Hyōgo at-large district

The Hyogo at-large district (Japanese: 兵庫県選挙区, Hepburn: Hyōgo-ken senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Hyogo Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. It currently has five Councillors in the 242-member house, but this representation will increase to six by July 2019.

Hyōgo at-large district
兵庫県選挙区
Parliamentary constituency for the House of Councillors
Prefecture	Hyōgo
Electorate	4,564,897 (as of September 2022)[1]
Current constituency
Created	1947
Seats	6
Councillors	Class of 2019:   Takayuki Shimizu (Ishin)   Mitsuo Takahashi (Komeito)   Hiroyuki Kada (LDP) Class of 2022:   Daisuke Katayama (Ishin)   Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP)   Takae Itō (Komeito)

Outline

The constituency represents the entire Hyogo Prefecture, which includes the urban centres of Kobe and the Hanshin region, as well as the rural areas to the north and west of the prefecture and Awaji Island. The district has 4,644,254 registered voters as of June 2016,^[2] the eighth-highest in the country.^[3] The Councillors currently representing Hyogo are:

• Shinsuke Suematsu (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); term ends in 2016)^[4]
• Shunichi Mizuoka (Democratic Party; term ends in 2016)^[5]
• Yoshitada Konoike (LDP; term ends in 2019)^[6]
• Takayuki Shimizu (elected as a Japan Restoration Party candidate,^[7] currently belongs to Initiatives from Osaka; term ends in 2019)^[8]

Representation in the House

From the first House of Councillors election in 1947 until the 1992 election, Hyogo elected six Councillors in two sets of three at elections held every three years. Under 1994 electoral reform Hyogo's representation was reduced to four (two sets of two), which took effect from the 1995 election. Twenty years later, the district had the same level of representation as not only the Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts, which also had more than 4 million voters each, but also the Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts, which each had less than 2 million voters.^[3] To address this malapportionment in representation, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law increased the representation of the Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts to six Councillors;^[9] this change began to take effect at the July 2016 election, at which three Councillors were elected by the district for the first time since 1992. The district's representation will return to six Councillors at the next election, due by July 2019. At the same time, the Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts will be reduced to two Councillors.

2016 election

Main article: 2016 Japanese House of Councillors election

Candidates

The list of candidates for the election on 10 July 2016 was officially released on 22 June 2016. During the nomination period, the opposition Democratic, Communist, Social Democratic and People's Life parties formed an agreement to field only one joint candidate in districts where only one seat is contested.^[10] In Hyogo, which will elect three Councillors for the first time since 1992, a total of seven candidates have nominated, including both incumbents Suematsu and Mizuoka.^[11] Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner, nominated a candidate for the first time since 1992, after having refrained from competing against the LDP during the period that only two seats were contested. Former Hyogo Prefectural Assembly member Mineo Kaneda will contest the district for the Communist Party for the second time, after having come fourth in the 2013 election.^[7] Initiatives from Osaka nominated Daisuke Katayama, a former NHK journalist from Okayama.^[11]

Candidates[11]
	Happiness Realization	Yuko Minato
	Liberal Democratic	Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent)
	Democratic	Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent)
	Communist	Mineo Kaneda
	Komeito	Takae Itō	Endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party
	Initiatives from Osaka	Daisuke Katayama
	Party for Japanese Kokoro	Junnosuke Shimoie

Results

The coalition government's candidates saw a large swing in their favour, with Suematsu and Ito receiving a combined 48.5% of the vote.^[12] Mizuoka was unable to win a third term; he was defeated by Katayama by a margin of 4.6%, leaving the Democratic Party without representation in the district. It was one of 13 seats the party lost nationwide in a strong victory for the ruling coalition. Katayama was one of seven successful Initiatives from Osaka candidates. Voter turnout at the election was 53.74%, an increase of 0.72% from the previous election^[13] but slightly below the national average of 54.70%, which had also improved slightly from 2013.^[14]

Voters in the election also submitted a second ballot for the nationwide 48-seat proportional district. The LDP received 31.7% of the vote, which was below their national result of 35.9%. Initiatives from Osaka received 19.5% of the vote in Hyogo, more than double their nationwide average. The high level of support in Hyogo and Osaka won the party 4 of the 48 seats. The Democratic (15.8%), Komieto (15.3%) and Communist (10.3%) parties were the other parties to receive more than two percent of the vote.^[15][16]

2016^[12][13][17]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent)	641,910	26.3
	Komeito	Takae Itō (Endorsed by LDP)	542,090	22.2
	Ishin	Daisuke Katayama	531,165	21.8
	Democratic	Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent)	420,068	17.2
	JCP	Mineo Kaneda	228,811	9.4
	Happiness Realization	Yūko Minato	49,913	2.0
	Japanese Kokoro	Junnosuke Shimoie	23,954	1.0
Total valid votes			2,437,911	97.95
Informal votes			50,899	2.05
Turnout			2,488,871	53.74	+0.72

Previously elected councillors

class of 1947			election year	class of 1950
#1 (1947: #1, 6-year term)	#2 (1947: #2, 6-year term)	#3 (1947: #3, 6-year term)		#1 (1947: #4, 3-year term)	#2 (1947: #5, 3-year term)	#3 (1947: #6, 3-year term)
Chūjirō Haraguchi [ja] (Social Democratic)[note 1]	Kōkichi Yagi [ja] (Ind.)[note 2]	Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club)	1947	Masao Akagi [ja] (Democrats' Club)	Masagorō Taguchi [ja] (Democratic)	Tetsuo Kobata [ja] (Democratic)
	Vacant (27 May 1947 - 2 June 1949)		-
	Shigemi Yokoo [ja] (Dem. Liberal)		1949 by-election[note 3]
Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Dem. Lib.)			1950 by-election[note 4]
			1950	Masao Akagi [ja] (Ryokufūkai)	Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic)	Katsumi Yamagata [ja] (Liberal)
Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Liberal)	Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Right Socialist)	Giichi Kawai [ja] (Left Socialist)	1953
			1956	Ichiro Narita [ja] (LDP)[note 5]		Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP)
Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (LDP)	Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic)	Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP)	1959
			[note 6]1959 by-election	Sachio Kishida [ja] (LDP)
			1962		Yoshio Sano [ja] (Social Democratic)[note 7]
Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist)			1965
			1968	Tōru Asai [ja] (Kōmeitō)		Yukako Hagiwara (Dem. Socialist)
	Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic)	Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP)	1971
			[note 8]1972 by-election		Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP)
			1974	Hideo Yahara [ja] (Kōmeitō)		Hiroko Yasutake (Communist)
Michiko Watanabe [ja] (Kōmeitō)			1977
			1980	Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic)
Hideo Yahara (Kōmeitō)	Eiko Nukiyama [ja] (Dem. Socialist)	Ichiji Ishii [ja] (LDP)	1983
			1986			Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō)
	Yasuo Nishino [ja] (Social Democratic)		1989
			1992		Saburo Komoto (LDP)[note 9]
Seat abolished[note 10]	Yoshitada Konoike (LDP)	Ichiji Ishii (New Frontier)	1995
			[note 11]1996 by-election		Chōji Ashio [ja] (minor party)[note 12]
			1998		Tatsumi Osawa [ja] (Communist)	Seat abolished[note 10]
		Yasuhiro Tsuji (DPJ)	2001
			2004	Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP)	Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ)
			2007
			2010[21]
		Takayuki Shimizu (Restoration)	2013[7]
			2016[12]		Takae Itō (Kōmeitō)	Daisuke Katayama (Initiatives from Osaka)
Seat restored[note 10]			2019

1. Resigned 29 November 1949
2. Was disqualified from holding office by the post-war Allied occupying forces on 27 May 1947^[18]
3. Held 3 June 1949.^[18]
4. Held 12 January 1950^[19]
5. Died in office on 4 July 1959
6. Held 20 August 1959^[19]
7. Died in office on 27 September 1972
8. Held 5 November 1972^[20]
9. Resigned on 8 October 1996 to contest the October 1996 House of Representatives election
10. The number of seats was reduced from six to four by electing one less Councillor in the 1996 and 1999 elections. The number of seats will return to six at the 2019 election.
11. Held 17 November 1996^[19]
12. Contested the election under the party name Hyogo's Party to Broaden Tomorrow's Japan (明日の日本をひらく兵庫の会, Ashita no Nihon o Hiraku Hyogo no Kai). He joined the LDP the year after his election.

Previous election results

2013^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Yoshitada Konoike (Incumbent) (endorsed by Komeito)	868,069	37.8
	Restoration	Takayuki Shimizu	598,630	26.1
	Democratic	Yasuhiro Tsuji (Incumbent)	343,551	15.0
	JCP	Mineo Kaneda	220,577	9.6
	Your	Eriko Shimomura	174,132	7.6
	Greens	Namiho Matsumoto	58,032	2.5
	Happiness Realization	Yūko Minato	34,827	1.5
Turnout			4,545,807	53.02	−1.39

2010^[21]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent)	694,459	29.4
	Democratic	Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent) (Endorsed by People's New Party)	515,541	21.8
	Your	Nobuhiko Isaka [ja]	414,910	17.6
	Democratic	Maki Mihashi (Endorsed by People's New Party)	409,190	17.3
	JCP	Terufumi Horiuchi	199,052	8.4
	New Renaissance	Aimi Yoshida	107,028	4.5
	Happiness Realization	Yoshiaki Takagi	20,651	0.9
Turnout

See also

• List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan

Hyogo Prefecture districts for the House of Representatives:

• Hyogo 1st district
• Hyogo 2nd district
• Hyogo 8th district
• Hyogo 11th district

References

1. "総務省｜令和4年9月1日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications - Number of registered voters as of 1 September 2022] (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-01-04.
2. "市区町別選挙人名簿登録者数" [Number of enrolled voters by municipality] (PDF) (in Japanese). Hyogo Prefecture Electoral Commission. 21 June 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-08-17. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
3. "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 3 March 2016.
4. "末松　信介（すえまつ　しんすけ）：参議院" [Suematsu, Shinsuke: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 3 March 2016.
5. "水岡　俊一（みずおか　しゅんいち）：参議院" [Mizuoka, Shunichi: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 3 March 2016.
6. "鴻池　祥肇（こうのいけ　よしただ）：参議院" [Konoike, Yoshitada: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 7 June 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
7. "選挙区 兵庫 選挙結果 参議院選挙（参院選）2013" [Hyogo at-large district election results, 2013 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
8. "清水　貴之（しみず　たかゆき）：参議院" [Shimizu, Takayuki: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 3 March 2016.
9. "Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet". Japan Times. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
10. "Opposition parties, activists ink policy pact for Upper House election". Japan Times. 7 June 2016. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
11. "候補者(選挙区・兵庫県)【参議院選挙2016】" [Candidates (District - Hyogo) [House of Councillors Election 2016]] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 23 June 2016.
12. "開票結果・速報(選挙区・兵庫県)【参議院選挙2016】" [Results (Hyogo) [House of Councillors Election 2016]]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
13. "参議院兵庫県選挙区選出議員選挙　投票結果" [House of Councillors Hyogo at-large district election turnout] (PDF) (in Japanese). Hyogo Prefecture Electoral Commission. 11 July 2016. p. 2. Retrieved 13 July 2016.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
14. "Voter turnout up slightly at 54.7 percent for Upper House election". Japan Times. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
15. "参議院比例代表選出議員選挙　開票結果（総括表）" [House of Councillors Proportion Representation District Election Results (Overall)] (PDF) (in Japanese). 11 July 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
16. "比例区 – 開票速報 – 2016参院選" [National Block Results – 2016 House of Councillors Election]. Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 14 July 2016.
17. "参議院兵庫県選挙区選出議員選挙　開票結果（開票区別投票総数）" [House of Councillors Hyogo at-large district election results (turnout per municipality)] (PDF) (in Japanese). Hyogo Prefecture Electoral Commission. 11 July 2016. p. 6. Retrieved 13 July 2016.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
18. "List of Former Councillors (Ma to Wa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
19. "List of Former Councillors (A to Sa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
20. "List of Former Councillors (Ta to Ha)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
21. "選挙区　兵庫県 開票結果 参院選2010 参院選 選挙" [Hyogo at-large district election results, 2010 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 19 February 2016.

External links

• Hyogo Prefecture Electoral Committee (in Japanese)