Hokkaido proportional representation block

The Hokkaido proportional representation block (比例[代表]北海道ブロック, Hirei [daihyō] Hokkaidō burokku) is one of eleven proportional representation (PR) blocks for the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. It consists of Hokkaidō and is one of two PR blocks that covers only one prefecture, the other is Tokyo. Following the introduction of proportional voting it elected nine representatives in the election of 1996. Since 2000 the Hokkaidō PR block is represented by eight representatives.

Contents

Summary of results

With eight seats, Hokkaidō is the second smallest PR block (Shikoku has only six seats), and the vote share needed to gain a seat is usually above ten percent. In 2000, when the combined vote of the two major parties reached a historical low of 56.8%, the Social Democratic Party managed to obtain a seat with only 8.9% of the vote (for a detailed explanation, see D'Hondt method).

In addition to the five national parties that emerged from the party realignments of the 1990s, the regionalist one-man party New Party Daichi has become a contender for PR seats in Hokkaidō. In both elections it fielded candidates, it managed to obtain the third largest vote share and one seat. Following the conviction of NPD chairman Muneo Suzuki, the party's future is unclear.

general election DPJ LDP Kōmeitō JCP SDP NPD NFP ('96)/LP ('00) Others
Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats Votes  % Seats
1996 835,042 31.8 3 740,677 28.2 3 – 396,923 15.1 1 – – 552,847 21.1 2 100,807 3.8 0
2000 898,678 31.2 3 735,318 25.6 2 368,198 12.8 1 365,061 12.7 1 255,319 8.9 1 – 236,301 8.2 0 17,987 0.6 0
2003 1,153,471 40.8 4 876,653 31.0 3 394,843 14.0 1 253,442 9.0 0 147,146 5.2 0 – – –
2005 1,090,727 33.8 3 940,705 29.1 3 368,552 11.4 1 241,371 7.5 0 152,646 4.7 0 433,938 13.4 1 – –
2009 1,348,318 40.6 4 805,895 24.2 2 354,886 10.7 1 241,345 7.3 0 113,562 3.4 0 433,122 13.0 1 – 27,675 0.8 0

Party names are abbreviated as follows (format: abbreviation, translated name, Japanese name, Engrish name):

List of Representatives

Note: Party affiliations as of election day.

Years Elected Representatives
1996– Kenji Kodama Seiichi Ikehata Kenji Nakazawa Seiichi Kaneda Toshiyuki Wanibuchi Kaori Maruya Muneo Suzuki Takamori Yoshikawa Kōkō Satō
2000– Kenji Kodama Keiko Yamauchi Kenji Nakazawa Seiichi Kaneda Wakio Mitsui Kaori Maruya Muneo Suzuki Hirofumi Iwakura –
2003– Hidenori Sasaki Chiyomi Kobayashi Hiroko Nakano Kenkō Matsuki Kaori Maruya Eikō Kaneta Gaku Ishizaki Takafumi Yamashita
2005– Seiji Ōsaka Satoshi Arai
resigned 2007
Tomohiro Ishikawa		 Kenkō Matsuki Muneo Suzuki Kaori Maruya Yukari Iijima Hiroshi Imazu Takamori Yoshikawa
2009– Hiroko Nakano Maya Yamazaki Tatsumaru Yamaoka Hitomi Kudō Muneo Suzuki
arrested 2010
Takahiro Asano		 Hisashi Inatsu Tsutomu Takebe Nobutaka Machimura
resigned 2010
Hiroshi Imazu

Election result 2009

Hokkaidō block results in the 2009 general election[1][2]
LDP: 805,895 votes (24.2%), 2 seats DPJ: 1,348,318 votes (40.6%), 4 seats Kōmeitō: 354,886 votes (10.7%), 1 seat
# Candidate District "Loss ratio"
(sekihairitsu)		 Elected # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected
1 Tsutomu Takebe Hokkaidō 12 88.6% Elected 1 Hiroko Nakano Hokkaidō 7 99.0% Elected 1 Hisashi Inatsu PR only Elected
Nobutaka Machimura Hokkaidō 5 82.7% Elected Takahiro Yokomichi Hokkaidō 1 Won district 2 Hisayuki Takeda –
Yoshitaka Itō Hokkaidō 7 Won district Wakio Mitsui Hokkaidō 2 Won district NPD: 433,122 votes (13.0%), 1 seat
Shōichi Nakagawa Hokkaidō 11 75.6% – (died) Gaku Ishizaki Hokkaidō 3 Won district # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected
Hiroshi Imazu Hokkaidō 6 68.2% – (in 2010) Yoshio Hachiro Hokkaidō 4 Won district 1 Muneo Suzuki PR only Elected
Gaku Hasegawa Hokkaidō 1 67.8% – Chiyomi Kobayashi Hokkaidō 5 Won district 2 Eita Yashiro – (DQ)
Gaku Ishizaki Hokkaidō 3 60.6% – Takahiro Sasaki Hokkaidō 6 Won district 3 Takahiro Asano – (in 2010)
Takamori Yoshikawa Hokkaidō 2 56.7% – Seiji Ōsaka Hokkaidō 8 Won district 4 Junko HANA –
Yukari Iijima Hokkaidō 10 55.9% – Tadamasa Kodaira Hokkaidō 10 Won district JCP: 241,345 votes (7.3%), no seat
Tōru Miyamoto Hokkaidō 4 50.1% – Shōichi Nakagawa Hokkaidō 11 Won district # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected
Satoshi Kawabata Hokkaidō 9 39.2% – Tsutomu Takebe Hokkaidō 12 Won district 1 Satoshi Miyauchi PR only –
Keishirō Fukushima Hokkaidō 8 33.9% – 12 Maya Yamazaki PR only Elected 2 Chiharu Oka Hokkaidō 2 16.6% –
13 Takahiro Anada PR only – 13 Tatsumaru Yamaoka Elected Kazutoshi Ogiu Hokkaidō 6 10.1% –
14 Shin'ya Numazawa – 14 Hitomi Kudō Elected Akiko Satō Hokkaidō 9 10.0% –
15 Fumitaka Uechi – 15 Masanori Sekifuji – Yukari Watanabe Hokkaidō 1 9.3% –
SDP: 113,562 votes (3.4%), no seat HRP: 20,276 votes (0.6%), no seat Honshitsu: 7,399 votes (0.2%), no seat
# Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected # Candidate District "Loss ratio" Elected
1 Taka Yamaguchi PR only – 1 Naofumi Satō PR only – 1 Hidemitsu Sano PR only –
2 Yumi Honda Hokkaidō 2 8.7% – 2 Tomoo Kobayashi – 2 Akiko Hondō –

References

  1. ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Results of the 2009 general election
  2. ^ Yomiuri Shimbun: Election feature 2009
Hokkaidō's electoral districts for the Diet of Japan
FPTP "small" districts (1996–present): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (13) Hokkaidō PR block · House of Councillors: At-large (13→12 Representatives (PR block: 9→8), 4 Councillors)
SNTV "medium-sized" districts (1947–1993): 1 2 3 4 5 (22→23 Representatives, 8→4 Councillors)
Limited voting "large" districts (1946): 1 2 (23 Representatives)
SNTV "medium-sized" districts (1928–1942): 1 2 3 4 5 (20 Representatives)
FPTP/SNTV "small" districts (1920–1924): 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 (16 Representatives)
SNTV "large" districts era (1902–1917), in Hokkaidō FPTP single-member districts: Sapporo city (ku) · Hakodate city (ku) · Otaru city (ku) · subprefectures 1 · subprefectures 2 · subprefectures 3 (3→6 Representatives)