List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan

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Map showing Japan's prefectures, which until 2015 coincided with the House of Councillors districts. In 2015, Tottori (31 on map) and Shimane (32) districts were combined as Tottori-Shimane, and Tokushima (36) and Kochi (39) districts were combined as Tokushima-Kochi. Japan prefectures1.svg
Map showing Japan's prefectures, which until 2015 coincided with the House of Councillors districts. In 2015, Tottori (31 on map) and Shimane (32) districts were combined as Tottori-Shimane, and Tokushima (36) and Kochi (39) districts were combined as Tokushima-Kochi.

The House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese National Diet is made up of 248 members elected from 45 districts plus a national proportional representation list. Until 2015, there were 47 districts which coincided with the 47 prefectures of Japan.

Contents

In order to address the imbalance in voter representation between rural and urban voters, the Public Officers Election Law was amended in 2012 and again in 2015. The 2015 amendment merged the two smallest districts, the Tottori and Shimane districts, to create a combined Tottori-Shimane at-large district, and merged the third- and fourth-smallest districts, the Kochi and Tokushima districts, to create a combined Tokushima-Kōchi at-large district. Other changes to the number of Councilors have also been made to address the imbalance. [1]

List of districts

DistrictRegistered
voters [2]
Magnitude
Aichi 5,927,6688
Akita 888,4962
Aomori 1,122,9482
Chiba 5,092,7416
Ehime 1,169,4272
Fukui 644,4472
Fukuoka 4,135,9776
Fukushima 1,607,9082
Gifu 1,666,6102
Gunma 1,616,4002
Hiroshima 2,313,1314
Hokkaido 4,537,4486
Hyogo 4,536,9126
Ibaraki 2,411,3074
Ishikawa 939,5312
Iwate 1,074,0182
Kagawa 818,4702
Kagoshima 1,371,0732
Kanagawa 7,421,4318
Kumamoto 1,473,6592
Kyoto 2,088,3834
Mie 1,489,3962
Miyagi 1,907,5182
Miyazaki 918,5332
Nagano 1,737,2142
Nagasaki 1,148,5702
Nara 1,140,1292
Niigata 1,925,5652
Ōita 972,3802
Okayama 1,566,4282
Okinawa 1,115,3922
Osaka 7,140,5788
Saga 679,2892
Saitama 5,933,7888
Shiga 1,121,0662
Shizuoka 3,052,5794
Tochigi 1,621,9302
Tokushima-Kochi 1,261,1002
Tokyo 10,947,52712
Tottori-Shimane 1,051,8802
Toyama 888,8322
Wakayama 825,3732
Yamagata 937,9202
Yamaguchi 1,173,8482
Yamanashi 692,0012
Total104,106,821148

    National PR block

    In addition to the smaller districts mentioned above, the House of Councillors also has a single block for the entire nation. It elects 50 members per election (100 in total) based on the D'Hondt method.

    See also

    References

    1. "Weighing Vote Disparity in Japan's Upper House". 30 July 2015. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
    2. As of 2 September 2015. "平成27年9月2日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Number of resident and non-resident enrolled voters as of 2 September 2015] (in Japanese). 2 September 2015. Retrieved 29 February 2016.