Hokkaidō 11th district (北海道 ��1区, ''Hokkaidō- ai-ūikku'') is a single-member constituency of the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

, the lower house of the national

Diet of Japan , transcription_name = ''Kokkai'' , legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet , coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg , house_type = Bicameral , houses = , foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...

. It is located in southeastern

Hokkaidō is the second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by railway via the Seikan Tunnel. The ...

and consists of the city of

Obihiro is a Cities of Japan, city in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. Obihiro is the only designated city in the Tokachi Subprefecture, Tokachi area. As of July 31, 2023, the city had an estimated population of 163,084. The next most populou ...

and the surrounding

Tokachi Subprefecture is a subprefecture of Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from t ...

. As of 2016, 291,852 eligible voters were registered in the district. The district is the country's second largest in terms of area after the neighbouring 12th district. The district has been represented by

Kaori Ishikawa is a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party in the House of Representatives, representing Hokkaido's 11th district after being elected for the first time. She was an analyst for Nippon BS Broadcasting before meeting her husband, Tomohi ...

of the

Constitutional Democratic Party The Constitutional Democratic Party (, K-D), also called Constitutional Democrats and formally the Party of People's Freedom (), was a political party in the Russian Empire that promoted Western constitutional monarchy—among other policies� ...

since the 2017 general election, when she defeated the incumbent member

Yūko Nakagawa is a Japanese politician in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). She represented Hokkaido in the House of Representatives from 2012 to 2017. Her husband, Shōichi Nakagawa, was also a politician, serving as Minister of Finance of Japan in 2008 ...

from the

Liberal Democratic Party Several political parties from around the world have been called the Liberal Democratic Party, Democratic Liberal Party or Liberal Democrats. These parties have usually followed liberalism as ideology, although they can vary widely from very progr ...

. Both are incidentally the spouse of former members of the district. Ishikawa is married to Tomohiro Ishikawa, who was an MP for the district from

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

until his defeat to Yūko Nakagawa in the 2012 general election. Nakagawa is married to former member and

Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

Shōichi Nakagawa was a Japanese conservative politician in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), who served as Minister of Finance from 24 September 2008 to 17 February 2009. He previously held the posts of Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry o ...

Background

The 11th district and its predecessor had been long dubbed as the "Nakagawa Kingdom" due to continuous winning streak by politicians from the Nakagawa family in the district. The district (when still part of the medium-sized 5th district) was won seven consecutive times from 1963 by former minister and LDP heavyweight Ichirō Nakagawa. After Nakagawa's suicide in 1983, his son

Shōichi Shōichi, Shoichi or Shouichi (written: , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese photographer and editor *, Japanese professional wrestling announcer and executive *, Japanese professi ...

won the district in the subsequent

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

. Shōichi continued to hold the district after the 1996 electoral reforms that introduced

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

and smaller

single-member districts A single-member district or constituency is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. In some countries, such as Australia and India ...

. He won the district for a total of eight consecutive times until the 2009 general election. Nakagawa was defeated by DPJ candidate Tomohiro Ishikawa, ending his family's 46-year dominance in the district. He killed himself in October the same year. His widow,

Yūko or Yuuko is a common feminine Japanese given name. Written forms Yūko can be written using different kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese lan ...

managed to regain the district in the 2012 election, holding it until her defeat in 2017 to Tomohiro's wife

Kaori Kaori ( "scent/aroma, fabric/weave" and occasionally rendered "perfume", ) is a feminine Japanese name, Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Kaori (voice actress) (born 1976), Japanese voice actress and singer *, musician ...

List of representatives

Election results

Footnotes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hokkaido 11th district House of Representatives (Japan) districts in Hokkaido Constituencies established in 1994 1994 establishments in Japan Obihiro