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2012 Japanese general election

← 2009 16 December 2012 2014 →
← outgoing memberselected members →

All 480 seats in the House of Representatives
241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout59.32% (Decrease9.87pp; Const. votes)
59.31% (Decrease9.88pp; PR votes)
  First party Second party Third party
  Shinzō Abe 20120501 (with badge, cropped).jpg Yoshihiko Noda 20110902 (retouched).jpg Shintarō Ishihara 2003.jpg
Leader Shinzō Abe Yoshihiko Noda Shintaro Ishihara
Party LDP Democratic Restoration
Last election 119 seats 308 seats Did not exist
Seats won 294 57 54
Seat change Increase175 Decrease251 New
Constituency vote 25,643,309 13,598,774 6,942,354
% and swing 43.01% (Increase4.33pp) 22.81% (Decrease24.62pp) 11.64% (New)
Regional vote 16,624,457 9,268,653 12,262,228
% and swing 27.79% (Increase1.06pp) 15.49% (Decrease26.92pp) 20.50% (New)

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Natsuo Yamaguchi 2014.jpg Yoshimi Watanabe cropped 2 YoshimiWatanabeJI1.jpg Kada Yukiko 1-1 (cropped).jpg
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 Increase10 Increase13 New
Constituency vote 885,881 2,807,245 2,992,366
% and swing 1.49% (Increase0.38pp) 4.71% (Increase3.84pp) 5.02% (New)
Regional vote 7,116,474 5,245,586 3,423,915
% and swing 11.90% (Increase0.45pp) 8.77% (Increase4.50pp) 5.72% (New)

  Seventh party
  Kazuo Shii cropped.jpg
Leader Kazuo Shii
Party JCP
Last election 9 seats
Seats won 8
Seat change Decrease1
Constituency vote 4,700,290
% and swing 7.88% (Increase3.66pp)
Regional vote 3,689,159
% and swing 6.17% (Decrease0.86pp)

Districts and PR districts shaded according to winners' vote strength

Prime Minister before election

Yoshihiko Noda
Democratic

Elected Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe
LDP

This article is part of a series on
Politics of Japan
Constitution and Laws
The Monarchy

Naruhito

Fumihito


Executive

Shigeru Ishiba (LDP)

Second Ishiba Cabinet
(LDPKomeito coalition)


Legislature


Fukushiro Nukaga

  • Vice Speaker

Kōichirō Genba


Masakazu Sekiguchi

  • Vice President

Hiroyuki Nagahama


Judiciary

Saburo Tokura


Bank of Japan
  • Governor

Kazuo Ueda


Elections


Japanese general elections


Japanese House of Councillors elections


Unified local elections
Administrative divisions
Foreign relations





flag Japan portal

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. 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. Some right-wing observers asserted that as the result of introducing the consumption tax to repay the Japanese public debt, the DPJ lost around 75% of its pre-election seats.

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. 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. 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. It is Japan's first national political party that is based outside of Tokyo.

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. 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. 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."

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 ) on 4 December – 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
PartyProportionalConstituencyTotal
seats
+/–
Votes%SeatsVotes%Seats
Liberal Democratic Party16,624,45727.625725,643,30943.01237294+175
Japan Restoration Party12,262,22820.38406,942,35411.641454New
Democratic Party of Japan9,628,65316.003013,598,77422.812757–251
New Komeito Party7,116,47411.8322885,8811.49931+10
Your Party5,245,5868.72142,807,2454.71418+13
Japanese Communist Party3,689,1596.1384,700,2907.8808–1
Tomorrow Party of Japan3,423,9155.6972,992,3665.0229New
Social Democratic Party1,420,7902.361451,7620.7612–5
New Party Daichi346,8480.581315,6040.53010
Happiness Realization Party216,1500.36065,9830.11000
New Renaissance Party134,7810.22000
People's New Party70,8470.120117,1850.2011–2
New Party Nippon62,6970.1100–1
21st Century Japan Restoration Party17,7110.0300New
Natural Party7,8310.0100New
Ainu Party7,4950.0100New
Euthanasia Party2,6030.0000New
World Economic Community Party1,0110.00000
Independents1,006,4681.6955–1
Total60,179,888100.0018059,626,569100.003004800
Valid votes60,179,88897.6059,626,56896.69
Invalid/blank votes1,480,0812.402,040,9703.31
Total votes61,659,969100.0061,667,538100.00
Registered voters/turnout103,959,86659.31103,959,86659.32
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   JRP   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. The significant swing back towards conservative politics was attributed to economic anxieties, including fear of falling behind China. 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.

The election was an unmitigated disaster for the Democratic Party, which lost three-quarters 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. 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.

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.

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. Abe made his party's position clear immediately following the election, stating that " objective is to stop the challenge" from China with regards to ownership of the islands. 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. Abe was also in favor of retaining nuclear energy in the country.

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. 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.

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.

Voiding of election

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (July 2023)

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. The decision is expected to be appealed to the Supreme Court, and, if upheld, new elections must be held. The Supreme Court had previously ruled that the electoral system was unconstitutional without invalidating election results. 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.

See also

References

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