, also referred to as, is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan located in southwestern Hyogo Prefecture. The district consists of the Hyōgo, Kita and Nagata wards of Kobe and, after redistricting in 2017, a part of Nishinomiya (the former villages of Yamaguchi and Shiose). As of September 2015, 357,643 eligible voters were registered in the district.[1] It is one of the 48 districts in the Kansai region that form the Kinki proportional representation block.
The district was established as part of the electoral reform of 1994; the area was previously part of Hyōgo 1st district, which covered the whole of Kobe and elected five representatives by single non-transferable vote.
Since the district's creation, the seat has been held by Kazuyoshi Akaba of the Komeito party, except for the DPJ landslide 2009 election when Koichi Mukoyama won the seat. Akaba subsequently defeated Mukoyama in the December 2012 election.
| Representative | Party | Dates | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kazuyoshi Akaba | bgcolor=#FF6699 | New Frontier(1996–98) | 1996 – 2009 | Senior Vice-Minister of Finance (November 2005 – September 2006) | ||
| bgcolor=#F8F400 | Komeito(1998-2009) | |||||
| Koichi Mukoyama | bgcolor=#ED1B23 | Democratic | 2009 – 2012 | |||
| Kazuyoshi Akaba | bgcolor=#F8F400 | Komeito | 2012–present | Senior Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and Cabinet Senior Vice-Minister (December 2012 – September 2014) | ||