2012 Japanese general election

2012 Japanese general election

←  2009 16 December 2012 2014  →
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All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	59.32% (9.87pp; Const. votes) 59.31% (9.88pp; PR votes)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Shinzō Abe Yoshihiko Noda Shintaro Ishihara Party Liberal Democratic Democratic Restoration Last election 119 seats 308 seats Did not exist Seats won 294 57 54 Seat change 175 251 New Constituency vote 25,643,309 13,598,774 6,942,354  % and swing 43.01% (4.33pp) 22.81% (24.62pp) 11.64% (New) Regional vote 16,624,457 9,268,653 12,262,228  % and swing 27.79% (1.06pp) 15.49% (26.92pp) 20.50% (New)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Natsuo Yamaguchi Yoshimi Watanabe Yukiko Kada Party Komeito Your Tomorrow Last election 21 seats 5 seats Did not exist Seats won 31 18 9 Seat change 10 13 New Constituency vote 885,881 2,807,245 2,992,366  % and swing 1.49% (0.38pp) 4.71% (3.84pp) 5.02% (New) Regional vote 7,116,474 5,245,586 3,423,915  % and swing 11.90% (0.45pp) 8.77% (4.50pp) 5.72% (New)   Seventh party   Leader Kazuo Shii Party Communist Last election 9 seats Seats won 8 Seat change 1 Constituency vote 4,700,290  % and swing 7.88% (3.66pp) Regional vote 3,689,159  % and swing 6.17% (0.86pp)
Districts and PR districts shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Yoshihiko Noda Democratic Elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Liberal Democratic

General elections were held in Japan on 16 December 2012. Voters gave the Liberal Democratic Party a landslide victory, ejecting the Democratic Party from power after three years. It was the fourth worst defeat suffered by a ruling party in Japanese history.

Voting took place in all representatives' constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan.

In July 2012, it was reported that the deputy prime minister Katsuya Okada had approached the Liberal Democratic Party to sound them out about dissolving the House of Representatives and holding the election in January 2013. ^[1] An agreement was reached in August to dissolve the Diet and hold early elections "shortly" following the passage of a bill to raise the national consumption tax. ^[2] Some right-wing observers asserted that as the result of introducing the consumption tax to repay the Japanese public debt, ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]} the DPJ lost around 75% of its pre-election seats. ^{[8] [9]}

Background

The LDP had governed Japan for all but three years since 1955. However, in the 2009 election, the LDP suffered the worst defeat of a sitting government in modern Japanese history. Due to the characteristics of the Japanese election system, DPJ candidates won 308 seats in the House of Representatives (64.2% of seats), enabling Yukio Hatoyama to become prime minister. Since then, Japan had had two other prime ministers, Naoto Kan and Yoshihiko Noda. On 16 November, Noda dissolved parliament, thus allowing for a new election in a month's time, citing the lack of funds to carry on governmental functions and the need for an emergency budget.

Dissatisfaction with the DPJ-led government and the former LDP-led government led to the formation of several grassroots movements, collectively known as the "third pole," to counter the two major parties. ^[10] The former Governor of Tokyo Shintarō Ishihara announced the renaming and reformation of the Sunrise Party on 14 November 2012; Ishihara co-lead the party with Takeo Hiranuma. ^[11] On 17 November 2012 Mayor of Osaka Tōru Hashimoto and former Tokyo Governor Shintarō Ishihara announced the merger of the Japan Restoration Party and the Sunrise Party as a third force to contend the 16 December 2012 general election. ^[12] It is Japan's first national political party that is based outside of Tokyo. ^[13]

On 23 November, Mayor of Nagoya Takashi Kawamura, former state minister Shizuka Kamei and former farm minister Masahiko Yamada joined forces together to launch Tax Cuts Japan – Oppose TPP – Zero Nuclear Party as another "third pole" national political party. ^[14] On 28 November, the Governor of Shiga Yukiko Kada in Ōtsu announced the establishment of an anti-nuclear and gender equality focused party known as the Tomorrow Party of Japan, becoming the second national party based outside of Tokyo. Concurrently, the president of DPJ splinter group People's Life First, Ichirō Ozawa, dissolved the party, merging it into the Tomorrow Party. Tax Cuts Japan – Oppose TPP – Zero Nuclear Party and Japan Future Party attempted to merge with the aim of further countering the major and pro-nuclear parties. ^[15] On 27 November Tax Cuts Japan – Oppose TPP – Zero Nuclear Party officially announced a merger with Tomorrow, with party co-leader Mashahiko Yamada saying, "We would also like to raise our hands in joining because our ways of thinking are the same." ^[16]

Opinion polls

Graph of poll results since 2009
Democratic   Liberal Democratic   New Komeito   Communist   Social Democratic   Your Party   Others incl. NPN, PNP, NRP and SP   No Party Source: NHK Parties' approval ratings from August to December 2009 Date DPJ LDP NKP YP JCP SDP Other No Party Undecided 19–20 August (after GE) 42.0% 18.9% 2.2% 0.2% 1.2% 2.7% 2.0% 26.0% 4.3% 10–12 October 39.7% 16.7% 3.8% 0.2% 0.8% 3.0% 0.3% 29.1% 5.9% 6–8 November 37.7% 14.1% 3.8% 0.5% 1.6% 1.6% 0.3% 33.8% 6.3% 11–13 December 35.6% 17.1% 1.6% 0.2% 2.3% 1.2% 0.3% 34.6% 5.8% Parties' approval ratings from 2010 Date DPJ LDP NKP YP JCP SDP Other No Party Undecided 9–11 January 34.9% 18.3% 3.3% 1.2% 1.9% 0.8% 0.6% 33.8% 5.2% 5–7 February 30.0% 18.2% 2.3% 1.2% 3.0% 1.1% 0.3% 37.6% 6.2% 5–7 March 25.8% 17.1% 2.7% 3.5% 2.1% 1.0% 0.5% 41.7% 5.6% 9–11 April 22.2% 16.1% 3.6% 2.9% 2.5% 1.1% 1.0% 44.4% 6.2% 5–7 May 20.8% 17.9% 3.0% 3.1% 2.2% 0.9% 1.8% 44.4% 7.0% 11–13 May (Before Kan) 30.7% 17.0% 3.8% 1.9% 2.8% 1.8% 1.2% 35.2% 5.7% 11–13 June 34.3% 15.8% 2.9% 2.7% 1.6% 1.5% 0.9% 32.7% 7.6% 17–19 July 29.8% 20.1% 3.2% 8.6% 2.7% 1.4% 0.7% 27.4% 6.1% 6–8 August 28.9% 19.5% 3.1% 7.4% 2.3% 0.7% 0.4% 30.4% 7.3% 18–20 September 36.2% 18.8% 3.2% 4.2% 1.5% 1.0% 0.5% 29.5% 5.2% 9–11 October 29.6% 21.5% 2.6% 4.2% 1.8% 1.0% 0.4% 33.6% 5.3% 5–7 November 24.1% 22.1% 3.3% 4.6% 2.9% 0.2% 0.7% 35.9% 6.2% 10–12 December 21.3% 22.6% 3.1% 3.2% 2.6% 1.2% 0.6% 39.0% 6.4% Parties' approval ratings from 2011 Date DPJ LDP NKP JCP SDP YP Other No Party Undecided 8–10 January 21.9% 22.0% 2.9% 3.7% 1.8% 1.4% 0.3% 40.7% 5.3% 11–13 February 20.2% 21.7% 3.9% 2.9% 2.3% 1.0% 0.6% 42.1% 5.5% 15–17 April 19.2% 23.3% 2.8% 2.7% 2.2% 0.8% 0.4% 41.9% 6.7% 13–15 May 17.6% 22.6% 3.7% 1.8% 2.6% 0.7% 0.8% 45.2% 5.0% 10–12 June 20.4% 21.1% 4.5% 2.3% 1.4% 0.8% 0.3% 43.1% 6.0% 8–10 July 13.6% 23.4% 3.4% 2.8% 2.2% 1.0% 0.2% 46.2% 7.2% 5–7 August 16.4% 25.0% 3.0% 2.7% 2.7% 0.8% 0.4% 42.8% 6.3% 9–11 September 24.9% 19.1% 2.9% 1.7% 1.4% 1.0% 0.1% 44.1% 4.7% 8–10 October 22.6% 18.4% 4.1% 2.2% 1.9% 1.5% 0.3% 42.6% 6.4% 11–13 November 20.9% 20.4% 3.3% 2.9% 1.6% 1.1% 0.1% 42.9% 6.7% 9–11 December 16.9% 18.3% 3.4% 4.4% 1.8% 0.7% 0.8% 45.5% 8.3% Parties' approval ratings from 2012 Date DPJ LDP NKP JCP SDP YP Other No Party Undecided 7–9 January 18.5% 18.3% 3.7% 2.7% 2.0% 0.7% 1.0% 46.1% 7.2% 10–12 February 17.6% 16.9% 3.1% 2.9% 1.6% 0.6% 0.8% 49.4% 7.2% 9–11 March 18.1% 17.2% 2.9% 2.9% 2.6% 1.1% 1.1% 48.7% 5.4% 6–8 April 16.7% 18.8% 2.8% 1.2% 2.2% 0.8% 1.5% 49.2% 6.8% 11–13 May 18.4% 19.9% 3.8% 1.1% 0.5% 2.2% 1.5% 47.1% 5.6% 8–10 June 16.9% 20.9% 2.4% 1.7% 0.3% 2.7% 1.3% 47.3% 6.6% 6–8 July 15.2% 19.8% 2.9% 1.7% 0.3% 1.1% 0.7% 52.0% 6.3% 10–12 August 14.3% 23.9% 3.0% 2.4% 0.1% 2.1% 0.9% 45.9% 6.6% 7–9 September 16.7% 20.1% 4.5% 1.9% 0.6% 1.3% 2.3% 45.2% 6.9% 6–8 October 13.8% 26.2% 2.8% 1.6% 0.4% 1.2% 3.4% 45.2% 5.4% 9–11 November 12.7% 25.0% 3.0% 2.0% 0.5% 1.2% 3.0% 45.8% 7.4% 7–9 December 16.1% 26.6% 4.1% 2.7% 0.7% 2.1% 6.9% 33.5% 7.4%
Graph of the current Cabinet Approval/Disapproval Ratings

Party polling for the 180 proportional seats

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Undecided or declined
			DPJ	LDP	JRP	PLF ↓ TPJ	NKP	JCP	YP	SDP
Asahi Shimbun	15–16 November 2012	44%	16%	23%	6%	1%	3%	2%	2%	1%
Yomiuri Shimbun	16–17 November 2012	43%	13%	22%	13%	—	—	—	—	—
Asahi Shimbun	17–18 November 2012	46%	15%	23%	16%	—	4%	—	—	—
Kyodo News	17–18 November 2012	43%	10.8%	23%	—	—	—	—	—	—
Yomiuri Shimbun	23–25 November 2012	—	10%	25%	14%	2%	6%	—	2%	—
Kyodo News	24–25 November 2012	45%	8.4%	18.7%	10.3%	2%	4%	—	3%	—
Asahi Shimbun	24–25 November 2012	41%	13%	23%	9%	2%	4%	—	3%	—
Nikkei Business Daily	28 November 2012	—	13%	23%	15%	5%	4%	—	—	—
Kyodo News	1–2 December 2012	—	9.3%	18.4%	10.4%	3.5%	4.8%	—	—	—
Asahi Shimbun	1–2 December 2012	41%	15%	20%	9%	3%	4%	3%	3%	1%
Yomiuri Shimbun	30 Nov.-2 Dec 2012	—	13%	19%	13%	5%	—	—	5%	—
NHK	7–9 December 2012	—	10%	21%	11%	—	—	—	—	—
Yomiuri Shimbun	7–9 December 2012	—	12%	29%	11%	3%	—	—	—	—
Asahi Shimbun	8–9 December 2012	43%	14%	22%	8%	2%	5%	4%	2%	—
Kyodo News	12–13 December 2012	40%	11%	23%	10%	—	—	—	—	—

PM polling

Poll source	Date(s) administered
		Noda DPJ	Abe LDP	Ishihara JRP
Kyodo News	3–4 November 2012	29.3%	40%	—
Asahi Shimbun	15–16 November 2012	31%	33%	—
Yomiuri Shimbun	16–17 November 2012	31%	37%	—
Kyodo News	17–18 November 2012	32.1%	35%	—
Yomiuri Shimbun	23–25 November 2012	19%	29%	22%
Kyodo News	24–25 November 2012	30%	33.9%	—
Yomiuri Shimbun	30 Nov.-2 Dec 2012	21%	28%	—
NHK	7–9 December 2012	19%	28%	—
Kyodo News	8–9 December 2012	31%	39%	—
Kyodo News	12–13 December 2012	29%	34%	—

Pre-election composition

As of official announcement (kōji [=deadline for candidate registration, legal campaign start, start of early voting on following day]) on 4 December ^[17] – note that the government had lost its majority, already slim at the time of dissolution of the House of Representatives (16 November), due to further defections during the positioning of candidates for the election.

↓
139	107	1	233
LDP & NKP	Other opposition	V	Incumbent government (DPJ & PNP)

Results

Main article: Results of the 2012 Japanese general election

Constituency Cartogram

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party	16,624,457	27.62	57	25,643,309	43.01	237	294	+175
	Japan Restoration Party	12,262,228	20.38	40	6,942,354	11.64	14	54	New
	Democratic Party of Japan	9,628,653	16.00	30	13,598,774	22.81	27	57	–251
	New Komeito Party	7,116,474	11.83	22	885,881	1.49	9	31	+10
	Your Party	5,245,586	8.72	14	2,807,245	4.71	4	18	+13
	Japanese Communist Party	3,689,159	6.13	8	4,700,290	7.88	0	8	–1
	Tomorrow Party of Japan	3,423,915	5.69	7	2,992,366	5.02	2	9	New
	Social Democratic Party	1,420,790	2.36	1	451,762	0.76	1	2	–5
	New Party Daichi	346,848	0.58	1	315,604	0.53	0	1	0
	Happiness Realization Party	216,150	0.36	0	65,983	0.11	0	0	0
	New Renaissance Party	134,781	0.22	0				0	0
	People's New Party	70,847	0.12	0	117,185	0.20	1	1	–2
	New Party Nippon				62,697	0.11	0	0	–1
	21st Century Japan Restoration Party				17,711	0.03	0	0	New
	Natural Party				7,831	0.01	0	0	New
	Ainu Party				7,495	0.01	0	0	New
	Euthanasia Party				2,603	0.00	0	0	New
	World Economic Community Party				1,011	0.00	0	0	0
	Independents				1,006,468	1.69	5	5	–1
Total		60,179,888	100.00	180	59,626,569	100.00	300	480	0
Valid votes		60,179,888	97.60		59,626,568	96.69
Invalid/blank votes		1,480,081	2.40		2,040,970	3.31
Total votes		61,659,969	100.00		61,667,538	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		103,959,866	59.31		103,959,866	59.32
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, CLEA

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	DPJ	JRP	NKP	YP	TPJ	SDP	PNP	Ind.
Aichi	15	13	2
Akita	3	3
Aomori	4	4
Chiba	13	11	2
Ehime	4	4
Fukui	3	3
Fukuoka	11	10								1
Fukushima	5	4	1
Gifu	5	5
Gunma	5	5
Hiroshima	7	6					1
Hokkaido	12	11			1
Hyōgo	12	8	2		2
Ibaraki	7	5	1							1
Ishikawa	3	3
Iwate	4	1	2				1
Kagawa	3	2	1
Kagoshima	5	4							1
Kanagawa	18	14	1		1	2
Kōchi	3	3
Kumamoto	5	4		1
Kyoto	6	4	2
Mie	5	3	2
Miyagi	6	5	1
Miyazaki	3	3
Nagano	5	3	2
Nagasaki	4	4
Nara	4	3	1
Niigata	6	6
Ōita	3	3
Okayama	5	4		1
Okinawa	4	3						1
Osaka	19	3		12	4
Saga	3	3
Saitama	15	13	1							1
Shiga	4	4
Shimane	2	2
Shizuoka	8	6	2
Tochigi	5	4				1
Tokushima	3	3
Tokyo	25	21	2		1	1
Tottori	2	2
Toyama	3	3
Wakayama	3	2	1
Yamagata	3	2								1
Yamaguchi	4	4
Yamanashi	3	1	1							1
Total	300	237	27	14	9	4	2	1	1	5

By PR block

PR block	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	JRP	DPJ	NKP	YP	JCP	TPJ	SDP	NPD
Chūgoku	11	5	2	2	2
Hokkaido	8	3	1	2	1					1
Hokuriku–Shinetsu	11	4	3	2	1	1
Kinki	29	7	10	3	4	2	2	1
Kyushu	21	7	4	3	3	1	1	1	1
Northern Kanto	20	6	4	3	3	2	1	1
Shikoku	6	2	2	1	1
Southern Kanto	22	6	5	4	2	3	1	1
Tohoku	14	5	2	3	1	1	1	1
Tokai	21	7	4	4	2	2	1	1
Tokyo	17	5	3	3	2	2	1	1
Total	180	57	40	30	22	14	8	7	1	1

Representatives

Members of House of Representatives elected from single-seat constituency

 LDP  DPJ  Komei  JCP  SDP  PNP  Independent 

Hokkaido	1st	Toshimitsu Funahashi	2nd	Takamori Yoshikawa	3rd	Hirohisa Takagi	4th	Hiroyuki Nakamura	5th	Nobutaka Machimura
	6th	Hiroshi Imazu	7th	Yoshitaka Itō	8th	Kazuo Maeda	9th	Manabu Horii	10th	Hisashi Inatsu
	11th	Yūko Nakagawa	12th	Arata Takebe
Aomori	1st	Jun Tsushima	2nd	Akinori Eto	3rd	Tadamori Ōshima	4th	Tarō Kimura
Iwate	1st	Takeshi Shina	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	Hiroyuki Togashi	2nd	Katsutoshi Kaneda	3rd	Nobuhide Minorikawa
Yamagata	1st	Toshiaki Endo	2nd	Kazunori Suzuki	3rd	Juichi Abe
Fukushima	1st	Yoshitami Kameoka	2nd	Takumi Nemoto	3rd	Kōichirō Genba	4th	Ichirō Kanke	5th	Goji Sakamoto
Ibaraki	1st	Yoshinori Tadokoro	2nd	Fukushiro Nukaga	3rd	Yasuhiro Hanashi	4th	Hiroshi Kajiyama	5th	Akihiro Ohata
	6th	Yuya Niwa	7th	Kishirō Nakamura
Tochigi	1st	Hajime Funada	2nd	Koya Nishikawa	3rd	Yoshimi Watanabe	4th	Tsutomu Sato	5th	Toshimitsu Motegi
Gunma	1st	Genichiro Sata	2nd	Toshiro Ino	3rd	Hiroyoshi Sasagawa	4th	Tatsuo Fukuda	5th	Yūko Obuchi
Saitama	1st	Hideki Murai	2nd	Yoshitaka Shindō	3rd	Hitoshi Kitagawa	4th	Mayuko Toyota	5th	Yukio Edano
	6th	Kazuyuki Nakane	7th	Saichi Kamiyama	8th	Masahiko Shibayama	9th	Taku Otsuka	10th	Taimei Yamaguchi
	11th	Ryuji Koizumi	12th	Atsushi Nonaka	13th	Shinako Tsuchiya	14th	Hiromi Mitsubayashi	15th	Ryosei Tanaka
Chiba	1st	Kaname Tajima	2nd	Takayuki Kobayashi	3rd	Hirokazu Matsuno	4th	Yoshihiko Noda	5th	Kentaro Sonoura
	6th	Hiromichi Watanabe	7th	Ken Saitō	8th	Yoshitaka Sakurada	9th	Masatoshi Akimoto	10th	Motoo Hayashi
	11th	Eisuke Mori	12th	Yasukazu Hamada	13th	Takaki Shirasuka
Kanagawa	1st	Jun Matsumoto	2nd	Yoshihide Suga	3rd	Hachiro Okonogi	4th	Keiichiro Asao	5th	Manabu Sakai
	6th	Isamu Ueda	7th	Keisuke Suzuki	8th	Kenji Eda	9th	Hirofumi Ryu	10th	Kazunori Tanaka
	11th	Shinjirō Koizumi	12th	Tsuyoshi Hoshino	13th	Akira Amari	14th	Jiro Akama	15th	Taro Kono
	16th	Hiroyuki Yoshiie	17th	Karen Makishima	18th	Daishiro Yamagiwa
Yamanashi	1st	Noriko Miyagawa	2nd	Kotaro Nagasaki	3rd	Hitoshi Goto
Tokyo	1st	Miki Yamada	2nd	Kiyoto Tsuji	3rd	Hirotaka Ishihara	4th	Masaaki Taira	5th	Kenji Wakamiya
	6th	Takao Ochi	7th	Akira Nagatsuma	8th	Nobuteru Ishihara	9th	Isshu Sugawara	10th	Yuriko Koike
	11th	Hakubun Shimomura	12th	Akihiro Ōta	13th	Ichiro Kamoshita	14th	Midori Matsushima	15th	Mito Kakizawa
	16th	Hideo Ōnishi	17th	Katsuei Hirasawa	18th	Masatada Tsuchiya	19th	Yohei Matsumoto	20th	Seiji Kihara
	21st	Akihisa Nagashima	22nd	Tatsuya Ito	23rd	Masanobu Ogura	24th	Kōichi Hagiuda	25th	Shinji Inoue
Niigata	1st	Tōru Ishizaki	2nd	Kenichi Hosoda	3rd	Hiroaki Saitō	4th	Megumi Kaneko	5th	Tadayoshi Nagashima
	6th	Shuichi Takatori
Toyama	1st	Hiroaki Tabata	2nd	Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi	3rd	Keiichiro Tachibana
Ishikawa	1st	Hiroshi Hase	2nd	Hazime Sasaki	3rd	Shigeo Kitamura
Fukui	1st	Tomomi Inada	2nd	Taku Yamamoto	3rd	Tsuyoshi Takagi
Nagano	1st	Takashi Shinohara	2nd	Shunsuke Mutai	3rd	Yoshiyuki Terashima	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	Tatsunori Ibayashi	3rd	Hiroyuki Miyazawa	4th	Yoshio Mochizuki	5th	Goshi Hosono
	6th	Shu Watanabe	7th	Minoru Kiuchi	8th	Ryu Shionoya
Aichi	1st	Hiromichi Kumada	2nd	Motohisa Furukawa	3rd	Yoshitaka Ikeda	4th	Shōzō Kudo	5th	Kenji Kanda
	6th	Hideki Niwa	7th	Junji Suzuki	8th	Tadahiko Ito	9th	Yasumasa Nagasaka	10th	Tetsuma Esaki
	11th	Shinichiro Furumoto	12th	Shuhei Aoyama	13th	Sei Ōomi	14th	Sōichirō Imaeda	15th	Yukinori Nemoto
Mie	1st	Jiro Kawasaki	2nd	Masaharu Nakagawa	3rd	Katsuya Okada	4th	Norihisa Tamura	5th	Norio Mitsuya
Shiga	1st	Fujitaka Ōoka	2nd	Kenichiro Ueno	3rd	Nobuhide Takemura	4th	Takaya Mutō
Kyoto	1st	Bunmei Ibuki	2nd	Seiji Maehara	3rd	Kensuke Miyazaki	4th	Hideyuki Tanaka	5th	Sadakazu Tanigaki
	6th	Kazunori Yamanoi
Osaka	1st	Hidetaka Inoue	2nd	Akira Satō	3rd	Shigeki Sato	4th	Masatoshi Mulakami	5th	Tōru Kunishige
	6th	Shinichi Isa	7th	Naomi Tokashiki	8th	Tomohiko Kinoshita	9th	Yasushi Adachi	10th	Kenta Matsunami
	11th	Nobuhisa Itō	12th	Tomokatsu Kitagawa	13th	Koichi Nishino	14th	Takashi Tanihata	15th	Yasuto Urano
	16th	Kazuo Kitagawa	17th	Nobuyuki Baba	18th	Takashi Endo	19th	Hodaka Maruyama
Hyōgo	1st	Masahito Moriyama	2nd	Kazuyoshi Akaba	3rd	Yoshihiro Seki	4th	Hisayuki Fujii	5th	Koichi Tani
	6th	Masaki Ōgushi	7th	Kenji Yamada	8th	Hiromasa Nakano	9th	Yasutoshi Nishimura	10th	Kisaburo Tokai
	11th	Takeaki Matsumoto	12th	Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi
Nara	1st	Sumio Mabuchi	2nd	Sanae Takaichi	3rd	Shinsuke Okuno	4th	Taido Tanose
Wakayama	1st	Shuhei Kishimoto	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	Takashi Yamashita	3rd	Takeo Hiranuma	4th	Gaku Hashimoto	5th	Katsunobu Kato
Hiroshima	1st	Fumio Kishida	2nd	Hiroshi Hiraguchi	3rd	Katsuyuki Kawai	4th	Hidenao Nakagawa	5th	Minoru Terada
	6th	Shizuka Kamei	7th	Fumiaki Kobayashi
Yamaguchi	1st	Masahiko Kōmura	2nd	Nobuo Kishi	3rd	Takeo Kawamura	4th	Shinzo Abe
Tokushima	1st	Mamoru Fukuyama	2nd	Shunichi Yamaguchi	3rd	Masazumi Gotoda
Kagawa	1st	Takuya Hirai	2nd	Yuichiro Tamaki	3rd	Keitaro Ohno
Ehime	1st	Yasuhisa Shiozaki	2nd	Seiichiro Murakami	3rd	Toru Shiraishi	4th	Koichi Yamamoto
Kōchi	1st	Teru Fukui	2nd	Gen Nakatani	3rd	Yūji Yamamoto
Fukuoka	1st	Takahiro Inoue	2nd	Makoto Oniki	3rd	Atsushi Koga	4th	Hideki Miyauchi	5th	Yoshiaki Harada
	6th	Kunio Hatoyama	7th	Satoshi Fujimaru	8th	Tarō Asō	9th	Asahiko Mihara	10th	Kōzō Yamamoto
	11th	Ryota Takeda
Saga	1st	Kazuchika Iwata	2nd	Masahiro Imamura	3rd	Kosuke Hori
Nagasaki	1st	Tsutomu Tomioka	2nd	Kanji Kato	3rd	Yaichi Tanigawa	4th	Seigo Kitamura
Kumamoto	1st	Minoru Kihara	2nd	Takeshi Noda	3rd	Tetsushi Sakamoto	4th	Hiroyuki Sonoda	5th	Yasushi Kaneko
Ōita	1st	Yoichi Anami	2nd	Seishiro Eto	3rd	Takeshi Iwaya
Miyazaki	1st	Shunsuke Takei	2nd	Taku Etō	3rd	Yoshihisa Furukawa
Kagoshima	1st	Okiharu Yasuoka	2nd	Takeshi Tokuda	3rd	Takeshi Noma	4th	Yasuhiro Ozato	5th	Hiroshi Moriyama
Okinawa	1st	Kōnosuke Kokuba	2nd	Kantoku Teruya	3rd	Natsumi Higa	4th	Kosaburo Nishime

Aftermath

Shinzo Abe is elected Prime Minister by the Diet, 26 December 2012.

As the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won 294 seats and their allies, the New Komeito Party, 31 seats, a coalition of the two parties would be able to form a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, enabling them to overrule the House of Councillors. ^{[18] [19]} The significant swing back towards conservative politics was attributed to economic anxieties, including fear of falling behind China. ^[18] Despite this landslide victory, Shinzo Abe acknowledged that his party won mainly because of voter antipathy towards the Democratic Party and not due to a resurgence in popularity for the LDP. ^{[20] [21]}

The election was an unmitigated disaster for the Democratic Party, which lost three-quarters ^[22] of its 230 seats in the lower house to finish with just 57. In addition, seven members of the Cabinet lost their seats, the most ever in an election. Naoto Kan, who preceded Noda as prime minister, lost his constituency as well. ^[23] Overall, this marked the worst performance by a ruling party in the post–World War II era. As a result, Yoshihiko Noda resigned from his post as party president. ^[22]

The Tomorrow Party of Japan, which formed shortly before the election, consisted mostly of incumbents defecting from the Democratic Party. Most of these incumbents were unseated, causing the party to lose 86% of its strength only weeks after forming. Both the Japan Restoration Party and Your Party emerged as viable players in the Diet, while the traditional left parties Social Democratic Party and Japanese Communist Party continued to decline in strength and relevance.

The voter turnout of 59.3% was the lowest since World War II. ^[22]

Reactions and analysis

The Liberal Democratic Party had campaigned on a tough stance on the Senkaku Islands dispute, leading to speculation as to how the new government would deal with the issue. ^[19] Abe made his party's position clear immediately following the election, stating that "[their] objective is to stop the challenge" from China with regards to ownership of the islands. ^[24] The re-election of the liberal conservative LDP raised concern in foreign media that Japan's relations with its neighbours – China and South Korea – would become strained, given the past visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by LDP prime ministers, the party's perceived de-emphasis of Japan's war crimes committed during World War II and their intention to amend the country's pacifist constitution to give more power to the Self-Defense Forces. ^{[25] [26] [27]} Abe was also in favor of retaining nuclear energy in the country. ^[18]

In response to the election, the Nikkei 225 Index increased by 1%, while the yen fell to ¥84.48 against the US dollar, the lowest rate in 20 months. ^[28] Furthermore, the yield on 20-year Japanese government bonds (JCBs) rose to 1.710% a day after the election. This marked its highest level in nearly eight months. ^[29]

United States President Barack Obama spoke to Abe via telephone to congratulate him on the results of the general election, and discussed ongoing efforts to enhance bilateral security cooperation as well as deepening economic ties. ^[30]

Voiding of election

On 25 March 2013, the Hiroshima High Court ruled the election unconstitutional and the results void due to "the disparity in the value of one vote", which was up to 2.43 time the maximum constitutionally allowed disparity in some districts. ^{[31] [32]} The decision is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court, ^[33] and, if upheld, new elections must be held. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that the electoral system was unconstitutional without invalidating election results. ^[33] Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said that government would give electoral reform new thought and examine the situation carefully in order to respond in the appropriate manner. ^[32]

See also

• List of districts of the House of Representatives of Japan

References

1. "Okada eyes Jan. dissolution of lower house". Yomiuri Shimbun. Jiji Press. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
2. Harlan, Chico (18 August 2012). "In Japan, new taxes levy political toll on Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
3. "Statistics Bureau Home Page/Chapter 4 Finance". Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
4. "Japan's Debt Challenge".
5. Schuman, Michael (6 April 2011). "A hard look at Japan's debt problem". Time. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
6. "Japan's national debt hits record 960 trillion yen - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun". Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
7. "Japan's Debt Sustains a Deflationary Depression". Bloomberg.
8. "UPDATE: Kaieda elected president of shattered DPJ - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun". Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
9. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
10. "Japan's 'third pole". Japantimes.co.jp. 16 November 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
11. "New political party to be named 'Tachiagare Nippon' (Stand up Japan)" Archived 5 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
12. Japan Today/Associated Press, "Ishihara, Hashimoto announce 'third force' in Japanese politics", Japan Today, 18 November 2012
13. Johnston, Eric, "Nippon Ishin no Kai: Local but with national outlook Archived 26 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine ", Japan Times , 3 October 2012, p. 3
14. "New Kawamura-led party joins election fray". Yomiuri Shimbun. 24 November 2012. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
15. "Shiga's Kada readies party; Ozawa joins". Japantimes.co.jp. 28 November 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
16. "2 Parties Merge With Japan Future". Ajw.asahi.com. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
17. Yomiuri Shimbun: House of Representatives election 2012
18. Nagano, Yuriko; Demick, Barbara (16 December 2012). "Japan conservatives win landslide election victory". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
19. "Japan election: LDP's Shinzo Abe vows tough China line". BBC. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2012.
20. Fackler, Martin (16 December 2012). "Japan Election Returns Power to Old Guard". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
21. Yoshida, Reiji (17 December 2012). "LDP aware voters just punished DPJ". The Japan Times. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
22. Brinsley, John; Reynolds, Isabel (17 December 2012). "Two-Party Japan Democracy Undone in 39 Months as DPJ Falls". Bloomberg. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
23. "LDP flattens DPJ in bruising return to power". The Japan Times. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
24. Ryall, Julian; Irvine, Chris (16 December 2012). "Japan election winner fires early warning to China". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
25. "'The Senkaku islands are our territory': Japanese nationalists return to power in a landslide victory". National Post. Associated Press. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
26. Dickie, Mure (16 December 2012). "Rightwing revival raises regional dilemmas". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 December 2012.(subscription required)
27. Nakamoto, Michiyo; Dickie, Mure; Soble, Jonathan (16 December 2012). "LDP crushes rivals in Japanese poll". Financial Times. Retrieved 18 December 2012.(subscription required)
28. "Japan elections: Shares rise and yen weakens on Abe win". BBC News. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
29. "JGB 20-year yield hits 8-month high after Japan election". Reuters. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
30. "Readout of the President's Call with Liberal Democratic Party President Shinzo Abe of Japan". whitehouse.gov . 17 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012– via National Archives.
31. Yomiuri: Court rules lower house poll invalid / Vote disparity in Hiroshima 'too wide' (english)
32. "Hiroshima court rules Dec. election invalid over vote disparity". The Mainichi . Archived from the original on 13 April 2013. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
33. Sekiguchi, Toko (25 March 2013). "Hiroshima Court Rules Election Invalid". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 March 2018.

External links

• Election results (NHK World)
• Detailed results (Yomiuri Shimbun) (Japanese)