House of Councillors elections were held in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

on 29 July 2001. They were the first national elections since

Junichiro Koizumi Junichiro Koizumi (; , ''Koizumi Jun'ichirō'' ; born 8 January 1942) is a former Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics in 2009. He is ...

became Prime Minister after Yoshiro Mori resigned in April 2001. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its election allies, were the major winner, provided Koizumi a strong mandates to move forward with his reform policies. The ruling

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

performed well, and regain their majority in the

House of Councillors The is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, ...

Background

The electoral reform enacted in 2000 became effective for the first time. The number of Councillors per election was reduced by five, by two in the nationwide proportional representation and by one each in Okayama, Kumamoto and Miyazaki. In addition, preference voting was introduced. Instead of a party name, voters could now write the name of a single PR candidate on the ballot. The vote then counts for the party as well as the candidate; the total number of votes for a party list or its candidates determines the number of PR seats a party receives while the candidate votes determine who takes those seats for the party. As a result of the party realignments of the 1990s, several two-member districts were represented by two Councillors from the same party before the 2001 election. Some of these Councillors lost the official nomination of their party (e.g. in Niigata), others retired (Hokkaidō, Tochigi). Most of these district split seats between ruling coalition and opposition again, in the case of both incumbents seeking re-election resulting in one of the two losing their seat (Nagano, Shizuoka).

Results

Proportional representation results

The 2001 election was the first to use an

open list Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, which allows only active members, par ...

system (非拘束名簿式) to elect proportional representation seats in the House. Under this system, voters may vote for either a political party or a specific candidate. The proportional seats are distributed among the parties by D'Hondt method according to their overall proportional votes, including candidate votes. The ranking of candidates on each party list is then determined by the candidate votes. The results for the major parties were as follows (decimals omitted): #

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a conservativeThe Liberal Democratic Party is widely described as conservative: * * * * * List of political parties in Japan, political party in Japan. The LDP has been in power almost continuously s ...

(LDP): 21,114,727 (party: 14,925,437, candidates: 6,189,290), 38.6%, 20 seats #

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(DPJ): 8,990,524 (party: 6,082,694, candidates: 2,907,830), 16.4%, 8 seats #

New Komeito , formerly New Komeito and abbreviated NKP, is a conservative political party in Japan founded by lay members of the Buddhist Japanese new religious movement Soka Gakkai in 1964. Since 2012, it has served in government as the junior coalit ...

(NK): 8,187,804 (party: 1,865,797, candidates: 6,322,007), 15.0%, 8 seats #

Japan Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

(JCP): 4,329,210 (party: 4,065,047, candidates: 264,163), 7.9%, 4 seats #

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

(LP): 4,227,148 (party: 3,642,884, candidates: 584,264), 7.7%, 4 seats #

Social Democratic Party of Japan The is a political party in Japan that was established in 1996. Since its reformation and name change in 1996, it has advocated pacifism and defined itself as a social-democratic party. It was previously known as the . The party was refounded ...

(SDP): 3,628,635 (party: 2,298,104, candidates: 1,330,531), 6.6%, 3 seats # Conservative Party of Japan (CP): 1,275,002 (party: 609,382, candidates: 665,620), 2.3%, 1 seat # Other parties (aggregate): 2.988.442, 5.5%, no seat The final ranking of PR candidates and their individual vote counts were as follows:

Prefectural races

Elected candidates in bold Compiled from

JANJAN ''JANJAN'' (), short for ''Japan Alternative News for Justices and New Cultures'' (), was a Japanese online newspaper started by Ken Takeuchi, journalist and former mayor of Kamakura, Kanagawa. Launched in February 2003, the newspaper is credited ...

's "The Senkyo" and Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications official election results. ''Notes:'' * ''All incumbents not running for re-election in their prefectural electoral district are counted as retirements even if they ran in the nationwide proportional representation.'' * ''In a multi-member district, there is no difference between Councillors elected with the highest and lower vote shares. Yet, "top tōsen", i.e. being elected with the highest vote, is considered a special achievement and thus noted where changed from the previous election for the same class of Councillors (1995).'' * ''In the results column, independents are counted towards the party they joined in the first Diet session after the election.'' Party abbreviations used: * Ruling coalition ** LDP Liberal Democratic Party ** Kōmeitō "Justice Party" ** CP

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

* Opposition ** DPJ

** JCP

Japanese Communist Party The is a left-wing to far-left political party in Japan. With approximately 270,000 members belonging to 18,000 branches, it is one of the largest non-governing communist parties in the world. The party advocates the establishment of a democr ...

** SDP

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

** LP

* I Independent * Minor parties: IA "Independent Assembly", Dainiin

Dainiin Club The Dainiin Club (第二院クラブ) is a political party in the Upper House of Japan. The word "Dainiin" (第二院) means the House of Councillors (参議院 ''Sangiin''). The direct meaning of "''Dainiin''" in Japanese is "The 2nd House". In ...

, LL Liberal League, Ishin Ishin Seitō Shinpū, WP Women's Party, NSP New Socialist Party, Kibō "New Party Freedom and Hope"

References

* Mahendra Prakash (2004), ''Coalition Experience in Japanese Politics: 1993-2003'',

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

: JNU. {{Japanese elections

2001 elections in Japan House of Councillors (Japan) elections July 2001 events in Japan Election and referendum articles with incomplete results