Japanese general election, 2012

Japanese general election, 2012

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All 480 seats to the House of Representatives of Japan 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	59.32%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Shinzō Abe Yoshihiko Noda Shintaro Ishihara Party Liberal Democratic Democratic Restoration Leader since 26 September 2012 29 August 2011 17 November 2012 Leader's seat Yamaguchi-4th Chiba-4th Tokyo PR Last election 119 seats 38.68% (district) 26.73% (block) 308 seats 47.43% (district) 42.41% (block) new party Seats before 118 230 11 Seats won 294 57 54 Seat change 176 173 43 Popular vote 25,643,309 (district) 16,624,457 (block) 13,598,773 (district) 9,268,653 (block) 6,942,353 (district) 12,262,228 (block) Percentage 43.02% (district) 27.62% (block) 22.81% (district) 15.49% (block) 11.64% (district) 20.38% (block)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Natsuo Yamaguchi Yoshimi Watanabe Yukiko Kada Party New Kōmeitō Your Tomorrow Leader since 8 September 2009 8 August 2009 28 November 2012 Leader's seat not contesting (Coun.) not contesting (Governor of Shiga) Last election 21 seats 1.11% (district) 11.45% (block) 5 seats 0.87% (district) 4.27% (block) new party Seats before 21 8 61 Seats won 31 18 9 Seat change 10 10 52 Popular vote 885,881 (district) 7,116,474 (block) 2,807,244 (district) 5,245,586 (block) 2,992,365 (district) 3,423,915 (block) Percentage 1.49% (district) 11.83% (block) 4.71% (district) 8.72% (block) 5.02% (district) 5.69% (block)   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Kazuo Shii Mizuho Fukushima Muneo Suzuki Party Communist Social Democratic New Party Daichi Leader since 24 November 2000 15 November 2003 28 December 2011 Leader's seat Minami-Kantō PR not contesting (Coun.) - Last election 9 seats 4.22% (district) 7.03% (block) 7 seats 1.95% (district) 4.27% (block) 1 seats - (district) 0.62% (block) Seats before 9 5 3 Seats won 8 2 1 Seat change 1 3 2 Popular vote 4,700,289 (district) 3,689,159 (block) 451,762 (district) 1,420,790 (block) 315,604 (district) 346,848 (block) Percentage 7.88% (district) 6.13% (block) 0.76% (district) 2.36% (block) 0.53% (district) 0.58% (block)
districts and PR districts won by respective parties
Prime Minister before election Yoshihiko Noda Democratic Elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Liberal Democratic

Yoshihiko Noda
Democratic

Shinzo Abe
Liberal Democratic

A general election was held in Japan on 16 December 2012. Voters gave the Liberal Democratic Party a landslide victory, ejecting the Democratic Party of Japan from power after three years. It was the fourth worst defeat suffered by a ruling party in Japanese history.

Voting took place in all representatives' constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. This was the 46th general election of members of the House of Representatives (第46回衆議院議員総選挙, dai-yonjūrokkai Shūgiin giin sōsenkyo^?) in Japan since 1869.

In July 2012 it was reported that the deputy prime minister Katsuya Okada had approached the Liberal Democratic Party to sound them out about dissolving the house of representatives and holding the election in January 2013. An agreement was reached in August to dissolve the Diet and hold early elections "shortly" following the passage of a bill to raise the national consumption tax. It was reported that as the result of introducing the consumption tax to repay the Japan public debt, the DPJ lost around 75% of its pre-election seats.