The Kanagawa at-large district is a constituency of the
House of Councillors in the
Diet of Japan
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...
(national legislature) represented by six Councillors. It comprises the entire prefecture of
Kanagawa and elects three Councillors every three years by
single non-transferable vote
Single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used to elect multiple winners. It is a generalization of first-past-the-post, applied to multi-member districts with each voter casting just one vote. Unlike FPTP, which is a single-winn ...
.
Between 1947 and 1995 Kanagawa was represented by four Councillors. The 1994 electoral reform reapportioned the number of seats, increasing the number of Councillors in Miyagi, Saitama, Kanagawa and Gifu by two each (one per election) and reducing the number in Hokkaido, Hyogo and Fukuoka. Kanagawa, like most two-member districts, had often split seats between the two major parties, the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the
Japan Socialist Party
The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...
(JSP). Following another reapportionment in the 2007 election when Tokyo gained an additional Councillor Kanagawa has the lowest electoral weight for the House of Councillors countrywide. As of September 2009, 7,301,452 voters were registered in Kanagawa.
[ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications]
平成２１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
(includes foreign residents registered as voters in Kanagawa)
Councillors from Kanagawa
Election results
References
* House of Councillors
Historical members until January 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kanagawa's At-Large District (House Of Councillors)
Districts of the House of Councillors (Japan)