2012 Japanese general election

2012 Japanese general election
← 2009 16 December 2012 2014 →
All 480 seats in the House of Representatives
241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout59.32% (Decrease9.87pp; Const. votes)
59.31% (Decrease9.88pp; PR votes)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Shinzō Abe 20120501 (with badge, cropped).jpg
Yoshihiko Noda 20110902 (retouched).jpg
Shintarō Ishihara 2003.jpg
Leader Shinzō Abe Yoshihiko Noda Shintaro Ishihara
Party LDP Democratic Restoration
Last election 119 seats 308 seats Did not exist
Seats won 294 57 54
Seat change Increase175 Decrease251 New
Constituency vote 25,643,309 13,598,774 6,942,354
% and swing 43.01% (Increase4.33pp) 22.81% (Decrease24.62pp) 11.64% (New)
Regional vote 16,624,457 9,268,653 12,262,228
% and swing 27.79% (Increase1.06pp) 15.49% (Decrease26.92pp) 20.50% (New)
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Natsuo Yamaguchi 2014.jpg
Yoshimi Watanabe cropped 2 YoshimiWatanabeJI1.jpg
Kada Yukiko 1-1 (cropped).jpg
Leader Natsuo Yamaguchi Yoshimi Watanabe Yukiko Kada
Party Komeito Your Tomorrow
Last election 21 seats 5 seats Did not exist
Seats won 31 18 9
Seat change Increase10 Increase13 New
Constituency vote 885,881 2,807,245 2,992,366
% and swing 1.49% (Increase0.38pp) 4.71% (Increase3.84pp) 5.02% (New)
Regional vote 7,116,474 5,245,586 3,423,915
% and swing 11.90% (Increase0.45pp) 8.77% (Increase4.50pp) 5.72% (New)
  Seventh party
 
Kazuo Shii cropped.jpg
Leader Kazuo Shii
Party JCP
Last election 9 seats
Seats won 8
Seat change Decrease1
Constituency vote 4,700,290
% and swing 7.88% (Increase3.66pp)
Regional vote 3,689,159
% and swing 6.17% (Decrease0.86pp)
Districts and PR districts shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election

Yoshihiko Noda
Democratic

Elected Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe
LDP

This article is part of a series on
Politics of Japan
Constitution and Laws
The Monarchy

Naruhito

Fumihito

Executive

Shigeru Ishiba (LDP)

Second Ishiba Cabinet
(LDP–Komeito coalition)
Legislature

Fukushiro Nukaga

  • Vice Speaker

Kōichirō Genba

Masakazu Sekiguchi

  • Vice President

Hiroyuki Nagahama
Judiciary

Saburo Tokura

Bank of Japan
  • Governor

Kazuo Ueda

Elections


Japanese general elections


Japanese House of Councillors elections


Unified local elections
Administrative divisions
Foreign relations
flag Japan portal

General elections were held in Japan on 16 December 2012. Voters gave the Liberal Democratic Party a landslide victory, ejecting the Democratic Party from power after three years. It was the fourth worst defeat suffered by a ruling party in Japanese history.

Voting took place in all representatives' constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan.

In July 2012, it was reported that the deputy prime minister Katsuya Okada had approached the Liberal Democratic Party to sound them out about dissolving the House of Representatives and holding the election in January 2013.[1] An agreement was reached in August to dissolve the Diet and hold early elections "shortly" following the passage of a bill to raise the national consumption tax.[2] Some right-wing observers asserted that as the result of introducing the consumption tax to repay the Japanese public debt,[3][4][5][6][7] the DPJ lost around 75% of its pre-election seats.[8][9]

  1. ^ "Okada eyes Jan. dissolution of lower house". Yomiuri Shimbun. Jiji Press. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
  2. ^ Harlan, Chico (18 August 2012). "In Japan, new taxes levy political toll on Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 August 2012.
  3. ^ "Statistics Bureau Home Page/Chapter 4 Finance". Archived from the original on 5 January 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  4. ^ "Japan's Debt Challenge".
  5. ^ Schuman, Michael (6 April 2011). "A hard look at Japan's debt problem". Time. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
  6. ^ "Japan's national debt hits record 960 trillion yen - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun". Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
  7. ^ "Japan's Debt Sustains a Deflationary Depression". Bloomberg.
  8. ^ "UPDATE: Kaieda elected president of shattered DPJ - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun". Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  9. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)