Tottori-Shimane at-large district

The Tottori-Shimane at-large district (鳥取県・島根県選挙区, Tottori-Shimane senkyoku) is a constituency of the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It was formed pursuant to a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law from a merger of the Tottori and Shimane at-large districts, the two smallest districts in the country, to address the imbalance in representation between rural and urban voters.^[1] The district has 1,068,348 registered voters (as of September 2016)^[2] and was contested for the first time at the House of Councillors election that was held on 10 July 2016.

Kazuhiko Aoki of the Liberal Democratic Party was the first councillor elected by the district at the 2016 election. As only half of the house's members are elected at each election, the councillors elected by the Shimane and Tottori districts at the 2013 election will continue to represent their respective prefectures until the next election, due to be held by July 2019. At that time, a second councillor will be elected by the merged district.

Elected Councillors

Class of 1947	Election Year	Class of 1950
Seat Created	2016	Kazuhiko Aoki (LDP)
Shōji Maitachi (LDP)	2019
	2022

Election Results

At the July 2016 House of Councillors election, the terms of two Councillors who were elected at the 2010 election were due to expire; Kazuhiko Aoki of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) represented Shimane Prefecture, while Tottori Prefecture was represented by Kazuyuki Hamada, who was elected in 2010 as an LDP candidate but defected to an opposing party a year later. As the only incumbent LDP member in the new district, Aoki received the party's nomination to contest the newly merged district and also received an endorsement from Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner.^[3] Hamada, aware of the difficulty he faced in defeating Aoki, resigned from the Party for Japanese Kokoro in April 2016 and joined Initiatives from Osaka the same month, receiving their nomination to contest the election from the national proportional representation block.^[4]

In an attempt to defeat the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition, the four main opposition parties (Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and People's Life Party) agreed to field a single candidate in each single-seat district, who would run as a nominally independent candidate.^[5] In the Tottori-Shimane district, the opposition block endorsed Tottori native Hirohiko Fukushima [ja], a former director-general of the Consumer Affairs Agency and former mayor of Abiko, Chiba.^[6] The third candidate in the election was Shimane native Bunta Kokuryō of the Happiness Realization Party.^[7] In the election, Aoki received 62.7% of the vote to comfortably defeat Fukushima, who received 34.7%.^[3]

2016^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Kazuhiko Aoki (Incumbent) (Endorsed by Komeito)	387,787	62.7	N/A
	Independent	Hirohiko Fukushima [ja] (Endorsed by Democratic, Communist, Social Democratic and People's Life parties)	214,917	34.7	N/A
	Happiness Realization	Bunta Kokuryō	15,791	2.6	N/A

2019^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Shōji Maitachi	328,394	62.3	N/A
	Independent	Yoshiko Nakabayashi	167,329	31.7	N/A
	Anti-NHK	Nobuaki Kurose	31,770	6.0	N/A

2022^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Kazuhiko Aoki (Incumbent)	326,750	62.5	−0.2
	CDP	Taijiro Murakami	118,063	22.6	N/A
	JCP	Hideyuki Fukuzumi	37,723	7.2	N/A
	Independent	Yoshitaka Maeda	26,718	5.1	N/A
	Anti-NHK	Nobuaki Kurose	13,517	2.6	N/A

References

1. "Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet". Japan Times. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
2. "平成２８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" [Current enrolled voters including overseas electors as of 2 September 2016] (in Japanese). 27 December 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
3. "開票結果・速報(選挙区・鳥取・島根)【参議院選挙2016】" [Results (Tottori-Shimane District) [House of Councillors Election 2016]]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 22 October 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
4. "こころ・浜田和幸参院議員、おおさか維新入党へ" [Kokoro's Councillor Hamada to join Initiatives from Osaka]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 6 April 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
5. "Opposition parties, activists ink policy pact for Upper House election". Japan Times. 7 June 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
6. "福嶋 浩彦" [Hirohiko Fukushima]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 February 2017.
7. "国領 豊太" [Bunta Kokuryō]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 February 2017.
8. "参院選2019 選挙区 鳥取・島根" [Tottori-Shimane District [House of Councillors Election 2019]]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 3 July 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
9. "鳥取・島根 参議院選挙2022 選挙速報・開票結果" [Tottori/Shimane House of Councilors Election 2022 preliminary election results]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 22 June 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.