ. ^[32] For the same reason, one Democratic Kinki proportional seat that had fallen vacant in 2010 (previously held by Mitsue Kawakami) could not be filled until the next general election.

Notable incumbents defeated

Incumbents		Party
Norihiko Akagi	Former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tetsuma Esaki	Former Senior Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Takashi Fukaya	Former International Trade and Industry Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Hajime Funada	Former Minister of Economic Planning Agency	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tetsuzo Fuyushiba	Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister	New Komeito Party (NKP)
Yoshiaki Harada	Foreign Affairs Committee Chair	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Mitsuo Horiuchi	Former International Trade and Industry Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yamato Inaba	Agricultural Committee Chair	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kiichi Inoue	Disaster Management Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Gaku Ishizaki	Former Senior Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kosuke Ito	Committee on Fundamental National Policies Chairman	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Shintaro Ito	Senior Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tatsuya Ito	Former Minister in charge of Financial Affairs	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yukio Jitsukawa	Former Senior Vice Minister of Justice	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Toshiki Kaifu	Former Prime Minister of Japan	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yōko Kamikawa	Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs of Japan	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kazuo Kitagawa	Former Land, Infrastructure and Transportation Minister	New Komeito Party (NKP)
Tomokatsu Kitagawa	Parliamentary Secretary of the Environment	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kenji Kosaka	Former Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Saburo Komoto	Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Fumio Kyuma	Former Defence Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kenichi Mizuno	Former Senior Vice-Minister of Justice	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Nobuhide Minorikawa	Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yoichi Miyazawa	Senior Vice-Minister of Cabinet Office	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Shōichi Nakagawa	Former Treasury Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Taro Nakayama	Former Foreign Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kyoko Nishikawa	Former Senior Vice-Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kosaburo Nishime	Parliamentary Secretary of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yuya Niwa	Former Health, Labour and Welfare Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Koji Omi	Former Treasury Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Akihiro Ota	Chief Representative of New Komeito	New Komeito Party (NKP)
Seiichi Ota	Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Toshitsugu Saito	Former Defence Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Takashi Sasagawa	Former General Council Chairman of LDP	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yoshinobu Shimamura	Former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Junji Suzuki	Former Vice-Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Shunichi Suzuki	Former Minister of Environment Agency	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Seiken Sugiura	Former Minister of Justice	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Minoru Terada	Former Parliamentary Defense Secretary	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tōru Toida	Former Parliamentary Health Secretary	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kisaburo Tokai	Former Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tamisuke Watanuki	President of the People's New Party, Former Speaker of the House of Representatives	People's New Party (PNP)
Akihiko Yamamoto	Former Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office	Liberal Democratic Party
Akiko Yamanaka	Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Taku Yamasaki	Former Vice President of LDP	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Hakuo Yanagisawa	Former Health, Labour and Welfare Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Okiharu Yasuoka	Former Minister of Justice	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yoshio Yatsu	Former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Notable candidates defeated in their own districts but who remain in power through the block system

Candidates		Party
Akira Amari	Former Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Seishiro Etō	Former Defense Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Motoo Hayashi	Chairman of the National Commission on Public Safety	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Bunmei Ibuki	Former Secretary General of LDP	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Ichirō Kamoshita	Minister for the Environment	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Jirō Kawasaki	Former Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Seigo Kitamura	Senior Vice-Minister of Defense	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Yuriko Koike	Former Minister of Defense	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Nobutaka Machimura	Former Chief Cabinet Secretary and former Foreign Affairs Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Jinen Nagase	Former Minister of Justice	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Hidenao Nakagawa	Former Secretary General of LDP	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Seiko Noda	Former State Minister in charge of Consumer Affairs	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Fukushiro Nukaga	Former Finance Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Hideaki Omura	Former Vice Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tsutomu Sato	Internal Affairs and Communications and Public Safety Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Ryu Shionoya	Minister of Education, Science and Technology	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Tsutomu Takebe	Former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Naokazu Takemoto	Senior Vice-Minister of Finance	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
Kaoru Yosano	Finance Minister	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Aftermath

In March 2011, the Supreme Court decided that the malapportionment of electoral districts in the 2009 election had been in breach of the Constitution of Japan. As in previous such rulings (as occurred in the aftermath of the elections of 1972, 1980, 1983 and 1990), the election result is not invalidated, but the vote weight disparity must be reduced by the National Diet soon. The 2009 election was the first House of Representatives election ruled unconstitutional since the electoral reform of the 1990s and the introduction of parallel voting in single-member districts and proportional "blocks". ^[33] The two major parties additionally wished to use the reform to significantly reduce the number of proportional seats, as both had promised in their 2009 campaigns, but met resistance from smaller parties that depended on proportional seats to bolster their numbers. ^{[34] [35]}

See also

• List of districts of the House of Representatives of Japan
• 2009 Tokyo prefectural election
• 2009 Yokohama mayoral election

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33. 47 News/Kyodo News, March 28, 2011: 2・30倍の格差は「違憲状態」 09年衆院選で最高裁 Archived 2012-05-25 at the Wayback Machine
34. The Japan Times, October 17, 2011: Vote disparity reform faces delay over small parties
35. Thomas, Ben (2013-05-10). "DPJ bends on Lower House Reform". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2021-04-10.

External links

• Japanese Voters Oust Conservative Party - video report by Democracy Now!
• Two-headed Monster - analysis by C.B.Liddell Metropolis