2005 Japanese general election
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All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 67.46% ( 7.66pp) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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General elections were held in
The elections resulted in a
The opposition
The small parties made only small gains or losses, with Koizumi's ally, New Komeito, falling slightly from 34 seats to 31. Of the new parties contesting the election, the
Background
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives and called for new elections on 8 August 2005. The move was made in response to the defeat of bills that would have split Japan Post into four private companies over a period of ten years, on which Koizumi had staked the credibility of his reforms. The package was notably unpopular within Koizumi's own Liberal Democratic Party, as retired employees of Japan Post have been strong supporters of the LDP in past elections, and its banking system has bankrolled expensive public work projects, providing business for the LDP's supporters in the construction industry. Koizumi used the threat of an early election to push the bills through the House of Representatives (the lower house), where it was approved by just 5 votes. The same threat was less effective in the upper chamber, the House of Councillors, which the prime minister does not have the power to dissolve. On 8 August 2005, 30 LDP members of the House of Councillors joined the opposition in voting 'no' or abstaining to block the legislation. Koizumi had announced that a 'no' vote would be considered equivalent to a no confidence vote against his administration, and thus called a snap election for the House of Representatives.
The dissolution act itself is relatively without controversy, and is based on Article 7 of the
Before the dissolution, there was notable dissatisfaction with the decision to dissolve within the LDP, because the LDP and its government partner, New Kōmeitō, feared losing their majority in the lower house, which chooses the Prime Minister. In the previous
Campaign
Prime Minister Koizumi had tried to make the election a referendum on the privatization of Japan Post and reforms that follow, saying that he would step down if the ruling bloc fails to secure a majority. Indeed, the DPJ, which did not have a clear position on the privatization issue previously, was forced to come up with an alternative plan to shrink public savings in Japan Post over years to come. In addition, his personality was featured as prominently as policy in the election, as the electorate were asked to determine whether Koizumi's behavior, variously described as either determined or pugnacious, was acceptable for a Japanese prime minister.
The main opposition
In domestic policy both the ruling bloc and the DPJ differed little; both concurred in the need to seek
Outside Japan, there was much speculation about how the election could change foreign relations, since foreign policy is one of the major differences between the LDP and the DPJ. The LDP's Koizumi has been notable for his foreign policies supportive of U.S. President
Koizumi maintained, as he pledged before calling the election, a position that he would not give official party endorsement to 37 members of his party who voted against the postal bills; that is, the 37 were not allowed to run as members of the party. To compensate for the disadvantages that non-party members suffer under the
The formation of the new parties, which were largely seen as being solely needed for the election campaign, took place as Koizumi and his party's leadership were actively recruiting candidates to run in single-member districts against the rebels, and were pressuring local organizations to back the new candidates. New LDP candidates include celebrities, bureaucrats, and local politicians, and several rebels exited the race rather than run against their own party. Among the most publicized candidates was maverick businessman Takafumi Horie, who ran as an independent (with tacit LDP backing) against Kamei in Hiroshima District #6, a hot battleground in the last election between the then LDP's Kamei and a DPJ candidate.[8]
Opinion polls
Pre-election polls had been consistently showing the LDP's solid lead, especially among independent voters in urban areas like Tokyo and other big cities nationwide where its main opposition the DPJ had had a main support base.[9] Newspaper surveys predicted a big victory for the LDP, which could lead the DPJ, young and short on unity, to disintegrate.[10] Election analysts, however, warned that few LDP candidates were enjoying comfortable leads, and there was still a large number of undecided voters who went for the DPJ in the last election, thus the election results were far from being set.[citation needed]
Results
The actual election results closely matched what the pre-election polls, which experts believed were unlikely to materialize, had predicted. Election results gave the governing coalition 327 seats, more than a two-thirds majority in the lower house.[11] In general, the LDP roughly held its own in rural areas, retaking about half the seats held by rebels, but holding steady or even falling slightly against other parties. In urban areas the LDP had a devastating victory, reducing the DPJ from twelve single member constituencies to one in Tokyo, from nine to two in Osaka and from eight to zero in Kanagawa. The so-called 'assassin' candidates recruited by the LDP to stand against the disendorsed party rebels met with mixed success. Although 20 were elected, only 9 of these managed to defeat rebels in single-seat constituencies, with the remaining 11 elected by proportional representation. 5 'assassins' failed to be elected. Another casualty was the prominent independent candidate Takafumi Horie who was defeated by the LDP rebel Shizuka Kamei, now representing the People's New Party.
One of the biggest landslides in Japanese politics came as a great surprise to virtually everyone, from politicians in both government and opposition camps to political analysts and the general public to finally
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| Party | Proportional | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
| Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
| Liberal Democratic Party | 25,887,798 | 38.18 | 77 | 32,518,390 | 47.77 | 219 | 296 | +54 | |
| Democratic Party of Japan | 21,036,425 | 31.02 | 61 | 24,804,787 | 36.44 | 52 | 113 | –65 | |
| New Komeito Party | 8,987,620 | 13.25 | 23 | 981,105 | 1.44 | 8 | 31 | –3 | |
| Japanese Communist Party | 4,919,187 | 7.25 | 9 | 4,937,375 | 7.25 | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| Social Democratic Party | 3,719,522 | 5.49 | 6 | 996,008 | 1.46 | 1 | 7 | +1 | |
| New Party Nippon | 1,643,506 | 2.42 | 1 | 137,172 | 0.20 | 0 | 1 | New | |
| People's New Party | 1,183,073 | 1.74 | 2 | 432,679 | 0.64 | 2 | 4 | New | |
| New Party Daichi | 433,938 | 0.64 | 1 | 16,698 | 0.02 | 0 | 1 | New | |
| Other parties | 1,557 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | – | ||||
| Independents | 3,240,522 | 4.76 | 18 | 18 | +7 | ||||
| Total | 67,811,069 | 100.00 | 180 | 68,066,293 | 100.00 | 300 | 480 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 67,811,069 | 97.53 | 68,066,293 | 97.90 | |||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,717,357 | 2.47 | 1,458,340 | 2.10 | |||||
| Total votes | 69,528,426 | 100.00 | 69,524,633 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 103,067,966 | 67.46 | 102,985,213 | 67.51 | |||||
| Source: Election Resources, IPU | |||||||||
By prefecture
| Prefecture | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | DPJ | NKP | PNP | SDP | Ind. | ||
| Aichi | 15 | 9 | 6 | ||||
| Akita | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Aomori | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Chiba | 13 | 12 | 1 | ||||
| Ehime | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Fukui | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Fukuoka | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Fukushima | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Gifu | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Gunma | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Hiroshima | 7 | 6 | 1 | ||||
| Hokkaido | 12 | 4 | 8 | ||||
| Hyōgo | 12 | 10 | 2 | ||||
| Ibaraki | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Ishikawa | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Iwate | 4 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| Kagawa | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Kagoshima | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Kanagawa | 18 | 16 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Kōchi | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Kumamoto | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| Kyoto | 6 | 3 | 3 | ||||
| Mie | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Miyagi | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||
| Miyazaki | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Nagano | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||
| Nagasaki | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Nara | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Niigata | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||
| Ōita | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Okayama | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Okinawa | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Osaka | 19 | 13 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Saga | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Saitama | 15 | 12 | 3 | ||||
| Shiga | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| Shimane | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Shizuoka | 8 | 6 | 2 | ||||
| Tochigi | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Tokushima | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Tokyo | 25 | 23 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Tottori | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Toyama | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Wakayama | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Yamagata | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Yamaguchi | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Yamanashi | 3 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Total | 300 | 219 | 52 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 18 |
By PR block
| PR block | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | DPJ | NKP | JCP | SDP | PNP | NPN | NPD | ||
| Chūgoku | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Hokkaido | 8 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Hokuriku–Shinetsu | 11 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Kinki | 29 | 11 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Kyushu | 21 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Northern Kanto | 20 | 9 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Shikoku | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Southern Kanto | 22 | 10 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Tohoku | 14 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Tokai | 21 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Tokyo | 17 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Total | 180 | 77 | 61 | 23 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
Representatives
Members of House of Representatives elected from single-seat constituency
LDP DPJ Komei JCP SDP PNP Independent
References
- ^ "The Asahi Shimbun". Retrieved 11 August 2005.
- ^ "Asia Times Online :: Japan News and Japanese Business and Economy". Asia Times. 9 August 2005. Archived from the original on 21 May 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=9&id=345895[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Aljazeera.Net - Japan faces big question of size". Archived from the original on 10 September 2005. Retrieved 31 August 2005.
- ^ [1] Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Bing". Mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp. Retrieved 4 June 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ [2] Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [3] Archived 28 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Asahi Shimbun". Retrieved 9 September 2005.
- ^ [4] Archived 9 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "asahi.com： 2005総選挙". .asahi.com. 18 September 2005. Archived from the original on 14 April 2009. Retrieved 4 June 2010.
External links
- Articles
- BBC News (8 August 2005). "Japanese PM Calls Snap Election."
- Mainichi Shimbun (8 August 2005). "Koizumi Dissolves Lower House for Snap Election."[permanent dead link]
- Kajimoto, Tetsushi (9 August 2005). "Koizumi Calls Election for 11 September." Japan Times.
- Dore, Ronald (8 August 2005). "A Contemporary Dilemma Haunted by History." Times (London), pp. 11.
- Asahi Shimbun (9 August 2005). "Political Parties Scramble to Draw Up Manifestoes ahead of Snap Election Next Month."
- Hiroko Tabuchi (10 August 2005). Japan's leader steps up retaliation against renegade party members
- openDemocracy (10 August 2005). Japan’s fifty-year political itch
- Economist article (25 August 2005). "Out with the old guard?"
- Manichi Daily (11 September 2005). "Koizumi leads LDP to landslide."[permanent dead link]
- openDemocracy (12 September 2005). Japan's first presidential election
- Polls
- CNN story (27 August 2005). "Poll: Opposition gains in Japan"
- Bloomberg (26 August 2005). Japan's Koizumi Gains Support With 16 Days to Vote (Update3)
- Manichi Daily (11 September 2005). "2005 Election Site"[permanent dead link]
| General elections | |
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Councillors elections | |
Unified local elections | |
| Supreme Court retention elections | |
