2016 Japanese House of Councillors election

2016 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 2013 10 July 2016 2019 →
121 of the 242 seats in the House of Councillors 122 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	54.70% (2.09pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– Liberal Democratic Shinzo Abe 35.91 120 +5 Democratic Katsuya Okada 20.98 49 −19 Komeito Natsuo Yamaguchi 13.52 25 +5 Communist Kazuo Shii 10.74 14 +3 Initiatives from Osaka Ichirō Matsui 9.20 12 New Social Democratic Tadatomo Yoshida 2.74 2 −1 People's Life Ichirō Ozawa 1.91 2 0 Japanese Kokoro Kyoko Nakayama 1.31 3 New Assembly to Energize Kota Matsuda – 2 New Okinawa Social Mass Keiko Itokazu – 1 0 Independents – – 12 +9 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Constituency and proportional representation results President before President after Masaaki Yamazaki Liberal Democratic Masaaki Yamazaki Liberal Democratic

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on Sunday 10 July 2016 to elect 121 of the 242 members of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet, for a term of six years. As a result of the election, the Liberal Democratic Party–Komeito coalition gained ten seats for a total of 145 (60% of all seats in the house), the largest coalition achieved since the size of the house was set at 242 seats.^[1]

76 members were elected by single non-transferable vote (SNTV) and first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting in 45 multi- and single-member prefectural electoral districts; for the first time, there were two combined (gōku) single-member districts consisting of two prefectures each, Tottori-Shimane and Tokushima-Kōchi. This change and several other reapportionments were part of an electoral reform law passed by the Diet in July 2015 designed to reduce the maximum ratio of malapportionment in the House of Councillors below 3.^[2][3] The nationwide district which elects 48 members by D'Hondt proportional representation with most open lists remained unchanged.

The elections were the first national election after the 2015 change to the Public Offices Election Act, which allowed people from 18 years of age to vote in national, prefectural and municipal elections and in referendums. The legal voting age prior to the change was 20.^[4]