Английская Википедия:2005 Japanese general election

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Шаблон:Short description Шаблон:Use dmy dates Шаблон:Infobox legislative electionШаблон:Politics of Japan

General elections were held in Japan on 11 September 2005 for all 480 seats of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Diet, almost two years before the end of the term taken from the previous elections in 2003. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi called the election after bills to privatize Japan Post were voted down in the upper house (which cannot be dissolved), despite strong opposition within his own Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) (LDP).

The elections resulted in a landslide victory to Koizumi's LDP, with the party winning 296 seats, the largest share in postwar politics and the first time the LDP had won an overall majority in the House of Representatives since 1990. With its partner, New Komeito, the governing coalition then commanded a two-thirds majority in the lower house, allowing them to pass legislative bills over the objections of the upper house and (though the government did not attempt this) to approve amendments to the Constitution, then submit them to the upper house and a national referendum.

The opposition Democratic Party (DPJ), which advocated a change of government during campaign, suffered a devastating loss, winning only 113 seats against 175 seats it held going into the election. The setback led the DPJ leader Katsuya Okada to resign, and raised a question whether the DPJ could remain an alternative to the LDP in the future elections.

The small parties made only small gains or losses, with Koizumi's ally, New Komeito, falling slightly from 34 seats to 31. Of the new parties contesting the election, the New Party Japan fell from three seats to one, while the People's New Party was unchanged at four seats. The Japanese Communist Party held its ground with nine seats, while the Social Democratic Party won seven, a gain of one.

Background

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives and called for new elections on 8 August 2005. The move was made in response to the defeat of bills that would have split Japan Post into four private companies over a period of ten years, on which Koizumi had staked the credibility of his reforms. The package was notably unpopular within Koizumi's own Liberal Democratic Party, as retired employees of Japan Post have been strong supporters of the LDP in past elections, and its banking system has bankrolled expensive public work projects, providing business for the LDP's supporters in the construction industry. Koizumi used the threat of an early election to push the bills through the House of Representatives (the lower house), where it was approved by just 5 votes. The same threat was less effective in the upper chamber, the House of Councillors, which the prime minister does not have the power to dissolve. On 8 August 2005, 30 LDP members of the House of Councillors joined the opposition in voting 'no' or abstaining to block the legislation. Koizumi had announced that a 'no' vote would be considered equivalent to a no confidence vote against his administration, and thus called a snap election for the House of Representatives.

The dissolution act itself is relatively without controversy, and is based on Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan, which can be interpreted as saying that the Prime Minister has the power to dissolve the lower house after so advising the Emperor. Many politicians from both the government and the opposition camps, however, had criticized the unusual move of dissolving the lower house following an upper house defeat as both illogical and adversarial. Polls from Asahi Shimbun and others showed that the public supported Koizumi's decision to call an election.[1] The approval rate for Koizumi's Cabinet, in fact, leapt to 46 points when the election was called, and subsequently recovered 50%, a very high rate by Japan's standard.

Before the dissolution, there was notable dissatisfaction with the decision to dissolve within the LDP, because the LDP and its government partner, New Kōmeitō, feared losing their majority in the lower house, which chooses the Prime Minister. In the previous lower-house election (2003) and upper-house election (2004), the Democratic Party (DPJ) had performed handsomely, while the LDP was barelyШаблон:Citation needed able to keep its majorities with a reduced number of seats despite the popularity of Koizumi. Election analysts ascribed the poor performance of the LDP to Koizumi's reforms that have eroded its traditional supporters such as farmers, "Mom-Pop" shop owners and construction workers, because the reforms, including deregulation and tax cuts, were tuned to help big global corporations like Toyota. Many in the LDP, among whom was Yoshiro Mori, former prime minister and Koizumi's long-time backer, showed a concern that the widening splits between Koizumi and the rebels within his party would help the competing DPJ candidates win seats in highly contested districts.[2] At the height of the protest, Koizumi even had to dismiss a member of his Cabinet when he refused to sign the Imperial Ordinance for dissolution. There had also been concern that the so-called "political vacuum", created if both the LDP and the DPJ fail to gain a clear majority, would impede the already sluggish recovery of the Japanese economy.

Campaign

Prime Minister Koizumi had tried to make the election a referendum on the privatization of Japan Post and reforms that follow, saying that he would step down if the ruling bloc fails to secure a majority. Indeed, the DPJ, which did not have a clear position on the privatization issue previously, was forced to come up with an alternative plan to shrink public savings in Japan Post over years to come. In addition, his personality was featured as prominently as policy in the election, as the electorate were asked to determine whether Koizumi's behavior, variously described as either determined or pugnacious, was acceptable for a Japanese prime minister.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DPJ), consisting of former LDP members and liberals, saw the election as a chance to end the LDP's nearly continuous 50-year control of the government and to start reforms of government spending and employees. Many analysts believed that the DPJ would be less beholden to special interests than the entrenched LDP, and a change of government was vital to lead to a true democracy in Japan. On 10 August, Katsuya Okada, the leader of the DPJ, said that he would resign if the DPJ failed to take over the government, paralleling Koizumi's stated intention.[3]

In domestic policy both the ruling bloc and the DPJ differed little; both concurred in the need to seek small government in general by cutting public works spending and reducing government employees, in contrast to the views of other small parties. Also, to a degree they did not deny the need for the future increase of the consumption tax and revoke temporary tax cut in order to improve the financial health of the government, which is the worst among the developed countries and nears that in wartime, and to cover the rising social security costs due to Japan's aging and declining population.[4] The DPJ leadership even admitted that, if they won the control of the government, they would not revert Koizumi's four-year-long reforms but redo them with more vigor and thoroughness.

Outside Japan, there was much speculation about how the election could change foreign relations, since foreign policy is one of the major differences between the LDP and the DPJ. The LDP's Koizumi has been notable for his foreign policies supportive of U.S. President George W. Bush. In particular, the administration has faithfully supported the Iraq War, sending JSDF troops to Iraq in spite of public opposition and the country's pacifist constitution. Moreover, the relationship between Japan and China deteriorated in early 2005, when Koizumi and other conservative Japanese politicians angered China through their visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, amongst other actions. In contrast, Okada, the leader of the main opposition DPJ, said he would pull the troops out of Iraq by December 2005 if he won the government. He also pledged that he would not visit Yasukuni Shrine; this could noticeably improve foreign relations with South Korea and China. However, in Japan, foreign policy issues had drawn almost no attention during the campaign.[5]

Файл:Japan election 2005 dpj bus.jpg
DPJ candidate Akihisa Nagashima (who failed to win his district in Tachikawa, Tokyo) in his campaign bus.

Koizumi maintained, as he pledged before calling the election, a position that he would not give official party endorsement to 37 members of his party who voted against the postal bills; that is, the 37 were not allowed to run as members of the party. To compensate for the disadvantages that non-party members suffer under the current election law (jp:公職選挙法), four LDP rebels including Shizuka Kamei announced on 17 August their formation of a new party, the People's New Party, to contest the elections.[6] Four other LDP rebels followed suit days after, forming New Party Japan (not to be confused with the Japan New Party of Morihiro Hosokawa) with a popular Nagano governor Yasuo Tanaka as head.[7] However, most rebels have not joined the new parties, preferring to run as independents so as not to sever their ties with local LDP organizations.

The formation of the new parties, which were largely seen as being solely needed for the election campaign, took place as Koizumi and his party's leadership were actively recruiting candidates to run in single-member districts against the rebels, and were pressuring local organizations to back the new candidates. New LDP candidates include celebrities, bureaucrats, and local politicians, and several rebels exited the race rather than run against their own party. Among the most publicized candidates was maverick businessman Takafumi Horie, who ran as an independent (with tacit LDP backing) against Kamei in Hiroshima District #6, a hot battleground in the last election between the then LDP's Kamei and a DPJ candidate.[8]

Opinion polls

Pre-election polls had been consistently showing the LDP's solid lead, especially among independent voters in urban areas like Tokyo and other big cities nationwide where its main opposition the DPJ had had a main support base.[9] Newspaper surveys predicted a big victory for the LDP, which could lead the DPJ, young and short on unity, to disintegrate.[10] Election analysts, however, warned that few LDP candidates were enjoying comfortable leads, and there was still a large number of undecided voters who went for the DPJ in the last election, thus the election results were far from being set.Шаблон:Citation needed

Results

Шаблон:Main

Файл:44th Japanese General Election Cartogram.svg
Constituency Cartogram

The actual election results closely matched what the pre-election polls, which experts believed were unlikely to materialize, had predicted. Election results gave the governing coalition 327 seats, more than a two-thirds majority in the lower house.[11] In general, the LDP roughly held its own in rural areas, retaking about half the seats held by rebels, but holding steady or even falling slightly against other parties. In urban areas the LDP had a devastating victory, reducing the DPJ from twelve single member constituencies to one in Tokyo, from nine to two in Osaka and from eight to zero in Kanagawa. The so-called 'assassin' candidates recruited by the LDP to stand against the disendorsed party rebels met with mixed success. Although 20 were elected, only 9 of these managed to defeat rebels in single-seat constituencies, with the remaining 11 elected by proportional representation. 5 'assassins' failed to be elected. Another casualty was the prominent independent candidate Takafumi Horie who was defeated by the LDP rebel Shizuka Kamei, now representing the People's New Party.

One of the biggest landslides in Japanese politics came as a great surprise to virtually everyone, from politicians in both government and opposition camps to political analysts and the general public to finally Junichiro Koizumi himself, who reiterated after the election that he just asked for a majority. In particular the DPJ's catastrophic defeats in the capital area (namely Tokyo and Kanagawa) shocked the party's members with no clear strategy to reverse the trends in future elections, as well as the LDP leadership who were now concerned that the LDP might have won such a great victory that it could lead to a swing against the party in the future. Analysis of the votes shows that the degree to which the electorate shifted their votes from the LDP to the DPJ was not as considerable as the number of seats exchanged; the LDP won 47.8% of the total votes, up from 43.8%, while the DPJ collected the same percentage (36.4%) as it did in the last lower-house election two years ago. Indeed, New Kōmeitō even lost three seats despite winning more votes than ever. Political analysts attribute this discrepancy to, in addition to the historically high turnout (67.5%), the switch of the election system a decade ago from the traditional medium-sized constituency system to today's system that combines single-seat constituencies and multi-member constituencies elected by proportional representation. The irony is that it was Koizumi who was a vocal critic of the switch and the likes of Okada and Ichirō Ozawa, the DPJ's deputy leader, who departed from the LDP to have made the switch in a bid to create the two-party system.

Шаблон:Election results

By prefecture

Prefecture Total
seats
Seats won
LDP DPJ NKP PNP SDP Ind.
style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" |
Aichi 15 9 6
Akita 3 1 1 1
Aomori 4 4
Chiba 13 12 1
Ehime 4 4
Fukui 3 3
Fukuoka 11 9 1 1
Fukushima 5 3 2
Gifu 5 3 2
Gunma 5 5
Hiroshima 7 6 1
Hokkaido 12 4 8
Hyōgo 12 10 2
Ibaraki 7 5 1 1
Ishikawa 3 3
Iwate 4 1 3
Kagawa 3 3
Kagoshima 5 3 2
Kanagawa 18 16 1 1
Kōchi 3 3
Kumamoto 5 4 1
Kyoto 6 3 3
Mie 5 3 2
Miyagi 6 5 1
Miyazaki 3 1 2
Nagano 5 3 2
Nagasaki 4 3 1
Nara 4 3 1
Niigata 6 2 3 1
Ōita 3 2 1
Okayama 5 2 2 1
Okinawa 4 2 1 1
Osaka 19 13 2 4
Saga 3 1 2
Saitama 15 12 3
Shiga 4 2 2
Shimane 2 2
Shizuoka 8 6 2
Tochigi 5 5
Tokushima 3 1 1 1
Tokyo 25 23 1 1
Tottori 2 2
Toyama 3 2 1
Wakayama 3 3
Yamagata 3 3
Yamaguchi 4 4
Yamanashi 3 1 2
Total 300 219 52 8 2 1 18

By PR block

PR block Total
seats
Seats won
LDP DPJ NKP JCP SDP PNP NPN NPD
style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" | style="background:Шаблон:Party color;" |
Chūgoku 11 5 3 2 1
Hokkaido 8 3 3 1 1
Hokuriku–Shinetsu 11 5 4 1 1
Kinki 29 11 9 4 3 1 1
Kyushu 21 9 7 3 1 1
Northern Kanto 20 9 7 2 1 1
Shikoku 6 3 2 1
Southern Kanto 22 10 7 3 1 1
Tohoku 14 6 5 1 1 1
Tokai 21 9 8 3 1
Tokyo 17 7 6 2 1 1
Total 180 77 61 23 9 6 2 1 1

Representatives

Members of House of Representatives elected from single-seat constituency

Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox Шаблон:Colorbox

Hokkaido 1st Takahiro Yokomichi 2nd Wakio Mitsui 3rd Gaku Ishizaki 4th Yoshio Hachiro 5th Nobutaka Machimura
6th Takahiro Sasaki 7th Hiroko Nakano 8th Seiichi Kaneta 9th Yukio Hatoyama 10th Tadamasa Kodaira
11th Shōichi Nakagawa 12th Tsutomu Takebe
Aomori 1st Yūji Tsushima 2nd Akinori Eto 3rd Tadamori Ōshima 4th Tarō Kimura
Iwate 1st Takuya Tasso 2nd Shunichi Suzuki 3rd Toru Kikawada 4th Ichirō Ozawa
Miyagi 1st Tōru Doi 2nd Kenya Akiba 3rd Akihiro Nishimura 4th Shintaro Ito 5th Jun Azumi
6th Itsunori Onodera
Akita 1st Manabu Terata 2nd Hosei Norota 3rd Nobuhide Minorikawa
Yamagata 1st Toshiaki Endo 2nd Takehiko Endo 3rd Koichi Kato
Fukushima 1st Yoshitami Kameoka 2nd Takumi Nemoto 3rd Kōichirō Genba 4th Kōzō Watanabe 5th Masayoshi Yoshino
Ibaraki 1st Norihiko Akagi 2nd Fukushiro Nukaga 3rd Yasuhiro Hanashi 4th Hiroshi Kajiyama 5th Akihiro Ohata
6th Yuya Niwa 7th Kishirō Nakamura
Tochigi 1st Hajime Funada 2nd Mayumi Moriyama 3rd Yoshimi Watanabe 4th Tsutomu Sato 5th Toshimitsu Motegi
Gunma 1st Genichiro Sata 2nd Takashi Sasagawa 3rd Yoshio Yatsu 4th Yasuo Fukuda 5th Yūko Obuchi
Saitama 1st Koichi Takemasa 2nd Yoshitaka Shindō 3rd Hiroshi Imai 4th Chuko Hayakawa 5th Yukio Edano
6th Atsushi Oshima 7th Kiyoshi Nakano 8th Masahiko Shibayama 9th Matsushige Ono 10th Taimei Yamaguchi
11th Etsuji Arai 12th Toshio Kojima 13th Shinako Tsuchiya 14th Takashi Mitsubayashi 15th Ryosei Tanaka
Chiba 1st Hideo Usui 2nd Akiko Yamanaka 3rd Hirokazu Matsuno 4th Yoshihiko Noda 5th Kentaro Sonoura
6th Hiromichi Watanabe 7th Kazumi Matumoto 8th Yoshitaka Sakurada 9th Kenichi Mizuno 10th Motoo Hayashi
11th Eisuke Mori 12th Yasukazu Hamada 13th Yukio Jitsukawa
Kanagawa 1st Jun Matsumoto 2nd Yoshihide Suga 3rd Hachiro Okonogi 4th Jun Hayashi 5th Manabu Sakai
6th Isamu Ueda 7th Tsuneo Suzuki 8th Kenji Eda 9th Koichi Yamauchi 10th Kazunori Tanaka
11th Junichiro Koizumi 12th Ikuzo Sakurai 13th Akira Amari 14th Jiro Akama 15th Taro Kono
16th Yoshiyuki Kamei 17th Yōhei Kōno 18th Daishiro Yamagiwa
Yamanashi 1st Sakihito Ozawa 2nd Mitsuo Horiuchi 3rd Takeshi Hosaka
Tokyo 1st Kaoru Yosano 2nd Takashi Fukaya 3rd Hirotaka Ishihara 4th Masaaki Taira 5th Takashi Kosugi
6th Takao Ochi 7th Fumiaki Matsumoto 8th Nobuteru Ishihara 9th Isshu Sugawara 10th Yuriko Koike
11th Hakubun Shimomura 12th Akihiro Ōta 13th Ichiro Kamoshita 14th Midori Matsushima 15th Ben Kimura
16th Hideo Ōnishi 17th Katsuei Hirasawa 18th Naoto Kan 19th Yohei Matsumoto 20th Seiji Kihara
21st Yuichi Ogawa 22nd Tatsuya Ito 23rd Kosuke Ito 24th Kōichi Hagiuda 25th Shinji Inoue
Niigata 1st Chinami Nishimura 2nd Motohiko Kondo 3rd Yamato Inaba 4th Makiko Kikuta 5th Makiko Tanaka
6th Nobutaka Tsutsui
Toyama 1st Jinen Nagase 2nd Mitsuhiro Miyakoshi 3rd Tamisuke Watanuki
Ishikawa 1st Hiroshi Hase 2nd Yoshirō Mori 3rd Shigeo Kitamura
Fukui 1st Tomomi Inada 2nd Taku Yamamoto 3rd Tsuyoshi Takagi
Nagano 1st Kenji Kosaka 2nd Mitsu Shimojo 3rd Tsutomu Hata 4th Shigeyuki Goto 5th Ichiro Miyashita
Gifu 1st Seiko Noda 2nd Yasufumi Tanahashi 3rd Yoji Muto 4th Kazuyoshi Kaneko 5th Keiji Furuya
Shizuoka 1st Yōko Kamikawa 2nd Yoshitsugu Harada 3rd Hakuo Yanagisawa 4th Yoshio Mochizuki 5th Goshi Hosono
6th Shu Watanabe 7th Satsuki Katayama 8th Ryu Shionoya
Aichi 1st Takashi Kawamura 2nd Motohisa Furukawa 3rd Shoichi Kondo 4th Yoshio Maki 5th Takahide Kimura
6th Hideki Niwa 7th Junji Suzuki 8th Tadahiko Ito 9th Toshiki Kaifu 10th Tetsuma Esaki
11th Shinichiro Furumoto 12th Seiken Sugiura 13th Hideaki Ōmura 14th Katsumasa Suzuki 15th Akihiko Yamamoto
Mie 1st Jiro Kawasaki 2nd Masaharu Nakagawa 3rd Katsuya Okada 4th Norihisa Tamura 5th Norio Mitsuya
Shiga 1st Kenichiro Ueno 2nd Issei Tajima 3rd Taizō Mikazuki 4th Mineichi Iwanaga
Kyoto 1st Bunmei Ibuki 2nd Seiji Maehara 3rd Kenta Izumi 4th Yasuhiro Nakagawa 5th Sadakazu Tanigaki
6th Kazunori Yamanoi
Osaka 1st Kōki Chūma 2nd Shika Kawajo 3rd Masahiro Tabata 4th Yasuhide Nakayama 5th Takayoshi Taniguchi
6th Yutaka Fukushima 7th Naomi Tokashiki 8th Takashi Ōtsuka 9th Takashi Nishida 10th Kenta Matsunami
11th Hirofumi Hirano 12th Tomokatsu Kitagawa 13th Akira Nishino 14th Takashi Tanihata 15th Naokazu Takemoto
16th Kazuo Kitagawa 17th Nobuko Okashita 18th Taro Nakayama 19th Takashi Nagayasu
Hyōgo 1st Masahito Moriyama 2nd Kazuyoshi Akaba 3rd Yoshihiro Seki 4th Kiichi Inoue 5th Koichi Tani
6th Tsukasa Kobiki 7th Shigeo Omae 8th Tetsuzo Fuyushiba 9th Yasutoshi Nishimura 10th Kisaburo Tokai
11th Tōru Toida 12th Saburo Komoto
Nara 1st Sumio Mabuchi 2nd Sanae Takaichi 3rd Shinsuke Okuno 4th Ryotaro Tanose
Wakayama 1st Tatsuya Tanimoto 2nd Masatoshi Ishida 3rd Toshihiro Nikai
Tottri 1st Shigeru Ishiba 2nd Ryosei Akazawa
Shimane 1st Hiroyuki Hosoda 2nd Wataru Takeshita
Okayama 1st Ichiro Aisawa 2nd Keisuke Tsumura 3rd Takeo Hiranuma 4th Michiyoshi Yunoki 5th Yoshitaka Murata
Hiroshima 1st Fumio Kishida 2nd Hiroshi Hiraguchi 3rd Katsuyuki Kawai 4th Hidenao Nakagawa 5th Minoru Terada
6th Shizuka Kamei 7th Yoichi Miyazawa
Yamaguchi 1st Masahiko Kōmura 2nd Yoshihiko Fukuda 3rd Takeo Kawamura 4th Shinzo Abe
Tokushima 1st Yoshito Sengoku 2nd Shunichi Yamaguchi 3rd Masazumi Gotoda
Kagawa 1st Takuya Hirai 2nd Yoshio Kimura 3rd Yoshinori Ohno
Ehime 1st Yasuhisa Shiozaki 2nd Seiichiro Murakami 3rd Shinya Ono 4th Koichi Yamamoto
Kōchi 1st Teru Fukui 2nd Gen Nakatani 3rd Yūji Yamamoto
Fukuoka 1st Ryu Matsumoto 2nd Taku Yamasaki 3rd Seiichi Ota 4th Tomoyoshi Watanabe 5th Yoshiaki Harada
6th Kunio Hatoyama 7th Makoto Koga 8th Tarō Asō 9th Asahiko Mihara 10th Kyoko Nishikawa
11th Ryota Takeda
Saga 1st Takamaro Fukuoka 2nd Masahiro Imamura 3rd Kosuke Hori
Nagasaki 1st Yoshiaki Takaki 2nd Fumio Kyūma 3rd Yaichi Tanigawa 4th Seigo Kitamura
Kumamoto 1st Yorihisa Matsuno 2nd Takeshi Noda 3rd Toshikatsu Matsuoka 4th Hiroyuki Sonoda 5th Yasushi Kaneko
Ōita 1st Shuji Kira 2nd Seishiro Eto 3rd Takeshi Iwaya
Miyazaki 1st Nariaki Nakayama 2nd Taku Etō 3rd Yoshihisa Furukawa
Kagoshima 1st Okiharu Yasuoka 2nd Takeshi Tokuda 3rd Kazuaki Miyaji 4th Yasuhiro Ozato 5th Hiroshi Moriyama
Okinawa 1st Mikio Shimoji 2nd Kantoku Teruya 3rd Chiken Kakazu 4th Kosaburo Nishime

References

Шаблон:Reflist

External links

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Шаблон:Japanese elections