2000 Japanese general election
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All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 62.49% ( 2.84pp; Const. votes)62.45% ( 2.82pp; PR votes) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Districts and PR districts , shaded according to winners' vote strength | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in
House of Representatives
.
The ruling
Democratic Party made major gains under the leadership of Yukio Hatoyama.[1]
Background
Prime Minister
Yoshiro Mori. Although the term limit for the House of Representatives would have been reached in October 2000, Mori dissolved the House on June 2 in what became popularly known as the Divine Nation Dissolution (神の国解散) due to a controversial statement by Mori prior to the election, which preceded a slump in government approval ratings from 40% to 20%. The LDP government advocated continued public works spending while the opposition advocated less spending and more governmental reforms.[2]
The Social Democratic Party left the coalition in 1998 and re-join the opposition after years of coalition with the ideologically contrasting LDP.
Meanwhile, the
House of Councillors
which the LDP lost majority since 1989), the Komeito party has been counted on since then to ensure a stable governing majority rule.
Results
The House of Representatives consisted of 480 members, 300 elected from single-member constituencies and 180 elected on a proportional basis from eleven multi-member constituencies known as Block constituencies.
 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Proportional | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| Liberal Democratic Party | 16,943,425 | 28.31 | 56 | 24,945,807 | 40.97 | 177 | 233 | –6 | |
| Democratic Party of Japan | 15,067,990 | 25.18 | 47 | 16,811,732 | 27.61 | 80 | 127 | New | |
| New Komeito Party | 7,762,032 | 12.97 | 24 | 1,231,753 | 2.02 | 7 | 31 | New | |
| Japanese Communist Party | 6,719,016 | 11.23 | 20 | 7,352,844 | 12.08 | 0 | 20 | –6 | |
| Liberal Party | 6,589,490 | 11.01 | 18 | 2,053,736 | 3.37 | 4 | 22 | New | |
| Social Democratic Party | 5,603,680 | 9.36 | 15 | 2,315,235 | 3.80 | 4 | 19 | +4 | |
| Liberal League | 660,724 | 1.10 | 0 | 1,071,012 | 1.76 | 1 | 1 | New | |
| New Conservative Party | 247,334 | 0.41 | 0 | 1,230,464 | 2.02 | 7 | 7 | New | |
| Assembly of Independents | 151,345 | 0.25 | 0 | 652,138 | 1.07 | 5 | 5 | New | |
| Other parties | 99,565 | 0.17 | 0 | 250,681 | 0.41 | 0 | 0 | – | |
| Independents | 2,967,069 | 4.87 | 15 | 15 | +6 | ||||
| Total | 59,844,601 | 100.00 | 180 | 60,882,471 | 100.00 | 300 | 480 | –20 | |
| Valid votes | 59,844,601 | 95.37 | 60,882,471 | 97.01 | |||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 2,904,983 | 4.63 | 1,877,318 | 2.99 | |||||
| Total votes | 62,749,584 | 100.00 | 62,759,789 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 100,492,328 | 62.44 | 100,433,798 | 62.49 | |||||
| Source: Election Resources, IPU | |||||||||
By prefecture
| Prefecture | Total seats |
Seats won | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | DPJ | NKP | NCP | AI | SDP | LP | LL | Ind. | ||
| Aichi | 15 | 5 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
| Akita | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Aomori | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| Chiba | 12 | 7 | 5 | |||||||
| Ehime | 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| Fukui | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Fukuoka | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Fukushima | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Gifu | 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| Gunma | 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| Hiroshima | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Hokkaido | 13 | 7 | 6 | |||||||
| Hyōgo | 12 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Ibaraki | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Ishikawa | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Iwate | 4 | 1 | 3 | |||||||
| Kagawa | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Kagoshima | 5 | 4 | 1 | |||||||
| Kanagawa | 17 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Kōchi | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Kumamoto | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Kyoto | 6 | 5 | 1 | |||||||
| Mie | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Miyagi | 6 | 2 | 4 | |||||||
| Miyazaki | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Nagano | 5 | 3 | 2 | |||||||
| Nagasaki | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Nara | 4 | 4 | ||||||||
| Niigata | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Ōita | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Okayama | 5 | 5 | ||||||||
| Okinawa | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Osaka | 19 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Saga | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Saitama | 14 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Shiga | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Shimane | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Shizuoka | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Tochigi | 5 | 4 | 1 | |||||||
| Tokushima | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Tokyo | 25 | 8 | 13 | 1 | 3 | |||||
| Tottori | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
| Toyama | 3 | 3 | ||||||||
| Wakayama | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Yamagata | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| Yamaguchi | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||||||
| Yamanashi | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||
| Total | 300 | 177 | 80 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 15 |
By PR block
| PR block | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | DPJ | NKP | JCP | LP | SDP | ||
| Chūgoku | 11 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Hokkaido | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Hokuriku–Shinetsu | 11 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Kinki | 30 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| Kyushu | 21 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Northern Kanto | 20 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Shikoku | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Southern Kanto | 21 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Tohoku | 14 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| Tokai | 21 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Tokyo | 17 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Total | 180 | 56 | 47 | 24 | 20 | 18 | 15 |
Analysis
The further entrenchment of the 1955 System continued, with the Democratic Party of Japan replacing the New Frontier Party as the primary opposition to the LDP. The Social Democratic Party saw a brief resurgence following its near destruction in 1996, but the decline of the party would continue in the following election. The election set the groundwork for the system of politics that would lay how Japanese elections work until the collapse of the Democratic Party of Japan in the mid-2010s.
References
- ^ French, Howard (26 June 2000). "GOVERNING PARTY IN JAPAN SUFFERS ELECTION SETBACK". New York Times. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
- ^ "JAPAN Parliamentary Chamber: Shugiin ELECTIONS HELD IN 2000". IPU.org. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
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