Japanese general election, 1996

Japanese general election, 1996

20 October 1996

All 500 seats to the House of Representatives of Japan 251 seats needed for a majority Turnout 59.65%   First party Second party   Leader Ryutaro Hashimoto Ichirō Ozawa Party Liberal Democratic New Frontier Leader since 1 October 1995 28 December 1995 Leader's seat Okayama-2nd Iwate-4th Last election 223 seats, 36.6% 55 seats, 10.1% Seats before 211 160 Seats won 239 156 Seat change 28 4 Popular vote 21,836,091 (district) 18,205,955 (block) 15,812,320 (district) 15,580,053 (block) Percentage 38.6% (district) 32.7% (block) 27.9% (district) 28.0% (block)

Prime Minister before election Ryutaro Hashimoto Liberal Democratic Prime Minister-designate Ryutaro Hashimoto Liberal Democratic

A general election took place in Japan on October 20, 1996. Incumbent Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto of the coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Party Sakigake and the Social Democratic Party won the election.

This is the first election under new elections rules established in 1993 with single non-transferable vote, single-member districts, and some seats being distributed according to proportional representation. Before this election, each district was represented by multiple members, sometimes from the same party, causing intra-party competition. Under the new rules, each district has only one representative now representing a wide range of interests for his or her district. A separate party-list was introduced for voters to choose their favored party (in addition to votes for individual candidates) as a way to more accurately approximate the seats in the House of Representatives of Japan to the actual party votes in an effort to achieve more proportional representation.

With only a single member in each district, this change allows for more district-wide benefits. This is opposed to the old multi-member districts where each representative appeals to either policy or geographic-based benefits to narrow interests in their constituencies, who in turn help their member's campaign in their reelection efforts.

Results

The coalition government won a narrow majority in the election. The Social Democratic Party and the New Party Sakigake lost most of its seats in the House of Representatives due to the formation of coalition with the LDP. The turnout of the election was 59.65%.

 Summary of the 18 July 1996 Japanese House of Representatives election results^[1][2][3]

Alliances and parties		Local constituency vote			PR block vote			Total seats	+/−
		Votes[4]	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)	21,836,096	38.63%	169	18,205,955	32.76%	70	239	28
	Social Democratic Party (SDP)	1,240,649	2.19%	4	3,547,240	6.38%	11	15	15
	New Party Harbinger (NPH)	727,644	1.29%	2	582,093	1.05%	0	2	7
	Ruling coalition	23,804,389	42.11%	175	22,335,288	40.19%	81	256	6
	New Frontier Party (NFP)	15,812,326	27.97%	96	15,580,053	28.04%	60	156	4
	Democratic Party (DPJ)	6,001,666	10.62%	17	8,949,190	16.10%	35	52	0
	Japan Communist Party (JCP)	7,096,766	12.55%	2	7,268,743	13.08%	24	26	11
	Democratic Reform League	149,357	0.26%	1	18,884	0.03%	0	1	1
	Others	1,155,108	2.04%	0	1,417,077	2.55%	0	0	4
	Opposition parties	30,215,223	53.45%	116	33,233,907	59.81%	119	235	2
	Independents	2,508,810	4.44%	9	–			9	1
Totals		56,528,422	100.00%	300	55,569,195	100.00%	200	500	7 (electoral reform: -11 18 vacant seats)
Turnout		59.65%			59.62%			–

Numbers in parentheses indicate seats held before the election.

References

Elections in Japan
General elections	1890 1892 1894 (Mar) 1894 (Sep) 1898 (Mar) 1898 (Sep) 1902 1903 1904 1908 1912 1915 1917 1920 1924 1928 1930 1932 1936 1937 1942 1946 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1958 1960 1963 1967 1969 1972 1976 1979 1980 1983 1986 1990 1993 1996 2000 2003 2005 2009 2012 2014 next
Councillors elections	1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016
Unified local elections	1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015