Japanese House of Councillors national proportional representation block explained

House of Councillors proportional district
Sangiin hirei-ku
Type:Parliamentary
Constituency Link:Japanese House of Councillors national proportional representation block
Parl Name:Japanese House of Councillors
Population:127,313,275 (est. 2018)
Electorate:105,019,203 (2022)[1]
Year:1983
Members Label:Councillors
Elects Howmany:100 (staggered 2×50)
Party Label:Party
Previous:House of Councillors national district

The Japanese National Proportional Representation Block, known in Japan as the is an electoral district for the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. It consists of the whole nation and elects 50 members per election, 100 in total (fully effective after the 2022 regular election), by D'Hondt method proportional representation (PR).

History

Proportional voting was introduced to Japan in the 1983 House of Councillors election. The proportional district replaced the previous which elected 100 members of the House of Councillors (50 per election) by single non-transferable vote, i.e. votes were for individuals not parties as in the prefectural districts. Initially, the proportional representation block also elected 50 members, but was reduced to 48 members in the 2001 election, bringing the total of proportional members down to 96 in 2004.

From 1983 to 1998, the vote in the proportional district of the House of Councillors had to be for a party, lists were closed. Since the 2001 election there is the option to cast a preference vote for a single candidate instead, the vote then counts for both the party in the allocation of proportional seats to party lists, as well as the candidate in the ordering of party lists. From 2001 to 2016, the system was a most open list system: The ranking of candidates on a party list strictly followed the number of preference votes. This ranking also applies to the runner-up replacements in case of vacancies.

In the 2019 election, the proportional district is enlarged to 50 members; and the proportional election system is modified to no longer be fully open: In a so-called tokutei-waku (特定枠, literally "special frame") parties may now choose to prioritize certain proportional candidates, such protected candidates can no longer be elected personally, but always come first in the allocation of proportional seats.[2] [3]

Unlike elections to the House of Representatives, where a proportional segment was introduced in 1996, a simultaneous dual candidacy in both the majoritarian and the proportional election is not allowed in the House of Councillors.

Summary of results for major parties

Ruling parties at the time of the election are bolded.

Proportional results in regular House of Councillors elections[4] [5]
Regular electionLDPJSP (–1996)/
SDP (1996–)
JCP["Old"] Kōmeitō (–1994)/
Kōmei (1994–1998)/
["New"] Kōmeitō (1998–)
DSP (–1994)/
NFP (1994–97)/
LP (1998–2003)/
PLP (2012–16)/
LP (2016–2019)/
["Old"] DPFP (2018–2020)/
["New"] DPFP (2020–)
["Old"] DPJ (1996–98)/
["New"] DPJ (1998–2016)/
DP (2016–2018)/
["Old"] CDP (2017–2020)/
["New"] CDP (2020–)
Ishin (2012–2014; Engrish "JRP")/
Ishin (2014–2015; "JIP")/
OIshin (2015–2016; "ORP" etc.)/
Ishin (2016–; "JIP" etc.)
Notable others
(short-term major parties, minor ruling parties, ...)
Class of
1983/89/...
Class of
1986/92/...
Vote Seats Vote Seats Vote Seats Vote SeatsVote Seats Vote Seats Vote SeatsParty Vote Seats Party Vote Seats
35.3% 19 16.3% 9 8.9% 7 15.7% 88.4% 4 4.3% 2
14th (1986)38.6% 22 17.2% 9 9.5% 4 13.0% 76.9% 3NLC 2.4% 1
27.3% 15 35.1% 20 7.0% 4 10.9% 64.9% 2SNTV/FPTP only
16th (1992)33.0% 19 17.6% 10 7.8% 4 14.8% 85.0% 38.0% 4 SNTV/FPTP only
27.3% 15 16.9% 9 9.5% 5 30.8% 18NPH 3.6% 2
18th (1998)25.2% 14 7.8% 4 14.6% 8 13.8% 79.3% 5 21.7% 12
38.6% 20 6.6% 3 7.9% 4 15.0% 87.7% 4 16.4% 8CP 2.3% 1
20th (2004)30.6% 15 5.5% 3 8.0% 4 15.7% 838.6% 19
28.1% 14 4.5% 2 7.5% 3 13.2% 739.5% 203.0% 1 2.2% 1
22nd (2010)24.1% 12 3.9% 2 6.1% 3 13.1% 631.6% 1613.6% 7 PNP 1.7% 0
34.7% 18 2.4% 1 9.7% 5 14.2% 71.8% 0 13.4% 7 11.9% 68.9% 4
24th (2016)35.9% 19 2.7% 1 10.7% 5 13.5% 71.9% 1 21.0% 11 9.2% 4
25th (2019)[6] 35.4% 19 2.1% 1 9.0 % 4 13.1% 77.0% 3 15.8% 8 9.8% 54.6% 2
26th (2022)[7] 34.4% 18 2.4% 1 6.8 % 3 11.7% 66.0% 3 12.8% 7 14.8% 84.4% 2

Recent results

The total (party+preference) proportional votes, vote shares and allocated seats for each party are in the top row. Below are all elected candidates with number of preference votes in bold, and runner-up plus losing incumbents if any. "..." indicates higher-ranking losing non-incumbents. For parties without any seat, the top two candidates are listed with their personal votes.

2019

National block results in the 2019 House of Councillors election
Liberal Democratic Party

17,712,373.119 (35.37%), 19 seats

Constitutional Democratic Party

7,917,720.945 (15.81%), 8 seats

Kōmeitō

6,536,336.451 votes (13.05%), 7 seats

Nippon Ishin no Kai

4,907,844.388 votes (9.80%), 5 seats

Japanese Communist Party

4,483,411.183 votes (8.95%), 4 seats

Democratic Party for the People

3,481,078.400 votes (6.95%), 3 seat

Reiwa Shinsengumi

2,280,252.750 votes (4.55%), 2 seats

Social Democratic Party

1,046,011.520 votes (2.09%), 1 seat

The Party to Protect the People from NHK

987,885.326 votes (1.97%), 1 seats

Euthanasia Party

269,052 votes (0.54%), 0 seats

Happiness Realization Party

202,278.772 votes (0.40%), 0 seats

Tōru Miki (protected)
Yasushi Miura (protected)
Yoshifumi Tsuge 600,189.903
Tarō Yamada 540,077.960
Masamune Wada 288,080
Masahisa Satō 237,432.095
Nobuaki Satō 232,548.956
Seiko Hashimoto 225,617
Toshio Yamada 217,619.597
Haruko Arimura 206,221
Shōji Miyamoto 202,122
Masahiro Ishida 189,893
Tsuneo Kitamura 178,210
Akiko Honda 159,596.151
Seiichi Etō 154,578
Takashi Hanyūda 152,807.948
Masao Miyazaki 137,502
Akiko Santō 133,645.785
Masaaki Akaike 131,727.208
Natsumi Higa 114,596
...
Yoshio Kimura 92,419.856
Makiko Kishi 157,849
Shun’ichi Mizuoka 148,309
Masahito Ozawa 144,751
Saori Yoshikawa 143,472
Takashi Moriya 104,339.413
Ryūhei Kawada 94,702
Taiga Ishikawa 73,799
Genki Sudo 73,787
Sayaka Ichii 50,415.298
...
Yukihisa Fujita 28,919.215
Kanae Yamamoto 594,288.947
Hiroshi Yamamoto 471,759.555
Kaneshige Wakamatsu 342,356
Yoshihiro Kawano 328,659
Hideki Niizuma 281,832
Daisaku Hiraki 183,869
Hiroaki Shiota 15,178
Jirō Takahashi 7,577
Muneo Suzuki 220,742.675
Kunihiko Muroi 87,188
Satoshi Umemura 58,269.522
Takumi Shibata 53,938
Hirofumi Yanagase 53,086
Takeshi Fujimaki 51,619.511
Kazuyuki Yamaguchi 42,231.776
Akira Koike 158,621
Yoshiki Yamashita 48,932.480
Satoshi Inoue 42,982.440
Tomoko Kami 34,696.013
...
Sōhei Nihi 33,360
Mami Tamura 260,324
Tetsuji Isozaki 258,507
Yoshifumi Hamano 256,928.785
Toshio Ishigami 192,586.679
...
Kusuo Ōshima 87,740
Yasuhiko Funago (protected)
Eiko Kimura (protected)
Toru Hasuike 20,557.200
Onishi Tsuneki 19,842
...
Tarō Yamamoto 991,756.597
Tadatomo Yoshida 149,287
Mio Nakamura 98,681.520
Yano Atsuko 21,391
Yuko Otsubaki 15,445
Takashi Tachibana 130,233.367
Satoshi Hamada 9,308.959
Shin Okamoto 4,269
Kumamaru Eiji 2,850
Hidemitsu Sano 63,611Ryōko Shaku 30,356
Yukihisa Oikawa 8,290.772

2016

National block results in the 2016 House of Councillors election[8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
Liberal Democratic Party

20,114,788 votes (35.9%), 19 seats

Democratic Party

11,751,015 votes (21.0%), 11 seats

Kōmeitō

7,572,960 votes (13.5%), 7 seats

Japanese Communist Party

6,016,195 votes (10.7%), 4 seats

Osaka Ishin no Kai

5,153,584 votes (13.0%), 4 seats

Social Democratic Party

1,536,239 votes (3.4%), 1 seat

People's Life Party

1,067,301 votes (4.7%), 1 seat

Party for Japanese Kokoro

734,024 votes (1.3%), 0 seats

No Party to Support

647,071 votes (1.1%), 0 seats

New Renaissance Party

580,653 votes (1.0%), 0 seats

Angry Voice of the Citizens

466,706 votes (0.8%), 0 seats

Happiness Realization Party

366,815 votes (0.6%), 0 seats

Masayuki Tokushige 521,060
Shigeharu Aoyama 481,890
Satsuki Katayama 393,382
Satoshi Nakanishi 392,433
Eriko Imai 319,359
Toshiyuki Adachi 293,735
Eriko Yamatani 249,844
Shin'ya Fujiki 236,119
Hanako Jimi 210,562
Kanehiko Shindō 182,467
Emiko Takagai 177,810
Hiroshi Yamada 149,833
Toshiyuki Fujii 142,132
Masashi Adachi 139,110
Takashi Uto 137,993
Katsumi Ogawa 130,101
Yoshifumi Miyajima 122,833
Toshiei Mizuochi 114,485
Shūkō Sonoda 101,154
Isao Takeuchi 87,578
...
Tsuneo Horiuchi 84,597
Masao Kobayashi 270,285
Makoto Hamaguchi 266,623
Wakako Yata 215,823
Yoshifu Arita 205,884
Nakanori Kawai 196,023
Shōji Nanba 191,823
Takashi Esaki 184,187
Masayoshi Nataniya 176,683
Michihiro Ishibashi 171,486
Kenzō Fujisue 143,188
Shinkun Haku 138,813
Kaoru Tashiro 113,571
...
Naoki Tanaka 86,596
Takumi Shibata 73,166
...
Takeshi Maeda 59,853
Jirō Ono 46,213
Masami Nishimura 38,899
Hiroaki Nagasawa 942,266
Kōzō Akino 612,068
Shin'ichi Yokoyama 606,889
Seishi Kumano 605,223
Masaaki Taniai 478,174
Masayoshi Hamada 388,477
Masaru Miyazaki 18,571
Shinji Takeuchi 7,489
Tadayoshi Ichida 77,348
Tomoko Tamura 49,113
Mikishi Daimon 33,078
Tomo Iwabuchi 31,099
Ryōsuke Takeda 23,938
Tomoko Okuda 23,680
Toranosuke Katayama 194,902
Yoshimi Watanabe 143,343
Mitsuko Ishii 68,147
Akira Ishii 50,073
Tsuyoshi Gibu 43,679
Mizuho Fukushima 254,956
Tadatomo Yoshida 153,197
Ai Aoki 109,050
Yumiko Himei 16,116
Akira Nakayama 77,884
Shingo Nishimura 42,296
Hidemitsu Sano 31,334
Akiko Hondō 18,035
Tarō Yamada 291,188
Hiroyuki Arai 63,757
Kobayashi Takashi 78,272
Yoriko Madoka 20,496
Hiroko Nanami 31,717
Ryōko Shaku 28,579

2013

National block results in the 2013 House of Councillors election[19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30]
Liberal Democratic Party

18,460,404 votes (34.7%), 18 seats

Kōmeitō

7,568,080 votes (14.2%), 7 seats

Democratic Party of Japan

7,268,653 votes (13.4%), 7 seats

Japan Restoration Party

6,355,299 votes (11.9%), 6 seat

Japanese Communist Party

5,154,055 votes (9.7%), 5 seats

Your Party

4,755,160 votes (8.9%), 4 seats

Social Democratic Party

1,255,235 votes (2.4%), 1 seat

People's Life Party

492,040 votes (4.7%), 0 seat

New Party Daichi

273,356 votes (1.3%), 0 seats

Greens Japan

246,020 votes (1.1%), 0 seats

Green Wind

218,685 votes (1.0%), 0 seats

Happiness Realization Party

109,342 votes (0.4%), 0 seats

Yoshifumi Tsuge 429,002
Toshio Yamada 338,485
Masahisa Satō 326,541
Midori Ishii 294,148
Seiko Hashimoto 279,952
Takashi Hanyūda 249,818
Nobuaki Satō 215,506
Masaaki Akaike 208,319
Akiko Santō 205,779
Seiichi Etō 204,404
Masahiro Ishida 201,109
Haruko Arimura 191,343
Shūji Miyamoto 178,480
Kazuya Maruyama 153,303
Tsuneo Kitamura 142,613
Miki Watanabe 104,176
Yoshio Kimura 98,979
Fusae Ōta 77,173
Masaru Wakasa 76,829
Kanae Yamamoto 996,959
Daisaku Hiraki 770,682
Yoshihiro Kawano 703,637
Hiroshi Yamamoto 592,814
Kaneshige Wakamatsu 577,951
Yūichirō Uozumi 540,817
Hideki Niizuma 26,044
Nobuo Kawashima 7,737
Tetsuji Isozaki 271,553
Yoshifumi Hamano 235,917
Kumiko Aihara 235,636
Kusuo Ōshima 191,167
Mieko Kamimoto 176,248
Saori Yoshikawa 167,437
Toshio Ishigami 152,121
Takanori Kawai 138,830
Hajime Ishii 123,355
...
Toshiharu Todoroki 103,996
Marutei Tsurunen 82,858
...
Yoshikazu Tarui 13,178
Antonio Inoki 356,605
Kyōko Nakayama 306,341
Mitsuo Gima 40,484
Takeshi Fujimaki 33,237
Masashi Nakano 32,926
Kunihiko Muroi 32,107
Hirokazu Tsuchida 28,616
Akira Koike 134,325
Yoshiki Yamashita 129,149
Tomoko Kami 68,729
Satoshi Inoue 50,874
Kōhei Nihi 39,768
Yūko Yamamoto 36,580
Ryūhei Kawada 117,389
Kazuyuki Yamaguchi 75,000
Michitarō Watanabe 50,253
Yoshiyuki Inoue 47,756
Jun'ichi Kawai 39,425
Seiji Mataichi 156,1555
Hiroji Yamashiro 112,641
Kenji Yamaoka 56,372
Yukiko Miyake 38,766
Muneo Suzuki 62,902
Kenkō Matsuki 38,721
Yohei Miyake 178,970
Nao Suguro 9,109
Kuniko Tanioka 51,367
Masahiko Yamada 44,231
Yanai Hisshou 17,010
TOKMA 16,797

Notes and References

  1. [Sōmushō]
  2. Sōmushō, News on the electoral system, October 24, 2018: 参議院議員選挙制度の改正について, retrieved May 16, 2019.
  3. [NHK]
  4. For 1983–2004 elections: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (domestically: Ministry of general affairs, Sōmushō), otatistics office (tōkei-kyoku): Long-term statistics, Chapter 27: Public servants and elections, 27-13: 参議院議員通常選挙の党派別当選者数及び得票数 (Number of elected members and votes by party in regular elections of members of the House of Councillors) (excel)
  5. For more recent elections: MIC, autonomy and administration office (jichi-gyōsei-kyoku), elections department (senkyo-ka): election-related statistics and results, Regular elections of members of the House of Councillors
  6. Sōmushō: 第25回参議院議員通常選挙結果調, pp. 37–41, retrieved September 18, 2019.
  7. [NHK]
  8. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  9. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  10. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  11. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  12. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  13. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  14. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  15. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  16. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  17. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  18. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  19. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  20. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  21. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  22. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  23. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  24. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  25. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  26. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  27. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  28. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  29. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]
  30. [Yomiuri Shimbun|Yomiuri Online]