Tokyo 18th district

Tokyo 18th district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in western Tokyo and consists of the cities of Musashino, Koganei and Fuchū. Until 2002, it included Mitaka (now part of Tokyo 22nd district) instead of Fuchū. As of 2008, 407,322 eligible voters were registered in the district.^[1]

Before the electoral reform of 1994, the area had been part of Tokyo 7th district, where four representatives were elected by Single non-transferable vote (SNTV).

The district has been represented by popular Democratic Party co-founder and former Minister of Health Naoto Kan since its creation in 1994. In the election of 2005 it was the only constituency the opposition could defend in Tokyo against the landslide for Junichiro Koizumi's ruling coalition. In 2003, then party chairman Kan beat former Minister of Labour Kunio Hatoyama, the younger brother of Democratic Party leader Yukio Hatoyama by a margin of more than 50,000 votes.

In the election of 2009, Masatada Tsuchiya was the candidate for the ruling LDP.^[2] Tsuchiya who failed to unseat Kan in 2005 was a representative for the Tokyo proportional representation block where he ranked second on the LDP's list 2005.^[3] In 2009 he failed to secure reelection in the Tokyo block.

Election results

References