was a constituency of the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It consists of Tokushima Prefecture and elects two Councillors, one every three years by a first-past-the-post system for a six-year term. In the first election in 1947, Tokushima like all districts used single non-transferable vote to elect both its Councillors in one election.
Single-member districts (ichinin-ku) for the House of Councillors often play a decisive role for the outcome of elections as little swing in votes is required to achieve a change of the Councillors elected there. Tokushima in predominantly rural Shikoku has for decades voted for candidates from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) or ex-LDP conservative independents by large margins. In the landslide election of 1989 that left the LDP-led government without a majority in the House of Councillors for the first time, a so-called "twisted parliament" (nejire kokkai), Harumi Inui from RENGO trade union federation's Rengō no Kai won Tokushima against incumbent Tomoyoshi Kamanaga by a margin of 60,000 votes.
With its 641,534 registered voters (as of September 2015), it is the fourth-smallest electoral district for the house. To address the imbalance in representation between districts, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law will see the district merged with the Kochi At-large district to create the Tokushima-Kochi At-large district; this change will begin to take effect at the 2016 election, at which one Councillor will be elected.
The current Councillors for Tokushima are: Yusuke Nakanishi (LDP, term expires 2016) Toru Miki (LDP, term expires 2019)
Elected Councillors Class of 1947 Election year Class of 1950 #1(1947: #1, 6-year term) #1(1947: #2, 3-year term) Yojin Akazawa(Kakushin Kyōdō,"Progressive Cooperation")joined Ryokufūkai 1947 Makio Kishino (Indep.) 1947 by-el. Mitsu Kōro (DP) 1950 Mitsu Kōro (NDP) Yokichirō Miki (Indep.) 1953 1956 Mitsu Kōro (LDP) Yokichirō Miki (LDP) 1959 1962 1965 1968 Kentarō Kujime (LDP) Kōshō Ogasa (Indep.) 1971 1974 Kentarō Kujime (Indep.) Tomoyoshi Kamenaga (LDP) 1977 1980 Ken Naitō (LDP) 1983 1986 Kōji Matsuura (LDP) Harumi Inui (Rengō no Kai) 1989 1992 Shūji Kitaoka (LDP) 1995 1998 Kiseko Takahashi (Indep.)ran with opposition support, later joined Midori no Kaigi (lit. "Green Conference") 2001 2004 Masakatsu Koike (LDP) Tomoji Nakatani (DPJ) 2007 2010 Yūsuke Nakanishi (LDP) Toru Miki (LDP) 2013 2016 seat to be abolished seat to be abolished 2019
References House of Councillors: Alphabetical list of former Councillors