1977 Japanese House of Councillors election

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1977 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 1974 10 July 1977 1980 →

126 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors
127 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
  Takeo Fukuda 19761224.jpg Ichio Asukata.png
Leader Takeo Fukuda Ichio Asukata Yoshikatsu Takeiri
Party Liberal Democratic Socialist Kōmeitō
Last election 126 seats, 44.3% 62 seats, 15.2% 24 seats, 12.1%
Seats after 124 56 28
Seat change Decrease2 Decrease6 Increase4
Popular vote 18,160,061 8,805,617 7,174,459
Percentage 35.8% 17.3% 14.2%
Swing Decrease8.5% Increase2.1% Increase2.1%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
  Sanzō Nosaka photographed by Shigeru Tamura.jpg Kasuga-Ikko-1.jpg Yōhei Kōno.jpg
Leader Sanzō Nosaka Yōhei Kōno
Party Communist Democratic Socialist New Liberal
Last election 20 seats, 9.4% 10 seats, 5.9%
Seats after 16 11 3
Seat change Decrease4 Increase1 New
Popular vote 4,260,050 3,387,541 1,957,902
Percentage 8.4% 6.7% 3.9%
Swing Decrease1.0% Increase0.8% New

before election


Liberal Democratic

Elected


Socialist

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan in 1977. Only half of the House of Councillors was up for election.

The main question of this election was whether or not the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) would be able to retain its hold on an absolute majority of the seats in the House of Councillors, something it has maintained since the party's founding in 1955. Early forecasts had speculated that this dramatic downturn for the LDP may have been possible, but in the end the LDP kept its razor-thin hold on majority control by having four LDP-allied independents cooperate with it. As per usual for the time, the LDP did very well in the sparsely-populated single member districts and even managed to hold its own not only in the two-member districts, but even in the more heavily urbanised three- and four-member districts which were projected to be tough wins for the LDP.[1]

The LDP's clearest struggling was in the national district, where its popular vote declined by 8.5% when compared to the previous House of Councillors election. In any event, the pessimistic forecasts of the election results ended up influencing the LDP's approach in fielding relatively few candidates, and members of the party believed that if they disregarded the polls and fielded more candidates, they could have won a larger share of the seats in this election. Meanwhile, the Japan Socialist Party also saw a loss in seats (partly due to vote splitting caused by former member Saburō Eda's SCL splinter party siphoning away votes from the JSP. The Japanese Communist Party also saw a decline in fortunes, with Kōmeitō and the Democratic Socialist Party showing the most promise among well-established opposition parties.[1]

Results[]

PartyNationalConstituencySeats
Votes%SeatsVotes%SeatsNot upWonTotal
after
+/–
Liberal Democratic Party18,160,06135.831820,440,15739.46456163124–2
Japan Socialist Party8,805,61717.371013,403,21625.8817292756–6
Komeitō7,174,45914.1693,206,7196.195141428+4
Japanese Communist Party4,260,0508.4135,159,1429.96211516–4
Democratic Socialist Party3,387,5416.6842,318,3864.4825611+1
New Liberal Club1,957,9023.8612,951,9765.702134New
1,418,8552.801610,5051.180011New
1,381,7002.731475,5600.920011New
Women's Party of Japan161,6920.32045,3280.090000New
Other parties207,0560.410702,9001.361011
Independents3,767,6627.4332,485,2924.8024590
Vacant1011
Total50,682,595100.005051,799,181100.00771251272520
Valid votes50,682,59594.5051,799,18196.56
Invalid/blank votes2,952,1935.501,843,4153.44
Total votes53,634,788100.0053,642,596100.00
Registered voters/turnout78,321,71568.4878,321,71568.49
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications,[2][3] National Diet

By constituency[]

Constituency Total
seats
Seats won
LDP JSP Kōmeitō DSP JCP NLC LCS UPL Others Ind.
Aichi 3 1 1 1
Akita 1 1
Aomori 1 1
Chiba 2 1 1
Ehime 1 1
Fukui 1 1
Fukuoka 3 1 1 1
Fukushima 2 1 1
Gifu 1 1
Gunma 2 1 1
Hiroshima 2 1 1
Hokkaido 4 2 2
Hyōgo 3 1 1 1
Ibaraki 2 1 1
Ishikawa 1 1
Iwate 1 1
Kagawa 1 1
Kagoshima 2 1 1
Kanagawa 2 1 1
Kōchi 1 1
Kumamoto 2 2
Kyoto 2 1 1
Mie 1 1
Miyagi 1 1
Miyazaki 1 1
Nagano 2 1 1
Nagasaki 1 1
Nara 1 1
Niigata 2 1 1
Ōita 1 1
Okinawa 1 1
Okayama 2 1 1
Osaka 3 1 1 1
Saga 1 1
Saitama 2 1 1
Shiga 1 1
Shimane 1 1
Shizuoka 2 1 1
Tochigi 2 1 1
Tokushima 1 1
Tokyo 4 1 1 1 1
Tottori 1 1
Toyama 1 1
Wakayama 1 1
Yamagata 1 1
Yamaguchi 1 1
Yamanashi 1 1
National 50 18 10 9 4 3 1 1 1 3
Total 126 63 27 14 6 5 3 1 1 1 5

References[]

  1. ^ a b Uchida, Mitsuru; Baerwald, Hans H. (1978). "The House of Councillors Election in Japan: The LDP Hangs in There". Asian Survey. 18 (3): 301–308. doi:10.2307/2643222. ISSN 0004-4687.
  2. ^ Table 13: Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947–2004) Archived 2011-03-23 at the Wayback Machine Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications
  3. ^ "27-11 Allotted Number, Candidates, Eligible Voters as of Election Day, Voters and Voting Percentages of Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947-2004)". Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Archived from the original on 2006-01-04.
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