Tokyo 8th district (東京都第8区, ''Tōkyō-to dai-hachiku'' or simply 東京8区, ''Tōkyō-hachiku'') is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives in the national

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 western part of former

Tokyo City was a Cities of Japan, municipality in Japan and part of Tokyo Prefecture (1868–1943), Tokyo-fu which existed from 1 May 1889 until its merger with its prefecture on 1 July 1943. The historical boundaries of Tokyo City are now occupied by ...

and is almost coterminous with Suginami Ward (a small area in the south-east is part of the

Tokyo 7th district Tokyo 7th district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. The district is in central Tokyo City and encompasses the entire Shibuya ward, parts of Nakano, Shinagawa and Meguro wards as well as a small part of Su ...

). The district was created in 1994 as part of an electoral reform effort in the

Japanese House of Representatives The is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by and of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a f ...

, and was first implemented in the

1996 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1996. * 1995–1996 Azerbaijani parliamentary election * 1996 Beninese presidential election * 1996 Comorian presidential election * 1996 New Zealand general election * 1996 Nicaraguan general election ...

. As of 2015, this district was home to 365,194 constituents. Before a series of electoral reforms in 1994, Suginami Ward had been part of

Tokyo 4th district Tokyo's 4th district is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the national Diet of Japan. It was won by the Liberal Democratic Party in the 2017 Japanese general election General elections were held ...

, where five 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 ...

. From the creation of the district until 2021, the only representative for the district was

Nobuteru Ishihara is a Japanese politician who was Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party from 2010 to 2012. He was born in Zushi, Kanagawa, the son of author and former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara. He attended Keio Gijuku High School and gradu ...

, a former LDP secretary-general and Minister of the Environment who headed his own faction and is the son of

Shintarō Ishihara was a Japanese politician and writer who was Governor of Tokyo from 1999 to 2012. Being the former leader of the radical right Japan Restoration Party, he was one of the most prominent ultranationalists in modern Japanese politics. An ultranat ...

former Governor of Tōkyō. Ishihara lost the seat to Harumi Yoshida, a university professor, in the

2021 elections Many elections occurred in 2021. The National Democratic Institute maintains calendar of elections around the world * 2021 United Nations Security Council election * 2021 national electoral calendar * 2021 local electoral calendar Africa * 2021 ...

. Tarō Yamamoto, leader of the

Reiwa Shinsengumi is a left-wing populist and progressive political party in Japan founded by actor-turned-politician Tarō Yamamoto in April 2019. The party was formed by left-wing members of the Liberal Party who opposed its merger with the Democratic Party fo ...

, had announced he'd run in the district, but he bowed out and endorsed Yoshida.

List of representatives

Election results

In popular culture

The 8th district is featured in the fifth season of the anime ''

Aggretsuko ''Aggretsuko'', also known by its original Japanese title , is a Japanese animated comedy streaming television series based on the eponymous character created by "Yeti" for the mascot company Sanrio. The character first appeared in a series of ...

'', with the main character Retsuko running for election to the district for the Rage Party against her boyfriend Haida's brother Jiro to succeed his father Juzo.

References

{{coord missing, Tokyo House of Representatives (Japan) districts in Tokyo Constituencies established in 1994 1994 establishments in Japan