JAPAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF 9 NOVEMBER 2003 ========================================================================== Elections to the Shugi-In (House of Deputies) Source: Asahi Shinbun The Japanese Government has posted no election statistics on the Internet, and to my knowledge publishes no statistics in English. These statistics are from the Asahi Shinbun website. I make no claims as to their finality or accuracy. Parties -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * JMt (Jiyu Minshu-to) Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) * Mt (Minshu-to) Democratic Party (DP) * Kt (Komei-to) Clean Government Party (Komeito) * NKt (Nihon Kyosan-to) Japan Communist Party (JCP) * SMt (Shakai Minshu-to) Social-Democratic Party (SDP) The House of Deputies consists 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. NATIONAL SUMMARY OF VOTES AND SEATS ========================================================================== SINGLE-MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES ========================================================================== Party Votes % Seats -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clean Government Party 782,996 01.3 9 Democratic Party 21,813,147 36.8 105 Japan Communist Party 4,846,590 08.2 - Liberal Democratic Party 26,093,556 44.1 168 Social Democratic Party 1,663,677 02.8 1 Others 3,984,275 06.7 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 59,184,241 300 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because the various parties contested the single-member constituencies selectively, the aggregate figures do not give an accurate picture of the levels of national support for the parties. A better picture is gained from the block constituency figures. BLOCK CONSTITUENCIES ========================================================================== Votes and seats are compared with those won at the 2000 elections. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Block Total Party Votes % Change Seats Seats -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clean Government Party 8,733,444 14.8 (+01.7) 25 34 +05 Democratic Party 22,095,606 37.4 (+11.9) 72 177 +48 Japan Communist Party 4,586,172 07.7 (-03.6) 9 9 -11 Liberal Democratic Party 20,660,185 34.9 (+06.2) 69 237 -02 Social Democratic Party 3,072,390 05.2 (-04.2) 5 6 -09 Others - - 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 59,102,797 180 480 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since the last election the Liberal Party has been absorbed by the Democratic Party and the Conservative Party by the Liberal Democratic Party. BLOCK VOTE AND CONSTITUENCIES BY GOVERNMENT AND OPPOSITION ALLIANCES ========================================================================== This table shows the LDP and the Clean Government Party as the government alliance, and the Democrats, the JCP and the SDP as the opposition alliance, although there was no formal alliance between the opposition parties. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Block Total Party Votes % Change Seats Seats -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Government 29,393,629 49.7 (+07.9) 94 271 +03 Opposition 29,754,168 50.3 (+04.1) 86 192 +28 Others - - 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 59,102,797 180 480 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This table shows that the opposition parties actually narrowly won the election in terms of aggregate votes cast, if the vote in the block constituencies is taken as more representative of overall party preferences. The reason this did not translate into a majority of seats is that in the single-member constituencies the JCP contested every seat, and the SDP a substantial number of seats, splitting the opposition vote and allowing the LDP to win many seats on a minority vote.