2000 Japanese general election

2000 Japanese general election

25 June 2000
All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	64.44% (4.8pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Yoshirō Mori Yukio Hatoyama Takenori Kanzaki Party Liberal Democratic Democratic Komeito Last election 239 seats, 32.76% – – Seats won 233 127 31 Seat change 6 New New Popular vote 16,943,425 15,067,990 7,762,032 Percentage 28.31% 25.18% 12.97% Swing 4.45pp New New   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ichirō Ozawa Tetsuzo Fuwa Takako Doi Party Liberal Communist Social Democratic Last election – 26 seats, 13.08% 15 seats, 6.38% Seats won 22 20 19 Seat change New 6 4 Popular vote 6,589,490 6,719,016 5,603,680 Percentage 11.01% 11.23% 9.36% Swing New 1.85pp 2.98pp   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Chikage Oogi Motoo Shiina Torao Tokuda Party New Conservative Independents Liberal League Last election – – – Seats won 7 5 1 Seat change New New New Popular vote 247,334 151,345 660,724 Percentage 0.41% 0.25% 1.10% Swing New New New
districts and PR districts, shaded according to winners' vote strength.
Prime Minister before election Yoshirō Mori Liberal Democratic Prime Minister after election Yoshirō Mori Liberal Democratic

General elections were held in Japan on 25 June 2000 to elect the 480 members of the House of Representatives.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) maintained a majority in the House of Representatives, but its total percentage of seats shrank from 65% to 56%, and its two coalition partners also lost several seats. Two cabinet members, Takashi Fukaya and Tokuichiro Tamazawa, lost their seats. The Democratic Party made major gains under the leadership of Yukio Hatoyama.

Background

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi suffered a stroke in April 2000 and was replaced by Yoshiro Mori. Although the term limit for the House of Representatives would have been reached in October 2000, Mori dissolved the House on June 2 in what became popularly known as the Divine Nation Dissolution (神の国解散) due to a controversial statement by Mori prior to the election, which preceded a slump in government approval ratings from 40% to 20%. The LDP government advocated continued public works spending while the opposition advocated less spending and more governmental reforms.

The Social Democratic Party left the coalition in 1998 and re-join the opposition after years of coalition with the ideologically contrasting LDP.

Meanwhile, the Komeito Party, a centrist party with roots from the Soka Gakkai based on the Nichiren Buddhist movement and despite almost decades of opposition against the LDP, shifted from centre towards conservatism. An electoral alliance between the once rivals of the Komeito and the LDP has been in effect since the Japanese General election in 2000. For the LDP, despite not being able to win an absolute majority of votes by itself in further elections (especially for the House of Councillors which the LDP lost majority since 1989), the Komeito party has been counted on since then to ensure a stable governing majority rule.

Results

Constituency cartogram

The House of Representatives consisted of 480 members, 300 elected from single-member constituencies and 180 elected on a proportional basis from eleven multi-member constituencies known as Block constituencies.

Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Liberal Democratic Party	16,943,425	28.31	56	24,945,807	40.97	177	233	–6
	Democratic Party of Japan	15,067,990	25.18	47	16,811,732	27.61	80	127	New
	New Komeito Party	7,762,032	12.97	24	1,231,753	2.02	7	31	New
	Japanese Communist Party	6,719,016	11.23	20	7,352,844	12.08	0	20	–6
	Liberal Party	6,589,490	11.01	18	2,053,736	3.37	4	22	New
	Social Democratic Party	5,603,680	9.36	15	2,315,235	3.80	4	19	+4
	Liberal League	660,724	1.10	0	1,071,012	1.76	1	1	New
	New Conservative Party	247,334	0.41	0	1,230,464	2.02	7	7	New
	Assembly of Independents	151,345	0.25	0	652,138	1.07	5	5	New
	Other parties	99,565	0.17	0	250,681	0.41	0	0	–
	Independents				2,967,069	4.87	15	15	+6
Total		59,844,601	100.00	180	60,882,471	100.00	300	480	–20
Valid votes		59,844,601	95.37		60,882,471	97.01
Invalid/blank votes		2,904,983	4.63		1,877,318	2.99
Total votes		62,749,584	100.00		62,759,789	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		100,492,328	62.44		100,433,798	62.49
Source: Election Resources, IPU

By prefecture

Prefecture	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	DPJ	NKP	NCP	AI	SDP	LP	LL	Ind.
Aichi	15	5	9		1
Akita	3	3
Aomori	4	3				1
Chiba	12	7	5
Ehime	4	4
Fukui	3	3
Fukuoka	11	8	2							1
Fukushima	5	3	1			1
Gifu	5	5
Gunma	5	5
Hiroshima	7	5				1				1
Hokkaido	13	7	6
Hyōgo	12	3	3	2	2		1			1
Ibaraki	7	5	1							1
Ishikawa	3	3
Iwate	4	1						3
Kagawa	3	2								1
Kagoshima	5	4							1
Kanagawa	17	9	6			1		1
Kōchi	3	3
Kumamoto	5	2	1		1					1
Kyoto	6	5	1
Mie	5	2	2							1
Miyagi	6	2	4
Miyazaki	3	3
Nagano	5	3	2
Nagasaki	4	2	1							1
Nara	4	4
Niigata	6	4	1							1
Ōita	4	2	1				1
Okayama	5	5
Okinawa	3	1		1			1
Osaka	19	8	5	4	1		1
Saga	3	3
Saitama	14	6	6			1				1
Shiga	3	2	1
Shimane	3	3
Shizuoka	9	4	4							1
Tochigi	5	4	1
Tokushima	3	2	1
Tokyo	25	8	13		1					3
Tottori	2	2
Toyama	3	3
Wakayama	3	1			1					1
Yamagata	4	3	1
Yamaguchi	4	3	1
Yamanashi	3	2	1
Total	300	177	80	7	7	5	4	4	1	15

By PR block

PR block	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	DPJ	NKP	JCP	LP	SDP
Chūgoku	11	4	2	2	1	1	1
Hokkaido	8	2	3	1	1		1
Hokuriku–Shinetsu	11	4	3	1	1	1	1
Kinki	30	7	7	5	5	3	3
Kyushu	21	7	4	3	2	2	3
Northern Kanto	20	7	5	3	2	2	1
Shikoku	6	3	1	1	1
Southern Kanto	21	6	6	3	2	2	2
Tohoku	14	5	3	1	1	3	1
Tokai	21	7	7	2	2	2	1
Tokyo	17	4	6	2	2	2	1
Total	180	56	47	24	20	18	15

Analysis

The further entrenchment of the 1955 System continued, with the Democratic Party of Japan replacing the New Frontier Party as the primary opposition to the LDP. The Social Democratic Party saw a brief resurgence following its near destruction in 1996, but the decline of the party would continue in the following election. The election set the groundwork for the system of politics that would lay how Japanese elections work until the collapse of the Democratic Party of Japan in the mid-2010s.