Sangiin election 2013

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Share of votes in%

 %

50

40

30th

20th

10

0

42.7

16.3

10.6

7.8

7.2

5.1

4.0

1.2

4.9

LDP

DPJ

KPJ

Minna

Ishin

Kōmeitō

Independent

Midori

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2010

 % p

 10

   5

   0

  -5

-10

-15

-20

-25

+9.3

-22.7

+3.3

-2.4

+7.2

+1.2

+1.7

+1.2

+0.9

LDP

DPJ

KPJ

Minna

Ishin

Kōmeitō

Independent

Midori

Otherwise.

2013 proportional representation (48 seats)

Share of votes in%

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

34.7

14.2

13.4

11.9

9.7

8.9

2.4

1.8

3.1

LDP

Kōmeitō

DPJ

Ishin

KPJ

Minna

SDP

Seikatsu

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2010

 % p

 12

 10

   8th

   6th

   4th

   2

   0

  -2

  -4

  -6

  -8th

-10

-12

-14

-16

-18

-20

+10.6

+1.1

-18.2

+11.9

+3.6

-4.7

-1.4

+1.8

-4.7

LDP

Kōmeitō

DPJ

Ishin

KPJ

Minna

SDP

Seikatsu

Otherwise.

New overall composition of the Sangiin

          

A total of 242 seats

• LDP : 115
• DPJ : 59
• Kōmeitō : 20
• Minna : 18
• KPY : 11
• Ishin : 9
• SDP : 3
• Seikatsu : 2
• Others: 2
• Independent: 3

The 2013 Sangiin election , formally the “23rd Ordinary election of Sangiin MPs “( Japanese 第 23 回 参議院 議員 通常 選 挙 dai-nijūsan-kai Sangiin giin tsūjōotenyo ), to the Japanese council house ( Sangiin ) , the upper house (jōin) of the national parliament ( Kokkai ) , took place on July 21st 2013, the official election campaign started on July 4th.

Half of the 242 MPs stood for a six-year term in a trench election system : 73 are determined by non-transferable individual votes in the 47  prefectural electoral districts, 48 ​​in nationwide proportional representation with preferential voting . Following a reallocation of mandates decided in 2012, the prefectures of Kanagawa and Osaka now each elect four instead of the previous three MPs, and Fukushima and Gifu each elect one instead of two. In the half up for election, elected in 2007 , the Democratic Party was the strongest party despite numerous party withdrawals.

background

Since December 2012, a coalition cabinet made up of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Kōmeitō under the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe , which enjoyed high approval ratings, ruled over 70% in some polls. The coalition has had a two-thirds majority in the lower house since the Shūgiin election in 2012 , but not a majority in the Sangiin, a so-called Nejire Kokkai ("twisted parliament").

Several major elections took place in the weeks before the regular Sangiin election: a Sangiin by-election in Yamaguchi Prefecture on April 28 for the non-elected half of the chamber in July, which Kiyoshi Ejima (LDP) sovereignly won, the gubernatorial election in Shizuoka on June 16, in which the LDP-backed Ichirō Hirose defeated incumbent Heita Kawakatsu , and the prefectural parliamentary election in Tokyo on June 23, in which all candidates from LDP and Kōmeitō won.

The previously very restrictive regulations for online election campaigns were relaxed by a change in the law in April 2013. Among other things, the candidates are now allowed to update their websites and blogs during the official election campaign. A similar law was discussed before the 2010 Sangiin election but was not passed in time and was not reinstated in the subsequent Nejire Kokkai.

Starting position

In the half that was not up for election, the coalition parties had 59 members and the opposition parties had 62. In the half that was up for election, the opposition held 72 seats against 44 for the government - five seats are vacant - a clear majority:

Party affiliation of the 2013 elected MPs in Sangiin

Party affiliation of the incumbent (as of June 6, 2013) : Liberal Democratic Party Kōmeitō Democratic Party Seikatsu no Tō Midori no Kaze Minna no Tō Nippon Ishin no Kai Communist Party of Japan Social Democratic Party Others ( Kaikaku , Daichi , Shadaitō ) independent vacant										Hokkaidō 
									Aomori 
									Akita 	Iwate 
								Niigata 	Yamagata 	Miyagi 
							Ishikawa 	Toyama 	Tochigi 	Fukushima (−1) 
						Fukui 	Nagano 	Gunma 	Saitama 	Ibaraki 
		Shimane 	Tottori 	Hyogo 	Kyoto 	Shiga 	Gifu (−1) 	Yamanashi 	Tokyo 	Chiba 
		Yamaguchi 	Hiroshima 	Okayama 	Osaka (+1) 	Nara 	Aichi 	Shizuoka 	Kanagawa (+1) 
saga 	Fukuoka 					Wakayama 	Mie 
Nagasaki 	Kumamoto 	Ōita 		Ehime 	Kagawa 	Nationwide proportional representation (48 seats) 12 7 16 3 3 2 1 1 2 1 + 1 / −1: constituency elects one more / less MP from 2013
	Kagoshima 	Miyazaki 		Kochi 	Tokushima 
Okinawa 

271 candidates competed for the 73 constituency seats, and twelve parties with a total of 162 candidates competed for the 48 proportional representation seats. The LDP provided 49Constituency and 29 proportional representation candidates, the Kōmeitō has nominated four candidates in the constituencies and 17 for proportional representation, a total of 99 candidates from the governing coalition. In order to achieve a total government majority (122 seats) and to end the nejire Kokkai , at least 63 of these candidates had to be elected. A two-thirds majority (162 seats), which would be required for a constitutional change sought by Abe, could not be achieved by the coalition alone without further partners, even if all of its 99 candidates had been elected. Ishin no Kai and Minna no Tō in particular, but also some members of the Democratic Party, are fundamentally open to a constitutional change; it is principally rejected by the left-wing parties CPJ and SDP.

Result

The governing coalition won 76 seats and will have a majority in the Sangiin with 135 seats. Of the 31 single-mandate constituencies, the LDP won 29, in constituencies with three or more seats, all twelve candidates were elected by the LDP and Kōmeitō, and in Tokyo the LDP won two seats for the first time in more than two decades. The Democratic Party remained without a mandate in many multi-mandate constituencies, including Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, where the Japanese Communist Party - after several elections without direct mandates - won one seat each. Of the 48 proportional representation mandates, 25 went to the governing parties and 23 to the opposition.

The turnout fell to the third lowest level in elections to the Sangiin since 1947. In the direct election it was 52.61%, a decrease of more than five points compared to 2010. The only prefectural constituency in which the turnout compared to 2010 by about one point to 53, 43% rose was Okinawa. Participation was highest in the prefectures of Yamagata and Shimane, at over 60%. The option of early voting was used more than ever before: a total of over 12.9 million voters had cast their votes by July 20. In the proportional representation, the turnout was also 52.61% nationwide.

Overall result of the 2013 Sangiin election

Political party		Composition before the election			Constituencies			Proportional representation			Elected in 2013	Composition according to the choice
		total	not an option	for optional	be right	proportion of	Seats	be right	proportion of	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party	84	50	34	22,681,192, 000	42.7%	47	18,460,335.204	34.7%	18th	65	115
	Democratic Party	86	42	44	8,646,371,570	16.3%	10	7,134,215.038	13.4%	7th	17th	59
	Kōmeitō	19th	9	10	2,724,447, 000	5.1%	4th	7,568,082.149	14.2%	7th	11	20th
	Minna no Tō	13	10	3	4,159,961, 000	7.8%	4th	4,755,160,805	8.9%	4th	8th	18th
	Communist Party of Japan	6th	3	3	5,645,937, 000	10.6%	3	5,154,055.457	9.7%	5	8th	11
	Nippon Ishin no Kai	3	1	2	3,846,649, 000	7.2%	2	6,355,299.503	11.9%	6th	8th	9
	Social Democratic Party	4th	2	2	271,547, 000	0.5%	0	1,255,235, 000	2.4%	1	1	3
	Seikatsu no Tō	8th	2	6th	618.355, 000	1.2%	0	943,836,577	1.8%	0	0	2
	Okinawa Shakai Taishūtō	1	0	1	294,420, 000	0.6%	1	-			1	1
	Shinto Kaikaku	2	1	1	-						0	1
	Midori no Kaze	4th	0	4th	620.272, 000	1.2%	0	430,742.879	0.8%	0	0	0
	Shinto Daichi	1	0	1	409.007, 000	0.8%	0	523,146.445	1.0%	0	0	0
	Others	0	0	0	1,055,715.376	2.0%	0	649,505.699	1.3%	0	0	0
	Independent	6th	1	5	2,098,603, 000	4.0%	2	-			2	3
total		237 (5 vacancies)	121	116 (5 vacancies)	53,072,476.946	100.00%	73	53,229,614.756	100.00%	48	121	242

For an explanation of the decimal places, see Elections in Japan # Voting .

Constituencies

2013 constituency results

Party affiliation of the election winners (status: election day) : Liberal Democratic Party Kōmeitō Democratic Party Minna no Tō Nippon Ishin no Kai Communist Party of Japan Social Democratic Party Okinawa Shakai Taishūtō independent In multi-mandate constituencies from left to right with descending numbers of votes										Hokkaidō 
									Aomori 
									Akita 	Iwate 
								Niigata 	Yamagata 	Miyagi 
							Ishikawa 	Toyama 	Tochigi 	Fukushima (−1) 
						Fukui 	Nagano 	Gunma 	Saitama 	Ibaraki 
		Shimane 	Tottori 	Hyogo 	Kyoto 	Shiga 	Gifu (−1) 	Yamanashi 	Tokyo 	Chiba 
		Yamaguchi 	Hiroshima 	Okayama 	Osaka (+1) 	Nara 	Aichi 	Shizuoka 	Kanagawa (+1) 
saga 	Fukuoka 					Wakayama 	Mie 
Nagasaki 	Kumamoto 	Ōita 		Ehime 	Kagawa 	Nationwide proportional representation (48 seats) 18 7 7 6 5 4 1
	Kagoshima 	Miyazaki 		Kochi 	Tokushima 
Okinawa 

Proportional representation

In the proportional representation, the Democratic Party fell back to third place behind the Kōmeitō. The candidates with the most preferential votes were:

Results of proportional representation

Political party	LDP		Kōmeitō		DP		Ishin		KPJ		Minna
Total votes	18,460,335.204		7,568,080.149		7,134,215.038		6,355,299.503		5,154,055.457		4,755,160,805
Party votes	14,080,143, 000		3,333,142, 000		4,827,158, 000		5,191,563.306		4,947,765.696		4,221,422, 000
Candidate votes	4,380,192.204		4,234,940.149		2,307,057.038		1,163,736.197		506,289.764		533,738,805
Mandates	18th		7th		7th		6th		5		4th
Elected candidates with the most votes (Top 3)	Yoshifumi Tsuge	429,002.906	Kanae Yamamoto	996,959,690	Tetsuji Isozaki	271,553, 000	Antonio Inoki	356605, 000	Akira Koike	134,325.222	Ryuhei Kawada	117,389, 000
	Toshio Yamada	338,485.641	Daisaku Hiraki	770.682, 000	Yoshifumi Hamano	235,917.899	Kyōko Nakayama	306.341, 000	Yoshiki Yamashita	129,149, 000	Kazuyuki Yamaguchi	75,000, 000
	Masahisa Satō	326,541,343	Yoshihiro Kawano	703,637, 000	Kumiko Aihara	235,636, 000	Mitsuo Zama	40,484,066	Tomoko Kami	68,729,911	Michitarō Watanabe	50,253,413

Political party	SDP		Seikatsu		Daichi		Greens		Midori		Kofuku
Total votes	1,255,235, 000		943,836,577		523,146.445		457,862,077		430,673.879		191,643.622
Party votes	938.227, 000		723.987, 000		398,848, 000		242,460.295		319,700.769		153.296, 000
Candidate votes	317.008, 000		219,849,577		124,298.445		215,401.782		111,042,110		38,347.622
Mandates	1		0		0		0		0		0
Elected	Seiji Mataichi	156.155, 000	-
Best-placed, non-elected candidate	Hiroji Yamashiro	112,641, 000	Kenji Yamaoka	56,372,620	Muneo Suzuki	62,902,333	Yōhei Miyake	176,970,480	Kuniko Tanioka	51,367, 000	Hisshō Yanai	17,010, 000

Constitutionality

The Okayama Branch of the Hiroshima Supreme Court found the lack of equality in the elections unconstitutional in November 2013 and also declared the election in the Okayama prefectural constituency to be invalid in a first-time decision for Sangiin elections. Similar complaints were made for all 47 prefectural constituencies. But ultimately the Supreme Court found that the election was “in an unconstitutional state” but valid ( 違憲 状態 iken jōtai , a legally weaker phrase than directly “unconstitutional”, 違憲 iken ; both “unconstitutional” elections and elections “in an unconstitutional state “Have always been declared valid so far and the constituency division has only been corrected for future elections). In 2015, a reapportionment between twelve prefectures was decided to correct it.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Sōmu-shō : 平 成 ２５ 年 ７ 月 ２１ 日 執行 第 ２３ 回 参議院 議員 通常 選 挙 結果 調 (PDF; 704 kB)
2. ↑ Reuters: Japanese government goes into upper house election with a tailwind
3. ↑ realpolitics.jp, approval ratings of the cabinet and political parties in monthly surveys of major news media
4. ^ Ayako Mie: Diet OKs Internet election campaigns. In: The Japan Times . April 19, 2013, accessed April 20, 2013 . 
5. ↑ NHK News Web, July 4, 2013: 参 院 選 公示 ４３３ 人 が 立 候補 ( Memento from July 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ 都 道 府 県 別 投票 率 （参 院） . In: Jiji Tsūshin . July 22, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013 (Japanese). 
7. ↑ 参 院 選 の 期 日前 投票 、 1294 万人 で 最多 . In: Nihon Keizai Shimbun . July 21, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2013 (Japanese). 
8. ↑ 投票 率 は ５２ ・ ６１ ％ 、 過去 ３ 番 目 の 低 さ 総 務 省 . (No longer available online.) In: MSN / Sankei News. July 22, 2013, archived from the original on July 22, 2013 ; Retrieved July 23, 2013 (Japanese). 
9. ↑ Yomiuri Shimbun : election result Sangiin 2013
10. ↑ 「７ 月 参 院 選 は 違憲 で 無効」 一 票 の 格 差 で 高 裁 支部 . In: Asahi Shimbun Digital. November 28, 2013. Retrieved November 28, 2013 (Japanese). 
11. ^ Court voids poll in western Japan constituency on vote disparity. (No longer available online.) In: The Mainichi . November 28, 2013, archived from the original on December 3, 2013 ; accessed on November 28, 2013 (English). 
12. ↑ Japan's Elections: In Unconstitutional State But Not Unconstitutional. In: Wall Street Journal Japan Real Time. November 20, 2013, accessed June 4, 2019 .