Japanese House of Councillors election, 2001

Japanese House of Councillors election, 2001

29 July 2001

121 (73 SNTV, 48 proportional) of 247 seats in the House of Councillors   First party Second party   Leader Junichiro Koizumi Yukio Hatoyama Party Liberal Democratic Democratic Last election 103 47 Seats won 111 59 Seat change +8 +12 Popular vote 22,299,825 (result for 73 SNTV seats) 10,066,552 (result for 73 SNTV seats) Percentage 41.04% (result for 73 SNTV seats) 18.53% (result for 73 SNTV seats)

President of the House of Councillors before election Yutaka Inoue Liberal Democratic Elected President of the House of Councillors Yutaka Inoue Liberal Democratic

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Elections for the Japanese House of Councillors were held in Japan on 29 July 2001. It was the first national election since Junichiro Koizumi was appointed as prime minister after Yoshiro Mori resigned in April 2001. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its election allies, were the major winner, provided Koizumi a strong mandates to move forward with his reform policies. The ruling coalition performed well, and regain their majority in the House of Councillors.

Results

* Two seats were vacant by the law at the time of election.

The electoral reform enacted in 2000 became effective for the first time:

• The number of Councillors per election was reduced by five, by two in the nationwide proportional representation and by one each in Okayama, Kumamoto and Miyazaki.
• The preference vote was introduced. Instead of a party name, voters could now write the name of a single PR candidate on the ballot. The vote then counts for the party as well as the candidate; the total number of votes for a party list or its candidates determines the number of PR seats a party receives while the candidate votes determine who takes those seats for the party.

As a result of the party realignments of the 1990s, several two-member districts were represented by two Councillors from the same party before the 2001 election. Some of these Councillors lost the official nomination of their party (e.g. in Niigata), others retired (Hokkaidō, Tochigi). Most of these district split seats between ruling coalition and opposition again, in the case of both incumbents seeking re-election resulting in one of the two losing their seat (Nagano, Shizuoka).

Proportional representation results

The 2001 election was the first to use an open list system (非拘束名簿式) to elect proportional representation seats in the House. Under this system, voters may vote for either a political party or a specific candidate. The proportional seats are distributed among the parties by D'Hondt method according to their overall proportional votes, including candidate votes. The ranking of candidates on each party list is then determined by the candidate votes.

The results for the major parties were as follows (decimals omitted):^[1][2]

1. Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) (LDP): 21,114,727 (party: 14,925,437, candidates: 6,189,290), 38.6%, 20 seats
2. Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ): 8,990,524 (party: 6,082,694, candidates: 2,907,830), 16.4%, 8 seats
3. New Komeito (NK): 8,187,804 (party: 1,865,797, candidates: 6,322,007), 15.0%, 8 seats
4. Japan Communist Party (JCP): 4,329,210 (party: 4,065,047, candidates: 264,163), 7.9%, 4 seats
5. Liberal Party (LP): 4,227,148 (party: 3,642,884, candidates: 584,264), 7.7%, 4 seats
6. Social Democratic Party of Japan (SDP): 3,628,635 (party: 2,298,104, candidates: 1,330,531), 6.6%, 3 seats
7. Conservative Party of Japan (CP): 1,275,002 (party: 609,382, candidates: 665,620), 2.3%, 1 seat
8. Other parties (aggregate): 2.988.442, 5.5%, no seat

The final ranking of PR candidates and their individual vote counts were as follows:

Prefectural races

Elected candidates in bold

Compiled from JANJAN's "The Senkyo"^[3] and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications official election results.^[4]

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.
• In a multi-member district, there is no difference between Councillors elected with the highest and lower vote shares. Yet, "top tōsen", i.e. being elected with the highest vote, is considered a special achievement and thus noted where changed from the previous election for the same class of Councillors (1995).
• In the results column, independents are counted towards the party they joined in the first Diet session after the election.

Party abbreviations used:

• Ruling coalition
  • LDP Liberal Democratic Party
  • Kōmeitō "Justice Party"
  • CP Conservative Party
• Opposition
  • DPJ Democratic Party
  • JCP Japanese Communist Party
  • SDP Social Democratic Party
  • LP Liberal Party
• I Independent
• Minor parties: IA "Independent Assembly", Dainiin Dainiin Club, LL Liberal League, Ishin Ishin Seitō Shinpū, WP Women's Party, NSP New Socialist Party, Kibō "New Party Freedom and Hope"

References

• Mahendra Prakash (2004), Coalition Experience in Japanese Politics: 1993-2003, New Delhi: JNU.

1. ↑ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: 比例代表党派別得票数
2. ↑ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: 比例代表党派別名簿登載者別得票数、当選人数
3. ↑ Results of the 19th House of Councillors election
4. ↑ MIC: Results of the 19th regular House of Councillors election

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