General elections were held in Japan on November 9, 2003. Incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of the Liberal Democrat Party won the election but with a reduced majority. The main opposition Democratic Party made considerable gains, winning 177 of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives, its largest share ever. Other traditional parties like the Communist Party and the Social Democrat Party lost a significant numbers of seats, making a two-party system a possibility in later Japanese politics.
The Democratic Party of Japan was a centrist to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016.
Naoto Kan is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for more than one year, with his predecessors Yukio Hatoyama, Tarō Asō, Yasuo Fukuda, and Shinzō Abe either resigning prematurely or losing an election. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation. Yoshihiko Noda was elected as his successor. On 1 August 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Kan would be one of the members of the UN high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda.
The Social Democratic Party is a political party in Japan that was established in 1996. Since its reformation and name change in 1996, it has advocated pacifism and defined itself as a social-democratic party. It was previously known as the Japan Socialist Party.
Ichirō Ozawa is a Japanese politician and has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1969, representing the Iwate 3rd district. He is often dubbed the "Shadow Shōgun" due to his back-room influence.
Katsuya Okada is a Japanese politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of Japan from January to December 2012. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan, he was the President of the Democratic Party, and previously of the Democratic Party of Japan. He also served as Secretary-General of the DPJ three times. During the DPJ's period in government he was Foreign Minister of Japan.
The Liberal Party was a political party in Japan formed in 1998 by Ichirō Ozawa and Hirohisa Fujii. It is now defunct, having joined the Democratic Party of Japan in 2003.
Japanese liberalism(自由主義 or リベラリズム) formed in the nineteenth century as a reaction against traditional society. In the twentieth century 'liberal' (自由) gradually became a synonym for conservative, and today the main conservative party in the country is named Liberal Democratic Party. The defunct Democratic Party (Minshuto) was considered in part a centrist-liberal party, as are most parties which derived from it. The liberal character of the Liberal League is disputed, as it is also considered to be conservative by some. This article is limited to liberal (リベラル) parties with substantial support, proved by having had representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ means a reference to another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it isn't necessary that parties labelled themselves "liberal".
General elections were held in Japan on 11 September 2005 for all 480 seats of the House of Representatives of Japan, the lower house of the Diet of Japan, almost two years before the end of the term taken from the last election in 2003. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the election after bills to privatize Japan Post were voted down in the upper house, despite strong opposition within his own Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) (LDP).
This article presents detail of the results in the 2003 Japan general election, breaking down results by block district. The 11 block districts elected 180 members by proportional representation, and 300 members were elected from single-member districts distributed among the 47 prefectures.
This article presents detail of the results in the 2005 Japan general election, breaking down results by block district. The 11 block districts elected 180 members by proportional representation, and 300 members were elected from single-member districts distributed among the 47 prefectures.
Yukio Hatoyama is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010. He was the first Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan.
Yukio Edano is a Japanese politician who served as the leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan from its formation in 2017 until 2021. A member of the House of Representatives in the Diet since 1993, he served as Chief Cabinet Secretary and Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government from 2010 to 2012.
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 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.
A leadership election was held in the Democratic Party of Japan on 16 May 2009 after the incumbent party leader Ichirō Ozawa announced that he would resign in early May 2009. Ozawa had been expected to lead the DPJ into a possible election victory over the long-time incumbent Liberal Democratic Party later in 2009, but a corruption scandal had forced him to resign in order to save the party's chances.
The Shikoku proportional representation block is one of eleven proportional representation (PR) "blocks", multi-member constituencies for the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. It consists of Shikoku region covering Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime and Kōchi Prefectures. Following the introduction of proportional voting it elected seven representatives in the 1996 general election. When the total number of PR seats was reduced from 200 to 180, the Shikoku PR block shrunk to six seats.
The Southern Kantō proportional representation block is one of eleven proportional representation (PR) "blocks", multi-member constituencies for the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. It consists of Southern parts of the Kantō region covering Chiba, Kanagawa and Yamanashi prefectures. Following the introduction of proportional voting it initially elected 23 representatives in the 1996 general election, then 21 after the total number of PR seats had been reduced from 200 to 180, and 22 representatives since the reapportionment of 2002.
Banri Kaieda is a Japanese politician who has served as the Vice Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan since 2021. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan, he also served as the President of the Democratic Party of Japan between 2012 and 2014.
The Japan Innovation Party was a political party in Japan. It was launched on 22 September 2014, following the merger of the Japan Restoration Party headed by Tōru Hashimoto, and the Unity Party, led by Kenji Eda. On 27 March 2016 the party merged with the Democratic Party of Japan and Vision of Reform to form the Democratic Party (Minshintō).
The Democratic Party, abbreviated as DP, was a political party in Japan. It was the largest opposition political party in Japan from 2016 until its marginalization in the House of Representatives in 2017. The party was founded on 27 March 2016 from the merger of the Democratic Party of Japan and the Japan Innovation Party. The majority of the party split on 28 September 2017, before the 2017 general election, with many its members contesting the election as candidates for the Party of Hope, Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan or as party members without nomination. On 7 May 2018 the DP merged with the Party of Hope to form the Democratic Party for the People.
