Niigata at-large district

The Niigata at-large district (Japanese: 新潟県選挙区, Hepburn: Niigata-ken senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Niigata Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. It currently has three Councillors in the 242-member house, but this representation will decrease to two by July 2019.

Outline

The constituency represents the entire population of Niigata Prefecture and has 1,925,565 registered voters as of September 2015.[1] Since the first House of Councillors election in 1947 Niigata has elected four Councillors to six-year terms, two at alternating elections held every three years. The district's number of voters is the third-lowest of the 10 prefectures that are represented by four Councillors; by comparison, the Hokkaido, Hyogo at-large district and Fukuoka districts each have more than 4 million voters but are represented by the same number of Councillors as Niigata.[1] To address this malapportionment in representation, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law will decrease the representation of Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts to two Councillors while increasing Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts to six Councillors.[2] This change will begin to take effect at the 2016 election, at which time Niigata will elect only one Councillor.

The Councillors currently representing Niigata are:

• Naoki Kazama (CDP, second term; term ends in 2019)[3]
• Ichiro Tsukada (LDP, second term; term ends in 2019)[4]
• Yuko Mori (LP, third term; term ends in 2022)[5]

Elected Councillors

Class of 1947		Election year	Class of 1950 (1947: 3-year term)
Bunkichi Tamura (Ind.)[note 1]	Kyōhei Shimojō (Social Democratic)	1947	Kazuo Kitamua (Liberal)	Yoshio Fujita (Ind.)
		1950	Kazuo Kitamura[note 2] (Liberal)	Toshiei Kiyosawa (Social Democratic)
Bunkichi Tamura (Ryokufūkai)	Yaheiji Saikawa[note 3] (Liberal)	1953
		[note 4]1955 by-election	Makie Koyanagi (LDP)[note 5]
		1956
Goro Takeuchi (Social Democratic)	Yoshio Sato[note 6] (LDP)	1959
		1962		Zentaro Sugiyama (Social Democratic)
		1965
	Takashi Sato[note 7] (LDP)	1967 by-election[note 8]
		1968	Jūichiro Tsukada (Ind.)[note 9]	Makoto Matsui[note 10] (Social Democratic)
Zentaro Sugiyama (Social Democratic)		1971
		[note 11]1972 by-election		Takeo Kimi[note 12] (LDP)
		1974	Shiro Watari[note 13] (LDP)	Yutaka Shitoma[note 14] (Social Democratic)
	Jūichiro Tsukada (LDP)	[note 15]1976 by-election
		[note 16]1977 by-election	Shin Hasegawa[note 17] (LDP)
Masao Yoshida (Social Democratic)		1977
		1980
Toshio Inamura (Social Democratic)	Yoshio Yoshikawa (LDP)	1983
		1986
		[note 18]1989 by-election		Kinuko Ōfuchi (Social Democratic)
		1989
		[note 19]1990 by-election	Kazuo Majima (LDP)
		1992
Michio Hasegawa (New Frontier)		1995
		1998	Naoki Tanaka (LDP)[note 20]
Yuko Mori (Liberal)[note 21]	Kazuo Majima[note 22] (LDP)	2001
	Takahiro Kuroiwa (Ind.)[note 23]	2002 by-election[note 24]
		2004[10]		Masamichi Kondo (Ind.)[note 25]
Yuko Mori (DPJ)	Ichiro Tsukada (LDP)	2007[11]
		2010[12]	Naoki Tanaka (DPJ)	Yaichi Nakahara (LDP)
Naoki Kazama (DPJ→DP→CDP)		2013[13]
		2016[14]	Yuko Mori (Liberal)[note 26]
TBD		2019

1. Joined Ryokufūkai (1947–60) after the election[6]
2. Resigned 29 March 1950[7]
3. Died in office 16 December 1958[7]
4. Held 15 May 1955[7]
5. First elected in May 1955 as a Japan Democratic Party candidate,[8] before the merger which created the LDP in November 1955.
6. Died in office 29 August 1967[7]
7. Resigned 4 November 1976[7]
8. Held 5 November 1967[7]
9. Later joined the LDP
10. Died in office 10 November 1972[9]
11. Held 17 December 1972[7]
12. Resigned 27 March 1974[7]
13. Died in office 4 April 1977[9]
14. Resigned 15 May 1989[7]
15. Held 12 December 1976[6]
16. Held 22 May 1977[6]
17. Died in office 28 October 1990[6]
18. Held 25 June 1989[7]
19. Held 9 December 1990[6]
20. Was first elected as an independent in 1998 but joined the LDP soon after. Resigned from the LDP in 2008 and joined the DPJ in 2009.
21. The Liberal Party merged with the DPJ in 2003.
22. Died in office 22 November 2001[6]
23. Joined the DPJ in December 2005)
24. Held 28 April 2002[8]
25. Joined the Social Democratic Party after his election.
26. Rejoined the Liberal Party after her election.

Election results

2016[14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent	Yuko Mori	560,429	49.02
	Liberal Democratic	Yaichi Nakahara (Incumbent)	558,150	48.82
	Happiness Realization	Motoyuki Yokoi	24,639	2.16
Turnout				59.77	3.99

2013[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democratic	Ichiro Tsukada (Incumbent) (endorsed by Komeito)	456,542	43.0
	Democratic	Naoki Kazama	204,834	19.3
	People's Life	Yuko Mori (Incumbent)	165,308	15.6
	Restoration	Ryūichi Yoneyama	107,591	10.1
	Communist	Hiroshi Nishizawa	60,317	5.7
	Social Democratic	Hideaki Watanabe	46,101	4.3
	Independent	Miyoko Ankyu	15,612	1.5
	Happiness Realization	Hiroaki Ogose	5,188	0.5
Turnout

2010[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Democratic	Naoki Tanaka (Incumbent)	439,289	37.9
	Liberal Democratic	Yaichi Nakahara	412,217	35.5
	Independent	Masamichi Kondo (Incumbent) (Endorsed by People's New Party and Social Democratic Party)	200,182	17.2
	Communist	Katsutoshi Takeda	73,579	6.3
	Independent	Satoshi Annaka	24,300	2.1
	Happiness Realization	Kenya Kasamaki	10,987	0.9
Turnout

2007[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democratic	Ichiro Tsukada (endorsed by Komeito)	403,497	32.1
	Democratic	Yuko Mori (Incumbent) (endorsed by People's New Party)	355,901	28.3
	Democratic	Takahiro Kuroiwa (Incumbent)	344,424	27.4
	Social Democratic	Akiko Yamamoto	91,016	7.2
	Communist	Katsutoshi Takeda	54,537	4.3
	Independent	Mitsumasa Kusuhara	7,806	0.6
Turnout

2004[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent	Masamichi Kondo (endorsed by Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party)	428,117	34.9
	Liberal Democratic	Naoki Tanaka (Incumbent) (endorsed by Komeito)	367,059	29.9
	Liberal Democratic	Ichiro Tsukada (endorsed by Komeito)	319,968	26.1
	Communist	Kayoko Kuwahara	111,201	9.1
Turnout

April 2002 By-election[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Independent	Takahiro Kuroiwa	541,881	53.3
	Liberal Democratic	Ichiro Tsukada	342,207	33.7
	Communist	Kayoko Kuwahara	132,672	13.0
Turnout				52.44%

See also

• List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan

References

1. "平成２７年９月２日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Number of resident and non-resident enrolled voters as of 2 September 2015] (in Japanese). 2 September 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
2. "Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet". Japan Times. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
3. "風間　直樹（かざま　なおき）：参議院" [Kazama, Naoki: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 April 2016.
4. "塚田　一郎（つかだ　いちろう）：参議院" [Tsukada, Ichirou: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 19 April 2016.
5. "森　ゆうこ（もり　ゆうこ）：参議院" [Mori, Yuuko: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 March 2018.
6. "List of Former Councillors (Ta to Ha)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
7. "List of Former Councillors (A to Sa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
8. Satō, Yoshi (令) (December 2005). "Post-War By-Elections" (PDF) (in Japanese). national Diet Library. p. 92. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2006. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
9. "List of Former Councillors (Ma to Wa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
10. "選挙区開票結果　<新潟県>" [District results (Niigata)]. Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
11. "選挙区　新潟県 開票結果 参院選2007" [Niigata at-large district election results, 2007 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
12. "選挙区　新潟県 開票結果 参院選2010 参院選 選挙" [Niigata at-large district election results, 2010 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
13. "選挙区 新潟 選挙結果 参議院選挙（参院選）2013" [Niigata At-large district election results, 2013 House of Councillors election] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
14. "選挙区開票速報：新潟ー2016参議院" [Niigata At-large district election results, 2016 House of Councillors election] (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 2 March 2018.