2004 Japanese House of Councillors election

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 11 July 2004. The House of Councillors consisted of 242 members who served six-year terms. Approximately half the members are elected every three years. At these elections 121 members were elected. Of these 73 were elected from the 47 prefectural districts and 48 were elected from a nationwide list by proportional representation.

2004 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 2001 11 July 2004 2007 →
121 of the 242 seats in the House of Councillors 122 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Junichiro Koizumi Katsuya Okada Takenori Kanzaki Party LDP Democratic Komeito Last election 110 seats, 38.6% 67 seats, 24.1%[a] 23 seats, 15.0% Seats after 115 82 24 Seat change 5 15 1 Popular vote 16,797,686 21,138,032 8,621,265 Percentage 30.0% 37.8% 15.4% Swing 8.6pp 13.7pp 0.4pp   Fourth party Fifth party   Leader Tetsuzo Fuwa Mizuho Fukushima Party JCP Social Democratic Last election 20 seats, 7.9% 8 seats, 6.6% Seats after 9 5 Seat change 11 3 Popular vote 4,362,574 2,990,665 Percentage 7.8% 5.4% Swing 0.1pp 1.2pp
Constituency and proportional representation (bottom right) election result
President of the House of Councillors before election Hiroyuki Kurata LDP Elected President of the House of Councillors Chikage Oogi LDP

Contesting parties

Government

• Liberal Democratic Party (conservative)
• New Komeito (theocratic Buddhist, conservative)

Opposition

• Democratic Party (social-democratic/liberal)
• Japanese Communist Party (communist)
• Social Democratic Party (social-democratic)

Results

The opposition Democratic Party won a plurality of the popular vote and seats contested in the election, sweeping the liberal urban areas. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party failed to win in its strongholds but once more received most of its support from the agrarian areas. New Komeito did well, reaching its goals, as did the Social Democratic Party. The Japanese Communist Party did not reach its goals, while independents won the rest of the seats. The Liberal League and Green Political Assembly failed to win any seats.

Party		National			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Not up	Won	Total after	+/–
	Democratic Party of Japan	21,137,457	37.79	19	21,931,985	39.09	31	32	50	82	+23
	Liberal Democratic Party	16,797,686	30.03	15	19,687,954	35.09	34	66	49	115	+5
	New Komeito Party	8,621,265	15.41	8	2,161,764	3.85	3	13	11	24	+1
	Japanese Communist Party	4,362,574	7.80	4	5,520,141	9.84	0	5	4	9	–11
	Social Democratic Party	2,990,666	5.35	2	984,340	1.75	0	3	2	5	–3
	Women's Party	989,882	1.77	0				0	0	0	0
	Green Political Assembly	903,776	1.62	0				0	0	0	New
	Ishin Seito Shimpu	128,478	0.23	0	117,780	0.21	0	0	0	0	0
	Other parties				8,382	0.01	0	0	0	0	–
	Independents				5,696,505	10.15	5	2	5	7	–1
Total		55,931,784	100.00	48	56,108,851	100.00	73	121	121	242	–5
Valid votes		55,931,785	96.42		56,108,852	96.75
Invalid/blank votes		2,074,327	3.58		1,881,905	3.25
Total votes		58,006,112	100.00		57,990,757	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		102,588,411	56.54		102,507,526	56.57
Source: MIC, National Diet

By prefecture

Elected candidates in bold

Compiled from JANJAN's "The Senkyo"^[1] and MIC official results.^[2]

Notes:

• All incumbents not running for re-election in their prefectural electoral district are counted as retirements even if they ran in the nationwide proportional representation.
• In a multi-member district, there is no difference between Councillors elected with the highest and lower vote shares. Yet, "top tōsen", i.e. being elected with the highest vote, is considered a special achievement and thus noted where changed from the previous election for the same class of Councillors (1998).
• Niigata is counted as an SDP hold because the elected Councillor joined the SDP parliamentary group.

Northern Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result		Candidates (Party) Vote share
Hokkaido	2	Naoki Minezaki	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected LDP gains top tōsen		Yoshio Nakagawa (LDP) 26.7% Naoki Minezaki (DPJ) 22.3% Masahito Nishikawa (DPJ) 19.9% Muneo Suzuki (I) 17.5% Chiharu Oka (JCP) 9.2% Keiko Yamauchi (SDP) 3.8% Nobuhito Sendai (Ishin) 0.7%
		Yoshio Nakagawa	LDP
Aomori	1	Masami Tanabu	DPJ	Incumbent re-elected		Masami Tanabu (DPJ) 47.5% Hidenori Nara (LDP – Komeito) 40.4% Hiroaki Takayanagi (JCP) 6.2% Hiroshi Inoue (SDP) 5.9%
Iwate	1	Motoo Shiina	"Independent Assembly"	Incumbent retired DPJ pickup		Ryo Shuhama (DPJ) 48.5% Yosuke Takahashi (I – LDP, Ind. Ass.) 39.6% Kunihiko Takehana (SDP) 6.7% Akio Wakayama (JCP) 5.2%
Miyagi	2	Mitsuru Sakurai	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected LDP gains top tōsen		Ichiro Ichikawa (LDP) 38.4% Mitsuru Sakurai (DPJ) 37.8% Ikuko Endo (JCP) 9.8% Toshiaki Sugawara (I) 8.6% Katsuo Okita (SDP) 5.4%
		Ichiro Ichikawa	LDP
Akita	1	Shigenobu Saito	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election Independent pickup		Yoetsu Suzuki (I) 50.2% Shigenobu Saito (LDP) 42.9% Kazunobu Imagawa (JCP) 7.0%
Yamagata	1	Koichi Kishi	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Koichi Kishi (LDP) 46.8% Yasue Funayama (DPJ) 36.8% Masahiro Kimura (SDP) 7.1% Masayuki Sato (JCP) 5.4%
Fukushima	2	Yūhei Satō	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected		Yūhei Satō (DPJ) 45.4% Mitsuhide Iwaki (LDP) 41.5% Yumiko Abe (JCP) 13.1%
		Mitsuhide Iwaki	LDP
Eastern and Central Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result		Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Ibaraki	2	Akira Gunji	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected LDP gains top tōsen		Hiroshi Okada (LDP) 50.5% Akira Gunji (LDP) 41.3% Takeo Taya (JCP) 8.2%
		Hiroshi Okada	LDP
Tochigi	2	Susumu Yanase	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected		Susumu Yanase (DPJ) 49.2% Tetsuro Yano (LDP) 42.1% Setsuko Nomura (JCP) 8.7%
		Tetsuro Yano	LDP
Gunma	2	Hirofumi Nakasone	LDP	LDP incumbent re-elected LDP incumbent lost re-election DPJ pickup DPJ gains top tōsen		Yukio Tomioka (DPJ) 34.5% Hirofumi Nakasone (LDP) 30.3% Kosei Ueno (LDP) 29.4% Shinmei Ogasawara (JCP) 5.8%
		Kosei Ueno	LDP
Saitama	3	Masakazu Sekiguchi	LDP	LDP incumbent re-elected DPJ and JCP incumbents retired DPJ hold Komeito pickup DPJ gains top tōsen		Chiyako Shimada (DPJ) 28.4% Masakazu Sekiguchi (LDP) 24.8% Makoto Nishida (Komeito) 18.6% Hayato Yuge (DPJ) 12.8% Sachiyo Abe (JCP) 11.9% Fumihiro Himori (SDP) 3.4%
		Renzō Togashi	JCP
		Toshio Fujii	DPJ
Chiba	2	Wakako Hironaka	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected		Wakako Hironaka (DPJ) 49.1% Kazuyasu Shiina (LDP) 39.0% Fumiko Asano (JCP) 11.9%
		Kazuyasu Shiina	LDP
Tokyo	4	Toshio Ogawa	DPJ	Komeito, JCP and Green incumbents retired LDP pickup LDP gains top tōsen		Masaharu Nakagawa (LDP) 18.3% Toshio Ogawa (DPJ) 17.9% Renhō (DPJ) 16.7% Yūji Sawa (Komeito) 14.9% Yukio Aoshima (I) 10.7% Junichiro Imamura (JCP) 8.2% Teruaki Masumoto (I) 6.9% Naoto Nakagawa (SDP) 3.2% Tetsu Ueda (I) 3.0% Hisayoshi Matsumura (Ishin) 0.2% Mitsuo Matayoshi (WECP) 0.2%
		Toshiko Hamayotsu	Komeito
		Miyo Inoue	JCP	DPJ incumbent re-elected Komeito hold DPJ pickup
		Atsuo Nakamura	"Green Conference"
Kanagawa	3	Keiichirō Asao	DPJ	DPJ incumbents re-elected JCP incumbent lost re-election LDP pickup LDP gains top tōsen		Akio Koizumi (LDP) 33.2% Keiichirō Asao (DPJ) 23.4% Keiko Chiba (DPJ) 23.0% Kimie Hatano (JCP) 10.9% Keiko Ueda (SDP) 7.0% Hajime Manabe (I) 1.9% Isao Kawakubo (Ishin) 0.6%
		Kimie Hatano	JCP
		Keiko Chiba	DPJ
Niigata	2	Naoki Tanaka	LDP	LDP incumbent re-elected SDP incumbent retired SDP hold SDP gains top tōsen		Masamichi Kondō (I – DPJ, SDP) 34.9% Naoki Tanaka (LDP) 29.9% Ichirō Tsukada (LDP) 26.1% Kayoko Kuwahara (JCP) 9.1%
		Kinuko Ōbuchi	SDP
Toyama	1	Masaaki Tanibayashi	DPJ	Incumbent lost re-election LDP pickup		Tsunenori Kawai (LDP) 46.3% Masaaki Tanibayashi (DPJ) 37.2% Akira Ogawa (SDP) 11.3% Toshihiko Ueda (JCP) 5.2%
Ishikawa	1	Sōta Iwamoto	"Independent Assembly"	Incumbent retired LDP pickup		Naoki Okada (LDP) 56.1% Takashi Katō (DPJ) 36.6% Masayuki Satō (JCP) 7.3%
Fukui	1	Masaaki Yamazaki	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Masaaki Yamazaki (LDP) 56.0% Makiko Isokawa (DPJ) 37.7% Kunihiro Uno (JCP) 6.2%
Yamanashi	1	Azuma Koshiishi	DPJ	Incumbent re-elected		Azuma Koshiishi (DPJ) 55.1% Kenshi Ōshiba (I) 37.1% Hitoshi Hanada (JCP) 7.8%
Nagano	2	Toshimi Kitazawa	DPJ	Incumbents re-elected		Toshimi Kitazawa (DPJ) 40.9% Masatoshi Wakabayashi (LDP) 27.2% Norihisa Yamaguchi (JCP) 11.5% Wakako Yamaguchi (SDP) 10.4% Roppei Hori (I) 9.9%
		Masatoshi Wakabayashi	LDP
Gifu	2	Iwao Matsuda	LDP	Incumbents re-elected		Iwao Matsuda (LDP) 44.5% Yasuo Yamashita (DPJ) 43.8% Takao Katō (JCP) 11.7%
		Yasuo Yamashita	DPJ
Shizuoka	2	Tōru Ueno	DPJ	Incumbents lost re-election LDP and DPJ hold LDP gains top tōsen		Yukiko Sakamoto (LDP) 29.3% Yūji Fujimoto (DPJ) 21.6% Tōru Ueno (DPJ) 21.2% Yoshihiko Yamashita (LDP) 20.1% Yukihiro Shimazu (JCP) 7.8%
		Yoshihiko Yamashita	LDP
Aichi	3	Yoshitake Kimata	DPJ	DPJ incumbents re-elected JCP incumbent lost re-election LDP pickup LDP gains top tōsen		Katsuhito Asano (LDP) 28.2% Taisuke Satō (DPJ) 25.4% Yoshitake Kimata (DPJ) 23.0% Hiroko Hatta (JCP) 14.3% Yasuo Koida (I) 6.1% Kenji Sasaki (I) 2.4% Yoshifumi Hayashida (Ishin) 0.7%
		Taisuke Satō	DPJ
		Hiroko Hatta	JCP
Mie	1	Jūrō Saitō	LDP	Incumbent retired DPJ pickup		Hirokazu Shiba (DPJ) 52.1% Kenji Tsuda (LDP) 41.0% Takeshi Nakano (JCP) 6.8%
Western Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result		Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Shiga	1	Eisuke Kawamoto	LDP	Incumbent retired DPJ pickup		Kumiko Hayashi (DPJ) 48.0% Kenichiro Ueno (LDP) 41.5% Toshirō Hayashi (JCP) 10.5%
Kyoto	2	Tetsurō Fukuyama	DPJ	DPJ incumbent re-elected JCP incumbent lost re-election LDP pickup		Tetsurō Fukuyama (DPJ) 43.8% Satoshi Ninoyu (LDP) 32.4% Tokiko Nishiyama (JCP) 23.8%
		Tokiko Nishiyama	JCP
Ōsaka	3	Kiyoshi Nishikawa	Dainiin Club	Komeito incumbent re-elected Dainiin incumbent retired JCP incumbent lost reelection DPJ pickup		Motoyuki Odachi (DPJ) 24.9% Eiichi Yamashita (Komeito) 21.8% Issei Kitagawa (LDP) 20.1% Kiyomi Tsujimoto (I) 19.7% Takeshi Miyamoto (JCP) 12.1% Yoshio Masuda (I) 1.0% Toyokazu Ōkido (Ishin) 0.4%
		Eiichi Yamashita	Komeito
		Takeshi Miyamoto	JCP	LDP pickup DPJ gains top tōsen
Hyogo	2	Shōji Motooka	DPJ	DPJ incumbent retired JCP incumbent lost re-election DPJ hold LDP pickup		Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ) 38.6% Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) 33.5% Tatsumi Ōsawa (JCP) 14.0% Kazumi Hara (I) 7.3% Ichizō Miyamoto (I) 4.7% Kōjin Katakami (I) 1.9%
		Tatsumi Ōsawa	JCP
Nara	1	Minao Hattori	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election DPJ pickup		Kiyoshige Maekawa (DPJ) 48.9% Minao Hattori (LDP) 41.1% Yoshinori Mameda (JCP) 10.0%
Wakayama	1	Yōsuke Tsuruho	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Yōsuke Tsuruho (LDP) 53.8% Shika Kawajō (DPJ) 35.1% Hideaki Kunishige (JCP) 9.9% Yoshiya Seki (Ishin) 1.2%
Tottori	1	Kōtarō Tamura	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Kōtarō Tamura (LDP) 49.7% Masahide Tsuchiya (DPJ) 37.6% Tomoko Ichitani (JCP) 12.7%
Shimane	1	Mikio Aoki	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Mikio Aoki (LDP) 62.1% Itaru Gōdo (DPJ) 30.3% Katsuhiko Gotō (JCP) 7.5%
Okayama	1	Satsuki Eda	DPJ	1 seat lost by reapportionment DPJ incumbent re-elected LDP incumbent lost re-election		Satsuki Eda (DPJ) 55.7% Norifumi Katō (LDP) 39.0% Kanji Uemoto (JCP) 5.3%
		Norifumi Katō	LDP
Hiroshima	2	Ikuo Kamei	LDP	Incumbents re-elected DPJ gains top tōsen		Minoru Yanagida (DPJ) 42.6% Ikuo Kamei (LDP) 41.3% Mitsuo Okamoto (I) 9.1% Satoshi Fujimoto (JCP) 7.1%
		Minoru Yanagida	DPJ
Yamaguchi	1	Masuo Matsuoka	DPJ	Incumbent retired LDP pickup		Nobuo Kishi (LDP) 49.1% Hiroko Ōizumi (DPJ) 41.9% Sadayoshi Yoshida (JCP) 6.0% Shigeo Hiramatsu (I) 1.8% Seiichirō Hirata (Ishin) 1.1%
Tokushima	1	Sekiko Takahashi	"Green Conference"	Incumbent retired LDP pickup		Masakatsu Koike (LDP) 47.1% Kyōko Tōjō (DPJ) 43.3% Takayuki Kubo (JCP) 9.6%
Kagawa	1	Toshio Yamauchi	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Toshio Yamauchi (LDP) 46.6% Emiko Uematsu (DPJ) 45.0% Michiko Chikaishi (JCP) 8.3%
Ehime	1	Takeshi Noma	LDP	Incumbent retired LDP hold		Junzō Yamamoto (LDP) 49.4% Masamitsu Saitō (DPJ) 42.0% Masahiro Sakane (JCP) 8.6%
Kōchi	1	Hiroyuki Morishita	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election Independent pickup		Hajime Hirota (I) 43.6% Hiroyuki Morishita (LDP) 35.7% Sachi Nakane (JCP) 14.3% Yumiko Matsuoka (I) 6.4%
Southern Japan
Prefecture	Seats up	Incumbents	Party	Result		Candidates (Party – endorsements) Vote share
Fukuoka	2	Kazuo Hirotomo	Komeito	Komeito incumbent retired LDP incumbent re-elected DPJ pickup DPJ gains top tōsen		Tsutomu Ōkubo (DPJ) 40.6% Gōtarō Yoshimura (LDP) 30.7% Chū Furukawa (I) 12.5% Toyoomi Tsuno (JCP) 8.8% Kunihiro Etō (I) 4.7% Yutaka Fujimoto (I) 1.8% Tomotada Ishihara (Ishin) 0.9%
		Gōtarō Yoshimura	LDP
Saga	1	Hiromi Iwanaga	LDP	Incumbent re-elected		Hiromi Iwanaga (LDP) 47.7% Minoru Kawasaki (DPJ) 42.9% Akemi Mutō (JCP) 9.5%
Nagasaki	1	Sōichirō Matsutani	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election DPJ pickup		Tadashi Inuzuka (DPJ) 49.5% Sōichirō Matsutani (LDP) 43.6% Toshihiro Haraguchi (JCP) 6.8%
Kumamoto	1	Ryōichi Honda	DPJ	1 seat lost by reapportionment LDP incumbent re-elected DPJ incumbent lost re-election		Hitoshi Kimura (LDP) 48.9% Ryōichi Honda (DPJ) 44.3% Nobuhiro Yamamoto (JCP) 6.8%
		Hitoshi Kimura	LDP
Oita	1	Toshiya Nakamichi	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election DPJ pickup		Shinya Adachi (DPJ) 54.8% Toshiya Nakamichi (LDP) 38.7% Masaru Ono (JCP) 4.6% Kunio Fujiki 1.9%
Miyazaki	1	Mitsuhiro Uesugi	LDP	Incumbent lost re-election Independent pickup		Shinpei Matsushita (I) 48.5% Mitsuhiro Uesugi (LDP) 45.6% Hiromitsu Baba (JCP) 5.9%
Kagoshima	1	Hiroshi Moriyama	LDP	1 seat lost by reapportionment Incumbent retired LDP hold		Tetsurō Nomura (LDP) 53.2% Inao Minayoshi (DPJ) 36.9% Katsuko Iwaizako (JCP) 9.9%
		vacant (last held by Kichio Inoue, LDP)
Okinawa	1	Sōkō Shimabuku	"Independent Assembly"	Incumbent retired Independent (OSMP) pickup		Keiko Itokazu (I) 58.9% Masatoshi Onaga (LDP) 41.1%

Notes

1. Including Liberal Party