2010 Japanese House of Councillors election

The 22nd Elections to the House of Councillors (第22回参議院議員通常選挙, Dainijūnikai Sangiingiin Tsūjōsenkyo) for the upper house of the legislature of Japan were held on July 11, 2010. In the last election in 2007, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lost its majority to the Democratic Party (DPJ), which managed to gain the largest margin since its formation in 1996.[1] The House of Councillors is elected by halves to six-year terms. The seats up for election in 2010 were last contested in the 2004 election.

2010 Japanese House of Councillors election

July 11, 2010
121 (of the 242) seats in the House of Councillors 122 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Naoto Kan Sadakazu Tanigaki Natsuo Yamaguchi Party Democratic Liberal Democratic Komeito Leader since 4 June 2010 28 September 2009 8 September 2009 Last election 109 seats, 39.5% 83 seats, 28.1% 20 seats, 13.2% Seats after 106 84 19 Seat change 10 13 2 Popular vote 18,450,139 14,071,671 7,639,433 Percentage 31.6% 24.1% 13.1% Swing 7.9% 4.0% 0.1%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Yoshimi Watanabe Kazuo Shii Mizuho Fukushima Party Your Communist Social Democratic Leader since 8 August 2009 24 November 2000 15 November 2003 Last election New party 7 seats, 7.5% 5 seats, 4.5% Seats after 11 6 5 Seat change 10 1 1 Popular vote 7,943,649 3,563,556 2,242,735 Percentage 13.6% 6.1% 3.8% Swing N/A 1.4% 0.7%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Takeo Hiranuma Shizuka Kamei Yōichi Masuzoe Party Sunrise People's New New Renaissance Leader since 10 April 2010 31 August 2009 23 April 2010 Last election New party 4 seats, 2.2% New party Seats after 3 3 2 Seat change 0 3 4 Popular vote 1,232,207 1,000,036 1,172,395 Percentage 2.1% 1.7% 2.0% Swing N/A 0.5% N/A
Seats won by ■ - LDP ■ - DPJ ■ – NKP ■ – JCP ■ - SDP ■ - YP ■ - SPJ ■ - NRP
President of the House of Councillors before election Satsuki Eda Democratic Elected President of the House of Councillors Takeo Nishioka Democratic

Background

On 11 June 2008, a non-binding censure motion was passed by parliament's opposition-controlled House of Councillors against then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. Filed by the DPJ and two other parties, it was the first censure motion against a prime minister under Japan's post-war constitution. Ahead of the G8 summit, it attacked his handling of domestic issues including an unpopular medical plan and called for a snap election or his resignation. On 12 June a motion of confidence was passed by the lower house's ruling coalition to counter the censure.[2][3][4] Fukuda abruptly announced he was retiring as leader. Taro Aso won the subsequent election, which was held on 22 September 2008.[5]

In the 2009 lower house election, the DPJ gained an historic majority, being the first non-LDP party to hold a majority in that house since the LDP's formation[6] and is scheduled to lead the second non-LDP government in the aforementioned time period (with upper house allies the Social Democratic Party of Japan and the People's New Party[7]). Following the election, Aso resigned as LDP president. Sadakazu Tanigaki was elected the leader of LDP on September 28, 2009.[8]

The House of Councillors election in 2010 was viewed as potentially leading to the extinction of the LDP. Some of the LDP's most popular councillors, such as Yoichi Masuzoe and Kaoru Yosano, left the party prior to the election. However, the DPJ's popularity had been negatively impacted by fundraising scandals surrounding its president Yukio Hatoyama and secretary general Ichiro Ozawa, both of whom resigned on June 2, 2010. Naoto Kan became prime minister after Hatoyama's resignation and proposed a controversial increase in the consumption tax to shore up Japanese public finances. The campaign season was only three weeks long, which frustrated efforts to have policy debates between the two major parties and the numerous third parties in the election.[9]

Election results

Results of the 2010 Japanese House of Councillors election.

The result of the election was declared on July 12, 2010. The ruling DPJ lost many of its seats and the opposition LDP gained more seats in comparison to the last election, held in 2007. Your Party performed well in this election, while the DPJ's junior coalition partner, the People's New Party, performed poorly.[10]

↓
106	3	1	11	6	10	2	19	84
Democratic Party (Japan, 1998)	P N P	N P N	Y P	J C P	Ind + Otr	N R P	N K P	Liberal Democratic Party

 Summary of the 11 July 2010 Japanese House of Councillors election results[11]

Alliances and parties		Prefectural constituency vote				National PR vote				Elected in 2010	Seats not up	Total seats	+/−[12]
		Votes	%	Seats	+/− [12]	Votes	%	Seats	+/− [12]
	Democratic Party (DPJ) Minshutō – 民主党	22,756,000.342	38.97%	28	8	18,450,139.059	31.56%	16	2	44	62	106	10
	People's New Party (PNP) Kokuminshintō – 国民新党	167,555.000	0.29%	0	2	1,000,036.492	1.71%	0	1	0	3	3	3
	New Party Nippon (NPN) Shintō Nippon – 新党日本	no candidate								0	1	1[13]	0
	DPJ–PNP Coalition	22,923,555.342	39.25%	28	10	19,450,175.551	33.27%	16	3	44	66	110	13
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Jiyū-Minshutō - 自由民主党 : Jimintō – 自民党	19,496,083.000	33.38%	39	14	14,071,671.422	24.07%	12	1	51	33	84	13
	New Komeito Party (NKP) Kōmeitō – 公明党	2,265,818.000	3.88%	3	0	7,639,432.739	13.07%	6	2	9	10	19	2
	New Renaissance Party (NRP) Shintō Kaikaku – 新党改革	625,431.000	1.07%	0	3	1,172,395.190	2.01%	1	1	1	1	2	4
	LDP–NKP—NRP Coalition (Opposition)	22,387,332.000	38.33%	42	11	22,883,529.351	39.15%	19	4	61	44	105	7
	Your Party (YP) Minna no Tō – みんなの党	5,977,391.485	10.24%	3	3	7,943,649.369	13.59%	7	7	10	1	11	10
	Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Kyōsantō – 共産党	4,256,400.000	7.29%	0	0	3,563,556.590	6.10%	3	1	3	3	6	1
	Social Democratic Party (SDP) Shamintō – 社民党	602,684.000	1.03%	0	0	2,242,735.155	3.84%	2	0	2	2	4	0
	Sunrise Party of Japan (SPJ) Tachini – たち日	328,475.000	0.56%	0	1	1,232,207.336	2.11%	1	1	1	2	3	0
	Happiness Realization Party (HRP) Kōfuku – 幸福	291,810.000	0.50%	0	0	229,026.162	0.39%	0	0	0	1	1	0
	Independents[14]	1,314,313.027	2.25%	0	2	—				0	2	2	2
	Other parties	318,847.000	0.55%	0	0	908,582.924	1.55%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total (turnout 57.92%)		58,400,807.899	100.0%	73	1	58,453,432.438	100.0%	48	0	121	121	242	1

DPJ nomination strategy in multi-member districts

DPJ secretary-general Ichirō Ozawa had decided on an offensive strategy for nominating candidates in multi-member districts (MMDs): The DPJ was to nominate two candidates in all MMDs with the exceptions of Niigata where an SDP-affiliated independent incumbent was in the race and Fukuoka where a PNP incumbent sought reelection. This strategy was reaffirmed after Ozawa's resignation in June 2010[15] even though the DPJ's support rate had significantly fallen by then and winning both seats in a SNTV two-member district requires a very high margin in terms of party votes and an equal distribution of votes on the two candidates.

The strategy failed: all two-member districts split seats evenly between DPJ and LDP in 2010. In some districts the party even risked losing both seats due to vote splitting,[16] a danger that did not materialize in the election result.

The LDP on the other hand nominated only one candidate per MMD – exceptions being Miyagi, Chiba and Tokyo –, thus concentrating all LDP votes on one candidate.

The election results in MMDs gave 20 seats to the DPJ, 18 to the LDP, three to the Kōmeitō and three to Your Party. The only districts where the DPJ won two seats and an advantage in seats over the LDP were Tokyo (5 seats) where administrative reform minister Renhō received a record 1.7 million votes and Toshio Ogawa ranked fourth and DPJ stronghold Aichi (3 seats) where DPJ candidates only finished second and third behind LDP newcomer Masahito Fujikawa.

LDP gains

Part of the LDP victory were the results in the 29 single-member districts where the DPJ received roughly 7 million votes winning eight districts while the LDP received 8.25 million votes and 21 seats, among them seven pickups compared to the pre-election composition of the chamber:

• Aomori, Akita, Tottori and Nagasaki from the DPJ
• Kagawa and Tokushima from the NRP, both from former LDP members, and
• Tochigi which had been a two-member district until 2010 with seats held by DPJ and NRP.

The LDP also gained seven additional seats in two-member districts, but exclusively seats it had previously lost by party switchovers or resignations:

• in Hokkaidō from the Sunrise Party,
• in Niigata where Naoki Tanaka had switched parties together with his wife Makiko from an SDP-affiliated independent,
• in Gifu from an ex-LDP independent,
• in Nagano a vacant seat previously held by the LDP,
• in Hiroshima and Fukuoka from the PNP and
• only in Shizuoka directly from the DPJ where the Democrats had held both seats up because of the resignation of Yukiko Sakamoto in 2009 and the DPJ's victory in the resulting by-election.

The vote in the districts with three (Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Aichi, Ōsaka) or five (Tōkyō) seats up went clearly to the DPJ with a 3.5 million vote edge over the LDP, but produced only a two-seat difference in the House of Councillors: the LDP won six, the DPJ eight seats.

If compared to the 2004 election when the same class of Councillors was last elected, the LDP only gained five prefectural district seats and lost three seats in the nationwide proportional representation.

Complete list of prefectural races

Elected candidates in bold

Notes:

• All incumbents not running for re-election in their prefectural electoral district are counted as retirements even if they ran in the nationwide proportional representation
• Miyagi is counted as an LDP hold because Ichikawa was an LDP member and remained with the LDP parliamentary group up to the election. He ran as an independent after failing to gain the party's official nomination in Miyagi.

Northern Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result	Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Hokkaidō	2	Yoshio Nakagawa	Sunrise	Incumbents retired Democratic hold Liberal Democratic pickup	Gaku Hasegawa (LDP) 34.3% Eri Tokunaga (DPJ – PNP, NPD) 25.6% Masahi Fujikawa (DPJ) 20.5% Ken'ichi Nakagawa (YP) 11.6% Kazuya Hatayama (JCP) 7.2% Makoto Ōbayashi (HRP) 0.8%
		Naoki Minezaki	Democratic
Aomori	1	Masami Tanabu	Democratic	Incumbent retired Liberal Democratic pickup	Tsutomu Yamazaki (LDP) 46.8% Rina Hatano (DPJ – PNP) 36.3% Sekio Masuta (SPJ) 8.0% Yō Yoshimata (JCP) 5.1% Kiyohiko Yamada (SDP) 3.9%
Iwate	1	Ryō Shuhama	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Ryō Shuhama (DPJ – PNP) 54.2% Yukifumi Takahashi (LDP) 30.4% Masahiro Isawa (SDP) 8.5% Sadakiyo Segawa (JCP) 6.9%
Miyagi	2	Ichirō Ichikawa	Liberal Democratic (see note)	Liberal Democratic incumbent lost re-election Democratic incumbent re-elected Liberal Democratic hold	Yutaka Kumagai (LDP) 26.8% Mitsuru Sakurai (DPJ – PNP) 24.4% Hiromi Itō (DPJ – PNP) 16.5% Ichirō Ichikawa (I) 11.0% Fumihiro Kikuchi (YP) 10.8% Tetsuo Kanno (SDP) 5.2% Mikio Katō (JCP) 4.5% Yoshiaki Murakami (HRP) 0.7%
		Mitsuru Sakurai	Democratic
Akita	1	Yōetsu Suzuki	Democratic	Incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Hiroo Ishii (LDP) 55.6% Yōetsu Suzuki (DPJ) 38.3% Kazuhisa Fujita (JCP) 6.1%
Yamagata	1	Kōichi Kishi	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Kōichi Kishi (LDP) 43.6% Yōsei Umetsu (DPJ) 36.8% Hiroaki Kawano (YP) 14.6% Toshio Ōta (JCP) 5.0%
Fukushima	2	Teruhiko Mashiko	Democratic	Incumbents re-elected	Teruhiko Mashiko (DPJ) 34.4% Mitsuhide Iwaki (LDP) 34.1% Mitsunori Okabe (DPJ) 15.6% Kazumasa Sugamoto (YP) 9.4% Tomo Iwabuchi (JCP) 6.5%
		Mitsuhide Iwaki	Liberal Democratic
Eastern and Central Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result	Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Ibaraki	2	Hiroshi Okada	Liberal Democratic	Incumbents re-elected	Hiroshi Okada (LDP) 38.7% Akira Gunji (DPJ) 23.8% Tomohiro Nagatsuka (DPJ) 15.9% Shigenori Ōkawa (YP) 11.7% Rie Yoshida (SPJ) 5.1% Nobutoshi Inaba (JCP) 3.9% Kōki Nakamura (HRP) 0.9%
		Akira Gunji	Democratic
Tochigi	1	Susumu Yanase	Democratic	1 seat lost by reapportionment New Renaissance incumbent retired Democratic incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Michiko Ueno (LDP) 36.2% Susumu Yanase (DPJ – PNP) 35.6% Daiju Araki (YP) 25.0% Kazunori Koike (JCP) 3.2%
		Tetsurō Yano	New Renaissance
Gunma	1	Yukio Tomioka	Democratic	1 seat lost by reapportionment Democratic incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic incumbent re-elected	Hirofumi Nakasone (LDP) 60.6% Yukio Tomioka (DPJ) 31.2% Setsuko Takahashi (JCP) 8.2%
		Hirofumi Nakasone	Liberal Democratic
Saitama	3	Chiyako Shimada	Democratic	Liberal Democratic and Justice incumbents re-elected Democratic incumbent lost re-election Democratic hold	Masukazu Sekiguchi (LDP) 20.6% Makoto Nishida (Kōmei) 18.7% Motohiro Ōno (DPJ) 17.5% Chiyako Shimada (DPJ) 17.1% Tsukasa Kobayashi (YP) 13.1% Gaku Itō (JCP) 6.5% Kōji Nakagawa (NRP) 2.7% Fumihiro Himori (SDP) 2.3% Kōsei Hasegawa (I) 1.2% Hirotoshi Inda (HRP) 0.3%
		Masakazu Sekiguchi	Liberal Democratic
		Makoto Nishida	Justice
Chiba	3	Wakako Hironaka	Democratic	1 seat gained by reapportionment Democratic incumbent retired Liberal Democratic incumbent lost re-election Democratic and Liberal Democratic hold Your pickup	Hiroyuki Konishi (LDP) 20.2% Kuniko Inoguchi (DPJ) 19.3% Ken'ichi Mizuno (YP) 17.9% Ayumi Michi (DPJ) 17.4% Kazuyasu Shiina (LDP) 14.9% Kazuko Saitō (JCP) 6.2% Hisashi Koga (NRP) 2.5% Satoshi Shimizu (JIP) 1.1% Masahiko Makino (HRP) 0.5%
		Kazuyasu Shiina	Liberal Democratic
Tokyo	5	Masaharu Nakagawa	Liberal Democratic	1 seat gained by reapportionment Democratic and Liberal Democratic incumbents re-elected Justice incumbent retired Justice hold Your pickup	Renhō (DPJ) 28.1% Toshiko Takeya (Kōmei) 13.2% Masaharu Nakagawa (LDP) 11.7% Toshio Ogawa (DPJ) 11.4% Kōta Matsuda (YP) 10.8% Akira Koike (JCP) 9.1% Yukiko Tōkai (LDP) 4.9% Hiroshi Yamada (JIP) 3.3% Asako Ogura (SPJ) 2.0% Hideo Morihara (SDP) 1.6% Kōtarō Umiji (NRP) 1.3% Saori Egi (PNP) 0.9% Yūmi Ishihara (I) 0.7% Hiroko Tanaka (I) 0.3 % Hisshō Yanai (HRP) 0.2% 9 other candidates 0.7%
		Toshio Ogawa	Democratic
		Renhō Murata	Democratic
		Makoto Nishida	Justice
Kanagawa	3	Akio Koizumi	Liberal Democratic	Democratic (1 of 2) and Liberal Democratic incumbents re-elected Democratic (1 of 2) incumbent lost re-election Your pickup	Akio Koizumi (LDP) 25.2% Kenji Nakanishi (YP) 20.2% Yōichi Kaneko (DPJ) 19.2% Keiko Chiba (DPJ) 17.9% Kimie Hatano (JCP) 7.8% Eiko Kimura (SDP) 2.9% Takahiro Kai (NRP) 2.9% Manabu Matsuda (JSP) 2.4% Seiichi Yamamoto (I) 1.2% Bunkō Katō (HRP) 0.3%
		Yōichi Kaneko	Democratic
		Keiko Chiba	Democratic
Niigata	2	Masamichi Kondō	Independent	Democratic incumbent re-elected Independent incumbent (SDP parliamentary group) lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Naoki Tanaka (DPJ) 37.9% Yaichi Nakahara (LDP) 35.5% Masamichi Kondō (I – SDP) 17.2% Katsutoshi Takeda (JCP) 6.3% Satoshi Annaka (I) 2.1% Ken'ya Kasamaki (HRP) 0.9%
		Naoki Tanaka	Democratic
Toyama	1	Tsunenori Kawai	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent retired Liberal Democratic hold	Kōtarō Nogami (LDP) 56.2% Yoshihiro Aimoto (DPJ) 39.0% Wataru Takahashi (JCP) 4.8%
Ishikawa	1	Naoki Okada	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Naoki Okada (LDP) 55.5% Akira Nishihara (DPJ) 38.5% Mikiko Chikamatsu (JCP) 6.0%
Fukui	1	Masaaki Yamazaki	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Masaaki Yamazaki (LDP) 51.2% Kōta Inobe (DPJ) 42.3% Kazuo Yamada (JCP) 6.5%
Yamanashi	1	Azuma Koshiishi	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Azuma Koshiishi (DPJ) 43.0% Noriko Miyagawa (LDP) 42.2% Hitoshi Hanada (JCP) 7.4% Naoyuki Nemoto (I) 4.5% Takashi Kigawa (I) 2.9%
Nagano	2	Toshimi Kitazawa	Democratic	Democratic incumbent re-elected Liberal Democratic pickup successful "inheritance"	Kenta Wakabayashi (LDP) 26.4% Toshimi Kitazawa (DPJ) 26.1% Yōko Takashima (DPJ) 19.6% Yōsei Ide (YP) 16.6% Sanae Nakano (JCP) 10.5% Hiroaki Usuda (HRP) 0.8%
		vacant (last held by Liberal Democrat Masatoshi Wakabayashi)
Gifu	2	Iwao Matsuda	Independent	Independent incumbent retired Democratic incumbent lost re-election Democratic hold Liberal Democratic pickup	Takeyuki Watanabe (LDP) 44.0% Yoshiharu Komiyama (DPJ) 23.7% Yasuo Yamashita (DPJ) 22.9% Masanori Suzuki (JCP) 7.5% Yukihiko Kanō (HRP) 1.9%
		Yasuo Yamashita	Democratic
Shizuoka	2	Hirokazu Tsuchida	Democratic	Democratic incumbent re-elected Democratic incumbent retired Liberal Democratic pickup	Shigeki Iwai (LDP) 32.3% Yūji Fujimoto (DPJ – PNP) 28.3% Jun'ichi Kawai (YP) 20.9% Naoko Nakamoto (DPJ – PNP) 12.0% Hiromi Watanabe (JCP) 5.5% Yūta Nakano (HRP) 1.0%
		Yūji Fujimoto	Democratic
Aichi	3	Katsuhito Asano	Liberal Democratic	Incumbents retired Democratic and Liberal Democratic hold	Masahito Fujikawa (LDP) 28.6% Yoshitaka Saitō (DPJ – PNP) 23.4% Misako Yasui (DPJ – PNP) 21.1% Michiyao Yakushiji (YP) 16.5% Nobuko Motomura (JCP) 6.0% Mitsuko Aoyama (SDP) 3.2% Hiromi Nakane (HRP) 1.2%
		Taisuke Satō	Democratic
		Yoshitake Kimata	Democratic
Mie	1	Hirokazu Shiba	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Hirokazu Shiba (DPJ) 40.6% Kōhei Onozaki (LDP) 33.1% Yukako Yahara (YP) 20.1% Takeshi Nakano (JCP) 6.2%
Western Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result	Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Shiga	1	Kumiko Hayashi	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Kumiko Hayashi (DPJ) 48.6% Nobuhide Takemura (LDP) 32.3% Takashi Kawauchi (JCP) 9.9% Osamu Konishi (I) 9.1%
Kyōto	2	Tetsurō Fukuyama	Democratic	Incumbents re-elected	Tetsurō Fukuyama (DPJ) 34.3% Satoshi Ninoyu (LDP) 28.2% Mariko Narumiya (JCP) 16.6% Takuya Nakagawa (YP) 11.0% Mitsue Kawakami (DPJ) 8.7% Satoko Kitagawa (HRP) 1.1%
		Satoshi Ninoyu	Liberal Democratic
Ōsaka	3	Motoyuki Odachi	Democratic	Democratic and Liberal Democratic incumbents re-elected Justice incumbent retired Justice hold	Hirotaka Ishikawa (Kōmei) 22.1% Issei Kitagawa (LDP) 18.1% Motoyuki Odachi (DPJ) 17.9% Mari Okabe (DPJ) 15.8% Taizō Kawahira (YP) 10.0% Tadashi Shimizu (JCP) 9.4% Nelson Yoshioki Yamawake (NRP) 2.7% Akiko Ōkawa (SDP) 2.2% Yukiko Hamano (JIP) 1.3% Toshiko Fukata (HRP) 0.5%
		Eiichi Yamashita	Justice
		Issei Kitagawa	Liberal Democratic
Hyōgo	2	Shun'ichi Mizuoka	Democratic	Incumbents re-elected	Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) 29.4% Shun'ichi Mizuoka (DPJ) 21.8% Nobuhiko Isaka (YP) 17.6% Maki Mihashi (DPJ) 17.3% Terufumi Horiuchi (JCP) 8.4% Aimi Yoshida (NRP) 4.5% Yoshiaki Takagi (HRP) 0.9%
		Shinsuke Suematsu	Liberal Democratic
Nara	1	Kiyoshige Maekawa	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Kiyoshige Maekawa (DPJ) 47.6% Shūzō Yamada (LDP) 39.3% Atsushi Ōta (JCP) 13.1%
Wakayama	1	Yōsuke Tsuruho	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Yōsuke Tsuruho (LDP) 56.8% Kumiko Shima (DPJ) 32.7% Masaya Yoshida (JCP) 10.5%
Tottori	1	Kōtarō Tamura	Democratic	Incumbent retired Liberal Democratic pickup	Kazuyuki Hamada (LDP) 50.8% Mari Sakano (DPJ) 42.6% Naoyuki Iwanaga (JCP) 6.6%
Shimane	1	Mikio Aoki	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent retired Liberal Democratic hold successful "inheritance"	Kazuhiko Aoki (LDP) 52.9% Hirotaka Iwata (DPJ) 36.0% Tomoo Sakurauchi (YP) 6.7% Ikuhisa Ishitobi (JCP) 4.4%
Okayama	1	Satsuki Eda	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Satsuki Eda (DPJ) 54.8% Mika Yamada (LDP) 37.6% Yūichi Kawauchi (JCP) 7.6%
Hiroshima	2	Minoru Yanagida	Democratic	Democratic incumbent re-elected People's New incumbent retired Liberal Democratic pickup successful indirect "inheritance" from Hiroshi Miyazawa	Yōichi Miyazawa (LDP) 45.5% Minoru Yanagida (DPJ) 24.5% Kei Nakagawa (DPJ) 21.7% Osamu Ōnishi (JCP) 6.8% Mitsuo Uematsu (HRP) 1.5%
		Ikuo Kamei	People's New
Yamaguchi	1	Nobuo Kishi	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Nobuo Kishi (LDP) 57.8% Daijirō Harada (DPJ) 35.2% Daisuke Kisaki (JCP) 7.0%
Tokushima	1	Masakatsu Koike	New Renaissance	incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Yūsuke Nakanishi (LDP) 38.3% Masuko Yoshida (DPJ) 36.7% Masakatsu Koike (NRP) 18.2% Motonoru Furuta (JCP) 4.8% Akemi Takeo (HRP) 1.0% Takashi Toyokawa (I) 0.9%
Kagawa	1	Toshio Yamauchi	New Renaissance	incumbent retired Liberal Democratic pickup	Yoshihiro Isozaki (LDP) 51.4% Sumiko Okauchi (I – DPJ, SDP) 41.2% Hitoshi Fujita (JCP) 7.4%
Ehime	1	Junzō Yamamoto	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Junzō Yamamoto (LDP) 52.7% Tomoko Okahiro (DPJ) 37.8% Katsuhiko Tanaka (JCP) 7.7% Akihiro Kōri (I) 1.8%
Kōchi	1	Hajime Hirota	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Satsuki Eda (DPJ) 37.5% Kōjirō Takano (LDP) 33.8% Kōhei Tamura (I) 15.6% Naoaki Haruna (JCP) 10.7% Toshihisa Fujishima (I) 2.4%
Southern Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result	Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Fukuoka	2	Tsutomu Ōkubo	Democratic	Democratic incumbent re-elected People's New incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Satoshi Ōie (LDP) 35.3% Tsutomu Ōkubo (DPJ) 30.7% Masao Satō (YP) 13.1% Kaname Tsutsumi (I – DPJ, SDP) 8.0% Kiyoshi Shinoda (JCP) 6.6% Gōtarō Yoshimura (PNP) 5.2% Kazue Yoshitmi (HRP) 1.2%
		Gōtarō Yoshimura	People's New
Saga	1	Hiromi Iwanaga	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent retired Liberal Democratic hold	Takamaro Fukuoka (LDP) 60.5% Michiko Katsuki (DPJ) 33.8% Katsuhiro Yamaguchi (JCP) 5.7%
Nagasaki	1	Tadashi Inuzuka	Democratic	incumbent lost re-election Liberal Democratic pickup	Genjirō Kaneko (LDP) 48.8% Tadashi Inuzuka (DPJ) 38.6% Norihiko Nakashima (YP) 8.6% Eiko Fuchise (JCP) 4.1%
Kumamoto	1	Yoshifumi Matsumura	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Yoshifumi Matsumura (LDP) 44.2% Kōichi Honda (DPJ) 39.3% Akiko Honda (YP) 11.4% Yasuto Adachi (JCP) 3.4% Takeo Maeda (JIP) 1.6%
Ōita	1	Shin'ya Adachi	Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Shin'ya Adachi (DPJ) 48.7% Kiyoshi Odawara (LDP) 42.6% Kai Yamashita (JCP) 8.7%
Miyazaki	1	Shinpei Matsushita	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Shinpei Matsushita (LDP) 58.6% Sō Watanabe (DPJ) 34.5% Hiromitsu Baba (JCP) 6.9%
Kagoshima	1	Tetsurō Nomura	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Tetsurō Nomura (LDP) 55.0% Kōichirō Kakiuchi (DPJ) 38.4% Haruki Yamaguchi (JCP) 6.6%
Okinawa	1	Aiko Shimajiri	Liberal Democratic	Incumbent re-elected	Aiko Shimajiri (LDP) 47.6% Hiroji Yamashiro (I – SDP) 39.7% Tadayuki Iju (I – JCP) 10.7% Tatsurō Kinjō (HRP) 2.0%

Proportional preference vote

Party	Party list votes	PR votes total	PR seats won	Top elected PR candidates with preference votes
Democratic Party	14,433,171	18,450,139.059	16	Yoshifu Arita	373,834.000	Ryōko Tani	352,594.303	Masayuki Naoshima	207,821.000
Liberal Democratic Party	10,657,166	14,071,671.422	12	Satsuki Katayama	299,036.267	Yukari Satō	278,312.851	Eriko Yamatani	254,469.000
Your Party	7,229,391	7,943,649.369	7	Takumi Shibata	87,863.000	Katsuhiko Eguchi	86,299.000	Hiroshi Ueno	52,051.578
New Komeito Party	3,555,970	7,639,432.739	6	Kōzō Akino	836,120.000	Hiroaki Nagasawa	630,775.977	Shin'ichi Yokoyama	579,793.000
Japanese Communist Party	3,256,068	3,563,556.590	3	Tadayoshi Ichida	83,806.000	Tomoko Tamura	45,668.540	Mikishi Daimon	43,897.000
Social Democratic Party	1,614,821	2,242,735.155	2	Mizuho Fukushima	381,554.000	Tadatomo Yoshida	130,745.822
Sunrise Party of Japan	757,939	1,232,207.336	1	Toranosuke Katayama	117,636.923
New Renaissance Party	1,050,977	1,172,395.190	1	Hiroyuki Arai	65,250.743
People's New Party	481,892	1,000,036.492	0
Others	823,766	1,137,609.086	0

Notable defeated PR candidates included former Tokyo Metropolitan Assemblyman Tarō Hatoyama (NRP, 23,944 votes, rank 2), former Olympic gymnast Yukio Iketani (DPJ, 54,155 votes, rank 27), former Giants manager Tsuneo Horiuchi (LDP, 101,840 votes, rank 13), former Giants infielder Kiyoshi Nakahata (SPJ, 111,597 votes, rank 2) and pro wrestler Osamu Nishimura (PNP, 34,561 votes, rank 3).

See also

• Elections in Japan
• 2007 Japanese House of Councillors election
• 2009 Japanese general election

References

1. NHK ONLINE English
2. "Censure passed against Japan PM". BBC Online. 2008-06-11. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
3. "Japan PM humiliated by parliament". afp.google.com. 2008-06-11. Archived from the original on 2008-06-14. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
4. "Boost for Japan's beleaguered PM". BBC News. 2008-06-12. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
5. Fackler, Martin (22 September 2008). "Japanese Party Chooses Aso as Leader". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
6. "'Major win' for Japan opposition". BBC News. 2009-08-30. Retrieved 2009-08-30.
7. "NHKオンライン". Nhk.or.jp. Archived from the original on 2011-02-04. Retrieved 2010-08-21.
8. Roland Buerk (2009-9-28) "Japan's LDP chooses a new leader" BBC Tokyo
9. Cucek, Michael (10 July 2010). "Japan's Meaningless Election". The Diplomat. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
10. "asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：DPJ defeated, coalition loses its majority in Upper House - English". Asahi.com. July 12, 2010. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
11. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Results of the 22nd House of Councillors election
12. compared to the seats held before the election
13. independent member of the DPJ parliamentary group, not a member of New Party Nippon by the time he took his seat as replacement for Yasuo Tanaka:
14. includes one OSMP member (not up), and one independent member of the SDP parliamentary group (seat lost in this election)
15. The Japan Times, June 18, 2010: DPJ sticks to Ozawa election strategy
16. The Japan Times, July 10, 2010: DPJ shoots itself in foot in Shizuoka. Ozawa's plan to field multiple candidates divides party's electoral base and lets in LDP