| Election Name: | 1977 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Country: | Japan |
| Flag Year: | 1870 |
| Type: | parliamentary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1974 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Previous Year: | 1974 |
| Next Election: | 1980 Japanese House of Councillors election |
| Next Year: | 1980 |
| Seats For Election: | 126 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors |
| Majority Seats: | 127 |
| Election Date: | 10 July 1977 |
| Image1: | Takeo_Fukuda_19761224.jpg |
| Leader1: | Takeo Fukuda |
| Party1: | Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) |
| Last Election1: | 126 seats, 44.3% |
| Seats After1: | 124 |
| Seat Change1: | 2 |
| Popular Vote1: | 18,160,061 |
| Percentage1: | 35.8% |
| Swing1: | 8.5% |
| Leader2: | Tomomi Narita |
| Party2: | Japan Socialist Party |
| Last Election2: | 62 seats, 15.2% |
| Seats After2: | 56 |
| Seat Change2: | 6 |
| Popular Vote2: | 8,805,617 |
| Percentage2: | 17.3% |
| Swing2: | 2.1% |
| Image3: | Yoshikatsu-Takeiri-3.png |
| Leader3: | Yoshikatsu Takeiri |
| Party3: | Kōmeitō (1962–1998) |
| Last Election3: | 24 seats, 12.1% |
| Seats After3: | 28 |
| Seat Change3: | 4 |
| Popular Vote3: | 7,174,459 |
| Percentage3: | 14.2% |
| Swing3: | 2.1% |
| Image4: | Kenji Miyamoto (cropped).jpg |
| Leader4: | Kenji Miyamoto |
| Party4: | Japanese Communist Party |
| Last Election4: | 20 seats, 9.4% |
| Seats After4: | 16 |
| Seat Change4: | 4 |
| Popular Vote4: | 4,260,050 |
| Percentage4: | 8.4% |
| Swing4: | 1.0% |
| Image5: | Kasuga-Ikko-1.jpg |
| Leader5: | Kasuga Ikkō |
| Party5: | Democratic Socialist Party (Japan) |
| Last Election5: | 10 seats, 5.9% |
| Seats After5: | 11 |
| Seat Change5: | 1 |
| Popular Vote5: | 3,387,541 |
| Percentage5: | 6.7% |
| Swing5: | 0.8% |
| Image6: | Yohei Kono 1985.jpg |
| Leader6: | Yōhei Kōno |
| Party6: | New Liberal Club |
| Last Election6: | – |
| Seats After6: | 3 |
| Seat Change6: | New |
| Popular Vote6: | 1,957,902 |
| Percentage6: | 3.9% |
| Swing6: | New |
| President of the House of Councillors | |
| Before Election: | Kazuo Maeda |
| Before Party: | Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) |
| After Election: | Kan Kase |
| After Party: | Japan Socialist Party |
House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 10 July 1977. Only half of the House of Councillors was up for election.
The main question of this election was whether or not the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would be able to retain its hold on an absolute majority of the seats in the House of Councillors, something it has maintained since the party's founding in 1955. Early forecasts had speculated that this dramatic downturn for the LDP may have been possible, but in the end the LDP kept its razor-thin hold on majority control by having four LDP-allied independents cooperate with it. As per usual for the time, the LDP did very well in the sparsely-populated single member districts and even managed to hold its own not only in the two-member districts, but even in the more heavily urbanised three- and four-member districts which were projected to be tough wins for the LDP.[1]
The LDP's clearest struggling was in the national district, where its popular vote declined by 8.5% when compared to the previous House of Councillors election. In any event, the pessimistic forecasts of the election results ended up influencing the LDP's approach in fielding relatively few candidates, and members of the party believed that if they disregarded the polls and fielded more candidates, they could have won a larger share of the seats in this election. Meanwhile, the Japan Socialist Party also saw a loss in seats (partly due to vote splitting caused by former member Saburō Eda's SCL splinter party siphoning away votes from the JSP.) The Japanese Communist Party also saw a decline in fortunes, with Kōmeitō and the Democratic Socialist Party showing the most promise among well-established opposition parties.
| Constituency | Total seats | Seats won | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | JSP | Kōmeitō | DSP | JCP | NLC | LCS | UPL | Others | Ind. | |||
| Aichi | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Akita | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Aomori | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Chiba | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ehime | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Fukui | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Fukuoka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Fukushima | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Gifu | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Gunma | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Hiroshima | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Hokkaido | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Hyōgo | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Ibaraki | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ishikawa | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Iwate | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Kagawa | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Kagoshima | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Kanagawa | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Kōchi | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Kumamoto | 2 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Kyoto | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Mie | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Miyagi | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Miyazaki | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Nagano | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Nagasaki | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Nara | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Niigata | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Ōita | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Okinawa | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Okayama | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Osaka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Saga | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Saitama | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Shiga | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Shimane | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Shizuoka | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Tochigi | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Tokushima | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Tokyo | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
| Tottori | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Toyama | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Wakayama | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Yamagata | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Yamaguchi | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| Yamanashi | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||
| National | 50 | 18 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Total | 126 | 63 | 27 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |