House of Councillors national district

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The nationwide district (全国区, zenkoku-ku) was a 50-member electoral district for the House of Councillors, the upper house of the National Diet of Japan, from 1947 to 1980. It consisted of the whole country. In staggered elections, it elected 100 of the 250 members of the House of Councillors by single non-transferable vote (SNTV). In an SNTV/SNTV parallel system, the other 150 members were also elected by SNTV, but in more decisive, lower-magnitude districts contiguous with the 47 prefectures, several of them single-member districts where SNTV is equivalent to first-past-the-post.

In the 1983 regular election, the national district was replaced with the proportional district which is equally nationwide, but is often just called proportional district (hirei-ku) to avoid ambiguity. It elects the same number of members, but now in a proportional system from party lists. By 1986, the directly elected members from the national district were replaced by proportional party list members in both classes of the House of Councillors.