Saga 1st district

Saga 1st district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in Saga Prefecture and consists of Tosu, parts of Saga and Kanzaki as well as the Miyaki District. As of September 2012, 237,748 eligible voters were registered in the district.^[1]

Saga 1st district has been a swing district since its creation in 1996: it alternately elected candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)/its precursor New Frontier Party (NFP). The district is currently represented by Kazuchika Iwata (LDP), a former second-generation Saga prefectural assemblyman. In 2012, Iwata defeated Kazuhiro Haraguchi (DPJ), Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication in the Hatoyama cabinet. Haraguchi had initially won the district narrowly for the NFP in 1996 but lost it in 2000 to Takanori Sakai (LDP) who was appointed as Cabinet Office Vice Minister in the 2nd realigned Mori cabinet. In March 2003, Sakai was arrested (and later sentenced to 32 months in prison) for having received illicit corporate donations in violation of the Political Funds Control Law.^[2][3] Takamaro Fukuoka replaced Sakai as LDP candidate for Saga 1 in the 2003 election and lost to Haraguchi. The "postal privatization" election of 2005 gave the LDP a landslide victory, and Fukuoka beat Haraguchi despite the fact that the DPJ's opposition ally, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), unlike in previous elections did not nominate a candidate in Saga 1st district. In the landslide LDP defeat of 2009, Haraguchi won the district for the third time.

Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Saga At-large district where five representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote.

List of representatives

Election	Representative	Party	Notes
1996	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	NFP	After the dissolution of NFP, Haraguchi joined DPJ through Voice of the people, GGP.
2000	Takanori Sakai	LDP
2003	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	DPJ
2005	Takamaro Fukuoka	LDP	After losing the 2009, Iwata was elected in 2010.
2009	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	DPJ
2012	Kazuchika Iwata	LDP
2014	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	DPJ
2017		Independent	Haraguchi tried to run for office in Kibō, but gave up.
2021		CDP

Election results

2021

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	CDP	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	92,452	50.04
	LDP (NKP)	Kazuchika Iwata	92,319	49.96

2017

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. (DP)	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	105,487	55.65
	LDP (NKP)	Kazuchika Iwata	78,972	41.66
	Happiness Realization Party	Toru Nakajima	5086	2.68

2012^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP (NK)	Kazuchika Iwata	70,547	49.2
	DPJ (PNP)	Kazuhiro Haraguchi (elected by PR)	63,007	43.9
	JCP	Hitoshi Ōmori	9,857	6.9

2009^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DPJ (SDP, NPP support)	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	96,618
	LDP (Kōmeitō support)	Takamaro Fukuoka	75,475
	Happiness Realization Party	Ken Koba	1,568
Turnout			175,824	74.77

2005^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Takamaro Fukuoka	84,643
	DPJ	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	75,449
	JCP	Akemi Mutō	8,029
Turnout			170,282	73.28

2003^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DPJ	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	70,271
	LDP	Takamaro Fukuoka	66,446
	SDP	Hisahiro Shibata	8,315
	JCP	Yasutoshi Kamimura	4,977
Turnout			152,297	66.13

2000^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Takanori Sakai	70,155
	DPJ	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	62,932
	SDP	Katsuyō Ogata	30,018
	JCP	Yasutoshi Kamimura	7,173
	Liberal League	Kō Nagai	1,612

1996^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	NFP	Kazuhiro Haraguchi	62,515
	LDP	Takanori Sakai	60,286
	SDP	Katsuyō Ogata	27,514
	JCP	Yasutoshi Kamimura	7,670
	Liberal League	Takashi Kimura	2,493

References

1. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC): 平成24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>選挙区ごとの選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数等 (in Japanese)
2. The Japan Times, June 27, 2003: Sakai, cohort plead not guilty to defrauding state
3. The Japan Times, March 23, 2007: Prosecutors drive ex-labor minister to penitentiary
4. 総選挙2012>開票結果 小選挙区 佐賀. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 2013-06-05.
5. 衆議院>第45回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2010-01-11. Retrieved 2010-01-07. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
6. 衆議院>第44回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2009-08-22. Retrieved 2009-12-30. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
7. 衆議院 >第43回衆議院議員選挙 >佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2009-12-30. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
8. 衆議院>第42回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2009-12-30. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)^{[permanent dead link]}
9. 衆議院>第41回衆議院議員選挙 >佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2010-01-07. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)^{[permanent dead link]}