2 Results

National newspapers concluded that the election benefitted the Democrat Party (DPJ) more so than the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP). The DPJ actually garnered the plurality of votes and gained 40 more seats, making it the largest opposition party with a total lower-house membership of 177. Among those in the ruling coalition, only the New Clean Government Party (New Komeito) made gains, bringing its total lower-house membership to 34 from 31 members before the election. Since Prime Minister Koizumi was unable to gain more seats for the LDP based upon his high approval ratings — around 60% — some experts believe the election has left Koizumi a weakened Prime Minister while others point out that several of the Non-partisans were really of LDP, most notably 'Kato Koichi' and LDP had in fact maintained the number of seats.

The LDP performed well in rural areas while the DPJ performed well in urban areas. The turnout was 59.86%, the second lowest since 1945. The average age of new members of the house was 51.03, 3.2 years younger than in the previous election. Among new members, 302 were born after 1945. After the election, the total number of women in the lower-house decreased to 34 from 35 before the election.

Poll data collected early in the election season and in exit polls highlight the role of swing voters, who accounted for 18% of the total vote. According to Asahi Shimbun, more than half of swing voters voted for the DPJ. These exit polls produced highly contradictory preliminary reports. There was a case where DPJ was predicted to capture up to 230 seats, more than 50 above the actual result.

The Liberal Democrat Party failed to achieve an absolute majority by itself, requiring it to maintain its coalition with the New Clean Government Party and the New Conservative Party. Senior politicians in the LDP attribute the results to disenfranchisement among traditional supporters of the LDP, resulting in an increased dependency on the coalition. Some politicians in the LDP are concerned about the influence of the New Clean Government Party on LDP policy because of the dependency.

Some experts believe the Democrat Party has emerged an effective opposition party to the entrenched Liberal Democrat Party. During the campaign, the DPJ produced an itemized policy manifesto — a first in post-war Japanese elections — and publicized a "shadow cabinet" (with Naoto Kan as Prime Minister), which is usually created by political parties during election season in the United Kingdom, for example. The DPJ also criticized the reforms proposed by Koizumi and the LDP’s sluggishness in their implementation, as well as the LDP's position on Iraq while steering clear on other foreign issues.

Smaller parties performed poorly. The Social Democrat Party lost 3 seats, bringing their lower-house membership to 6, while the Japanese Communist Party lost 11 seats, bringing their total membership to 9 from 20 before the election. Both parties thus lack the ability to propose a law alone since that requires minimum of 10 members. The New Conservative Party lost 5 seats, lowering their total to 4 seats from 9 seats, and merged wthe LDP shortly after the election. The Japanese Communist Party blamed the negative results on the media, which they claimed focused on the LDP and DPJ.

Although the LDP failed to secure a simple majority, on November 19, the Diet appointed Junichiro Koizumi the Prime Minister in its short special session [1] and, within a month, the LDP regained a majority by absorbing the Conservative Party.

Party	Single-member constituencies	Proportional representation	Total
Liberal Democrat	168	69	237 (247)
Democrat	105	72	177 (137)
New Clean Government	9	25	34 (31)
Japanese Communist	0	9	9 (20)
Social Democrat	1	5	6 (18)
New Conservative	4	0	4 (9)
Independent	1	0	1 (5)
Liberal League	1	0	1 (1)
Enviormental Green	0	0	0 (2)
Non-partisan	11	-	11 (6)

Numbers in parentheses indicate seats held before the election.

Another presentation of the results

(Source: Adam Carr's Election Archive, using figures from Yomiuri Online)

NATIONAL SUMMARY ========================================================================== These figures are an aggregation of votes cast in the Block constituencies. Votes and seats are compared with those won at the 2000 elections. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seats Party Votes % Con Blk Total -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Clean Government 8,733,444 14.8 (+01.7) 9 25 34 +05 Communist 4,586,172 07.7 (-03.6) - 9 9 -11 Democrat 22,095,606 37.4 (+11.9) 105 72 177 +48 Liberal Democrat 20,660,185 34.9 (+06.2) 168 69 237 -02 Social Democrat 3,072,390 05.2 (-04.2) 1 5 6 -09 Others - 17 - 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 59,102,797 300 180 480 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Con" means seats won in single-member constituencies. "Blk" means seats won by proportional representation in the Block constituencies. Votes for the New Conservative Party are included with the Liberal Democrats, with whom they merged after the elections.

3 Reference

• Analysis of the general election (in Japanese)

4 External links

• BBC - Japanese election guide
• The Japan Times - LDP bloc weathers DPJ onslaught

Elections in Japan

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