2003 Japanese general election

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2003 Japanese general election

← 2000 9 November 2003 2005 →
All 480 seats in the House of Representatives 241 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	59.80% (4.64pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– Democratic Naoto Kan 37.39 177 +28 Liberal Democratic Junichiro Koizumi 34.96 237 +4 Komeito Takenori Kanzaki 14.78 34 +3 Communist Kazuo Shii 7.76 9 −11 Social Democratic Takako Doi 5.12 6 −13 New Conservative Hiroshi Kumagai – 4 −3 Independents Masami Tanabu – 1 −4 Liberal League Torao Tokuda – 1 0 Independents – – 11 −4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Districts and PR districts, shaded according to winners' vote strength. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Junichiro Koizumi Liberal Democratic Junichiro Koizumi Liberal Democratic

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General elections were held in Japan on November 9, 2003. Incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and the Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats in the House of Representatives but failed to secure a majority. The main opposition Democratic Party made considerable gains, winning 177 of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives, its largest share ever. Other traditional parties like the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party lost substantial numbers of seats, marking the start of a newly consolidated two-party system in Japanese politics, which would end in 2012 with the emergence of Japan Restoration Party.