Kochi at-large district

The Kochi at-large district (Japanese: 高知県選挙区 Hepburn: Kōchi-ken Senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Kochi Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. Councillors are elected to the house by single non-transferable vote (SNTV) for six-year terms. Since the establishment of the current House of Councillors electoral system in 1947, the district has elected two Councillors, one each at elections held every three years. With its 618,834 registered voters (as of September 2015)^[1] it is the third-smallest electoral district for the house. To address the imbalance in representation between districts, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law will see the district merged with the Tokushima At-large district to create the Tokushima-Kochi At-large district;^[2] this change will begin to take effect at the 2016 election, at which one Councillor will be elected.

The Councillors currently representing Kochi are:

• Hajime Hirota (Democratic Party of Japan; term ends in 2016)
• Kojiro Takano (Liberal Democratic Party; term ends in 2019)

Elected Councillors

class of 1947	election year	class of 1950
(1947: 6-year term)		(1947: 3-year term)
Kameshichi Nishiyama (Liberal)	1947	Tazō Irimajiri (Democratic)
	1950	Tazō Irimajiri (Liberal)
Yutaka Terao (Liberal)	1953
	1956	Akira Sakamoto (Social Democratic)
Yutaka Terao (LDP)	1959
	1962	Shunji Shiomi (LDP)
	1965
	1968
Takao Hamada (LDP)[notes 1]	1971
Yu Hayashi (LDP)	1974 by-election
	1974
	1977
	1980	Kanzo Tanigawa (LDP)
	1983
	1986
Ruriko Nishioka (Social Democratic)	1989
	1992	Sadao Hirano (Ind.)
Kohei Tamura (Ind.)	1995
	1998	Hiroyuki Morishita (LDP)
	2001
	2004[3]	Hajime Hirota (Ind.)[notes 2]
Norio Takeuchi (DPJ)	2007[4]
	2010[5]	Hajime Hirota (DPJ)
Kojiro Takano (LDP)	2013[6]
	2016	Seat abolished
Seat abolished	2019

1. Died in office on 23 March 1974
2. Joined the Democratic Party in 2009.

Election results

2013[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Kojiro Takano (endorsed by Komeito)	159,709	52.9
	Communist	Yuriko Hamakawa	72,939	24.1
	Democratic	Norio Takeuchi	65,236	21.6
	Happiness Realization	Tsuyoshi Hashizume	4,268	1.4
Turnout				49.89

2010[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Hajime Hirota (Endorsed by People's New Party)	137,306	37.5
	Liberal Democratic	Kojiro Takano	123,898	33.8
	Independent	Kohei Tamura	56,977	15.6
	Communist	Naoaki Haruna	38,998	10.7
	Independent	Toshihisa Fujishima	8,899	2.4
Turnout				58.49

2007[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Norio Takeuchi	166,220	44.7
	Liberal Democratic	Kohei Tamura (endorsed by Komeito)	154,104	41.4
	Communist	Nobuo Murakami	51,629	13.9
Turnout

2004[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Hajime Hirota (Endorsed by DPJ)	159,178	43.6
	Liberal Democratic	Hiroyuki Morishita (Endorsed by Komeito)	130,544	35.7
	Communist	Sachi Nakane	52,169	14.3
	Independent	Yumiko Matsuoka (Endorsed by SDP)	23,441	6.4
Turnout

References

• "List of Former Councillors (A to Sa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
• "List of Former Councillors (Ta to Ha)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
• "List of Former Councillors (Ma to Wa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2016.

Footnotes

1. "平成２７年９月２日（定時登録日）現在における選挙人名簿 登録者数の概要" [2 September 2015 (Periodic Registration Day) Current enrolled voters - Overview of number of registered voters] (in Japanese). 2 September 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
2. "Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet". Japan Times. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
3. "選挙区開票結果　<高知県>" [District election results (Kochi)] (in Japanese). Asahi Shimbun. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
4. "選挙区　高知県 開票結果 参院選2007" [Kochi At-large district election results, 2007 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 11 March 2016.
5. "選挙区 高知 選挙結果 参議院選挙（参院選）2010" [Kochi At-large district election results, 2010 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
6. "選挙区 高知 選挙結果 参議院選挙（参院選）2013" [Kochi At-large district election results, 2013 House of Councillors election]. Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 22 February 2016.