Tokyo 6th district explained

Tokyo 6th District
Type:Parliamentary
Constituency Link:Tokyo 6th district
Parl Name:Japanese House of Representatives
Map Size:450px
District Label:Prefecture
District:Tokyo
Region Label:Proportional District
Region:Tokyo
Electorate:486,353 (2012)
Year:1994
Members Label:Representative
Members:Takayuki Ochiai
Seats:One
Elects Howmany:One
Party Label:Party
Party:CDP
Previous:Tokyo 3rd district
Blank1 Name:Wards
Blank1 Info:Parts of Setagaya

Tokyo 6th district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in Tokyo, and consists of major parts of the City of Setagaya, one of Tokyo's 23 special wards. With 2.18 times as many voters as Tokushima's 1st district, it had the lowest electoral weight throughout Japan in the election of 2005.[1] In 2007 the Supreme Court dismissed a claim that the election in this and other Tokyo districts was unconstitutional and thus invalid.[2] As of September 2012, 486,353 eligible voters were registered in the district, giving them the third lowest electoral weight in the country.[3]

Before the electoral reform of 1994, Setagaya was part of Tokyo 3rd district, a three-member single non-transferable vote (SNTV) constituency. The post-reform single-member constituencies were used in the 1996 election for the first time.

Since its creation, the urban district had been dominated by opposition candidates until the landslide "postal privatization" election of 2005 when Liberal Democratic candidate Takao Ochi was able to defeat Democratic incumbent Yōko Komiyama by a slim margin. Komiyama was reelected via the Tokyo proportional representation block and ran again in Tokyo 6th district in the election of 2009. In 2012, Ochi received only less than a third of the vote but retook the district as the opposition to the LDP splintered. After Democratic representative Kōki Ishii had been stabbed to death in 2002 by a rightwing activist,[4] [5] a by-election was held on April 27, 2003.

List of representatives

RepresentativePartyDatesNotes
Tetsundo Iwakunibgcolor= NFP1996–2000
Kōki Ishiibgcolor= DPJ2000–2002
Yōko Komiyamabgcolor= DPJ2003–2005Re-elected in the Tokyo PR block
Takao Ochibgcolor= LDP2005–2009Failed re-election in the Tokyo block
Yōko Komiyamabgcolor= DPJ2009–2012Failed re-election in the Tokyo block
Takao Ochibgcolor= LDP2012–2017Failed re-election in the Tokyo block
Takayuki Ochiaibgcolor= CDP2017-Incumbent

Notes and References

  1. http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/election2005/news2/el_ne_050831_02.htm Yomiuri Shimbun, August 31, 2005: 1票の格差2.18倍 衆院選有権者数
  2. Supreme Court: decision of June 13, 2007
  3. [Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications]
  4. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20021026a1.html The Japan Times, October 26, 2002: Opposition lawmaker assassinated. Outspoken DPJ member stabbed in front of his house; attacker flees.
  5. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20050701a4.html The Japan Times, July 1, 2005: Rightist's life term upheld for DPJ lawmaker's slaying