Saitama 3rd district (埼玉県第3区 ''Saitama-ken dai-sanku'' or simply 埼玉3区 ''Saitama 3-ku'') is a constituency of the House of Representatives 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 ...

. It is located in Southeastern Saitama and consists of the cities of Sōka and

Koshigaya is a city located in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 345,353 in 158,022 households and a population density of 5700 persons per km². The total area of the city is . It is famous for producing daruma dolls ...

. As of 2012, 460,884 eligible voters were registered in the district. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC)
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
Before the electoral reform of 1994, Sōka was part of the

1st district The Innere Stadt (; Central Bavarian: ''Innare Stod'') is the 1st municipal district of Vienna () located in the center of the Austrian capital. The Innere Stadt is the old town of Vienna. Until the city boundaries were expanded in 1850, the Inn ...

where three Representatives had been elected 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 ...

, and Koshigaya part of Saitama 4th district (four Representatives). Between 1996 and 2009, the district had been closely contested between former Sōka mayor

Hiroshi Imai was a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). A native of Sōka, Saitama and graduate of Waseda University, he was elected to the city assembly o ...

(now LDP, Koga faction) who was first elected as JNP candidate from the old 1st district in 1993, and Ex-Socialist

Ritsuo Hosokawa is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). Overviews A native of Agawa District, Kōchi and graduate of Meiji University, he was elected to the ...

(now DPJ, Kan group) who is originally from Kōchi Prefecture but had represented the old 4th district for the JSP since 1990. After his 2009 defeat Imai retired from politics. Hosokawa went on to serve in the DPJ-led cabinets as vice minister and minister. But in the landslide Democratic defeat in 2012, he lost the district to Liberal Democratic newcomer Hitoshi Kikawada and also failed to win a proportional seat.

List of representatives

Election results

References

{{coord missing, Saitama Prefecture Saitama Prefecture Districts of the House of Representatives (Japan)