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 ...
took place on April 12, 2015. The Liberal Democratic Party under leadership of Shinzo Abe was the overall victor, winning many races including all ten gubernatorial races and 1,153 of the 2,284 assembly seats at stake. Further elections for municipal mayors and assemblies took place on April 26.
In addition to indicating support for the Abe government, the elections were also seen as a referendum on the Japan Innovation Party, and particularly on Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto's plan to restructure the Osaka prefectural government.
In the first stage, average turnout was estimated at 47.14%, the lowest in the history of Japanese unified elections and the first time that average turnout in unified elections fell below 50%. The total number of prefectural and designated city assembly candidates was also the lowest in history at 3,272, 501 of which (21.9% of seats) ran unopposed. The Democratic Party of Japan fielded 345 candidates, 40% less than the number fielded in the 2011 local elections. Chiba Prefecture had the lowest overall turnout rate at 37%. In the second stage, a record low 9,519 candidates ran for 7,682 seats, and a record high 3.6% of assembly seats were won by default.
Eikei Suzuki
is a Japanese politician and the former governor of Mie Prefecture located in Kansai region of Japan.Nara Prefecture:
Shōgo Arai
is a Japanese politician and the current governor of Nara Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 2007. A graduate of the University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of Transport, attending Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs Syracuse ...
Shimane Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a geographic area of 6,708.26 km2. Shimane Prefecture borders Yamaguc ...
:
Zenbee Mizoguchi
is a Japanese politician and former governor of Shimane Prefecture in Japan, elected from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and former official of the Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a part of the governmen ...
(LDP/NKP) re-elected
*
Tokushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 728,633 (1 October 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,146 km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the north, E ...
Katsusada Hirose
is the governor of Ōita Prefecture in Japan, first elected in 2003. A native of Hita, Ōita and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he had worked at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry
The was a ministry of the Government of ...
(LDP/NKP) defeated DPJ-supported ex-Oita City mayor
Ban Kugimiya
Ban, or BAN, may refer to:
Law
* Ban (law), a decree that prohibits something, sometimes a form of censorship, being denied from entering or using the place/item
** Imperial ban (''Reichsacht''), a form of outlawry in the medieval Holy Roman ...
.
2015 was the first year that Tokyo did not elect a governor in the unified elections, as the elections in 2012 (following Shintaro Ishihara's resignation) and 2014 (following Naoki Inose's resignation) moved Tokyo's gubernatorial election cycle away from the unified election cycle.
Mayoral elections
* Sapporo: Former deputy mayor Katsuhiro Akimoto (DPJ/JIP/SDP) defeated LDP-supported ex-government official Nana Honma in one of the few significant victories for the opposition bloc. Akimoto was supported by 12-year incumbent mayor Fumio Ueda and called for improving the city's attractiveness to businesses, while Honma advocated new infrastructure investments including an expansion of the municipal subway system.
* Sagamihara: Toshio Kayama (LDP/NKP/DPJ) re-elected
* Shizuoka City, Shizuoka: Nobuhiro Tanabe (LDP/NKP/DPJ) re-elected
* Hamamatsu: Yasutomo Suzuki (independent) re-elected
* Hiroshima City, Hiroshima: Kazumi Matsui (LDP/NKP/DPJ) re-elected
* The mayoral election in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki was uncontested for the first time in history, while the mayoral election in Tsu, Mie, Tsu was uncontested for the first time in 37 years.
* In Shibuya, Tokyo, Ken Hasebe won the open contest for mayor following the retirement of Toshitake Kuwahara. Hasebe had previously submitted Shibuya's local ordinance permitting same-sex civil unions as an assembly member.
Assembly elections
* The Osaka Restoration Association maintained its top position in both the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City assemblies. However, it failed to win a majority in either assembly, and the LDP won additional seats in both assemblies, casting some doubt on the outcome of the scheduled 2015 Osaka Metropolis Plan referendum, May 17 referendum on the Osaka Metropolis plan.
* Two incumbents tied for an open seat in the Kumamoto City assembly with 4,515 votes each; the seat was to be decided by drawing lots.
* Chiyoda, Tokyo perennial candidate Teruki Gotō drew attention in international media by posing nude in his official election poster, with the characters of his name obscuring his genitals and with various nationalist icons in the background. The poster was deemed legal under both election and obscenity laws.
* Two deaf women were elected to city assemblies: Rie Saito of Kita, Tokyo and Atsuko Yanetani of Akashi, Hyogo. They are the second and third deaf legislators in Japanese history (after Sumie Sakurai who served on the assembly of Hakuba, Nagano from 2001 to 2005). The Kita assembly was reportedly considering using speech recognition software to allow Saito to participate in debate, while the Akashi assembly was considering hiring a sign language interpreter.
References
{{Japanese elections
Local elections in Japan, 2015
2015 elections in Japan
April 2015 events in Japan