Gifu at-large district

The Gifu at-large district (Japanese: 岐阜県選挙区 Hepburn: Gifu-ken senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Gifu Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. It currently has three Councillors in the 242-member house.

Outline

From the first House of Councillors election in 1947 until the 1992 election, Gifu elected two Councillors to six-year terms at alternating elections held every three years. Electoral reform in 1994 increased Gifu's representation to four Councillors, which began to take effect at the 1992 election, at which two Councillors were elected.

In September 2012 Gifu had 1,684,766 registered voters,^[1] the second-lowest of the 12 prefectures that were represented by 4 Councillors at that time. By comparison, the three most populous districts of Hokkaido, Hyogo at-large district and Fukuoka districts each had more than 4 million voters^[1] but were also represented by four Councillors each. To address this malapportionment, a November 2012 amendment to the Public Offices Election Law reduced Gifu's representation (along with Fukushima's) representation to two Councillors.^[2] This change began to take effect at the 2013 election, when only one Councillor was elected in Gifu, and will be completed at the 2016 election. The district has 1,666,610 registered voters as of September 2015.^[3]

The Councillors currently representing Fukushima are:

• Takeyuki Watanabe (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), first term; term ends in 2016)^[4]
• Yoshiharu Komiyama (Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), first term; term ends in 2016)^[5]
• Yasutada Ohno (LDP, first term; term ends in 2019)^[6]

Elected Councillors

Note: Party listed is at the time of election

class of 1947		election year	class of 1950
#2	#1 (1947: 6-year term)		#1 (1947: 3-year term)	#2
-	Osamu Ito (Social Democratic)	1947	Jinkichi Watanabe (Ind.)	-
		1950	Shinzo Koike (Liberal)
	Keiichi Tanaka (Liberal)	1953
		1956	Shinzo Koike (LDP)
	Keiichi Tanaka (LDP)	1959
		1962
	Namio Nakamura (Social Democratic)[note 1]	1965
		1968
		1971
		1974	Heigo Fujii (LDP)[note 2]
	Hiromu Asano (LDP)[note 3]	1977
		1980
		Feb. 1981 by-election[note 4]	Takao Fujii (LDP)[note 5]
	Reijo Sugiyama (LDP)	June 1981 by-election[note 6]
		1983
		1986
	Kazunobu Takai (Rengō no Kai)[note 7]	1989
		1992
	Shoya Iwasaki (Social Democratic)	1993 by-election[note 8]	Junichi Kasahara (LDP)
Kenji Hirata (New Frontier)	Akira Ohno (LDP)[note 9]	1995
	Tsuyako Ohno (Ind.)	1996 by-election[note 10]
		1998	Iwada Matsuo (Ind.)	Yasuo Yamashita (DPJ)
Kenji Hirata (DPJ)	Tsuyako Ohno (LDP)	2001
		2004[10]	Iwao Matsuda (LDP)
	Takao Fujii (Ind.)	2007[11]
		2010[12]	Takeyuki Watanabe (LDP)	Toshiharu Komiyama (DPJ)
Seat abolished	Yasutada Ohno (LDP)	2013[13]

1. Resigned 12 January 1977^[7]
2. Died in office 14 December 1980^[7]
3. Died in office 15 May 1981^[8]
4. Held 1 February 1981^[7]
5. Resigned 18 June 1993^[7]
6. Held 28 June 1981^[8]
7. Resigned 21 June 1993^[7]
8. Held 18 July 1993^[8]
9. Died in office 5 February 1996^[8]
10. Held 24 March 1996^[9]

Election results

2013[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Yasutada Ohno (Endorsed by Komeito)	500,580	58.8
	Democratic	Rie Yoshida	218,074	25.6
	Communist	Masanori Suzuki	115,503	13.6
	Happiness Realization	Yukihiko Kano	17,893	2.1
Turnout

2010[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Takeyuki Watanabe (Endorsed by Sunrise Party)	425,594	44.0
	Democratic	Yoshiharu Komiyama (Endorsed by People's New Party)	229,225	23.7
	Democratic	Yasuo Yamashita (Endorsed by People's New Party)	221,343	22.9
	Communist	Masanori Suzuki	73,031	7.5
	Happiness Realization	Yukihiko Kano	18,138	1.9
Turnout

2007[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Takao Fujii (Endorsed by LDP, Komeito)	466,008	46.1
	Democratic	Kenji Hirata	445,489	44.1
	Communist	Takao Kato	99,301	9.8
Turnout

2004[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Iwao Matsuda (endorsed by Komeito)	428,988	44.5
	Democratic	Yasuo Yamashita	422,235	43.8
	Communist	Takao Kato	112,882	11.7
Turnout

See also

• List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan
• Gifu 1st district, one of Gifu Prefecture's five districts in the House of Representatives

References

1. "平成２4年９月２日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Number of resident and non-resident enrolled voters as of 2 September 2012] (in Japanese). 28 December 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
2. "Weighing Vote Disparity in Japan’s Upper House". 30 July 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
3. "平成２７年９月２日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Number of resident and non-resident enrolled voters as of 2 September 2015] (in Japanese). 28 December 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
4. "渡辺　猛之（わたなべ　たけゆき）：参議院" [Watanabe, Takeyuki: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 March 2016.
5. "小見山　幸治（こみやま　よしはる）：参議院" [Komiyama, Yoshiharu: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 March 2016.
6. "大野　泰正（おおの　やすただ）：参議院" [Ohno, Yasutada: House of Councillors] (in Japanese). Retrieved 15 March 2016.
7. "List of Former Councillors (Ta to Ha)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
8. "List of Former Councillors (A to Sa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
9. "歴代参議院議員一覧" [List of Former Councillors] (PDF) (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
10. "選挙区開票結果　<岐阜県>" [District results (Gifu)]. Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
11. "選挙区　岐阜県 開票結果 参院選2007" [Gifu at-large district election results, 2007 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
12. "選挙区　岐阜県 開票結果 参院選2010 参院選 選挙" [Gifu at-large district election results, 2010 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
13. "選挙区 岐阜 選挙結果 参議院選挙（参院選）2013" [Gifu at-large district election results, 2013 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 15 March 2016.