The is a constituency that represents Niigata Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. Since July 2019, it has two Councillors in the 242-member house, a decrease from its previous contingent of 3. Similar to other rural two seat districts in Northern Japan such as the Iwate at-large district, it often shows a willingness to buck the LDP and instead vote for opposition backed candidates, such as in 2019. Nonetheless, the LDP won the district by six points in the 2022 elections, and Uchikoshi only won by a margin of four points.
Outline The constituency represents the entire population of Niigata Prefecture and has 1,925,565 registered voters as of September 2015. Since the first House of Councillors election in 1947 Niigata has elected four Councillors to six-year terms, two at alternating elections held every three years. The district's number of voters is the third-lowest of the 10 prefectures that are represented by four Councillors; by comparison, the Hokkaido, Hyogo at-large district and Fukuoka districts each have more than 4 million voters but are represented by the same number of Councillors as Niigata. To address this malapportionment in representation, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law decrease the representation of Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts to two Councillors while increasing Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts to six Councillors. This change took effect at the 2016 election, after which time, Niigata will elect only one Councillor during every election.
The Councillors currently representing Niigata are: Kazuhiro Kobayashi (LDP, first term; term ends in 2028) Sakura Uchikoshi (CDP, first term; term ends in 2025)
Elected Councillors Class of 1947 Election year Class of 1950(1947: 3-year term) Bunkichi Tamura(Ind.) Kyōhei Shimojō(Social Democratic) 1947 Kazuo Kitamua (Liberal) Yoshio Fujita (Ind.) 1950 Kazuo Kitamura(Liberal) Toshiei Kiyosawa(Social Democratic) Bunkichi Tamura(Ryokufūkai) Yaheiji Saikawa(Liberal) 1953 1955 by-election Makie Koyanagi(LDP) 1956 Goro Takeuchi(Social Democratic) Yoshio Sato(LDP) 1959 1962 Zentaro Sugiyama(Social Democratic) 1965 Takashi Sato(LDP) 1967 by-election 1968 Jūichiro Tsukada(Ind.) Makoto Matsui(Social Democratic) Zentaro Sugiyama(Social Democratic) 1971 1972 by-election Takeo Kimi (LDP) 1974 Shiro Watari(LDP) Yutaka Shitoma(Social Democratic) Jūichiro Tsukada(LDP) 1976 by-election 1977 by-election Shin Hasegawa(LDP) Masao Yoshida(Social Democratic) 1977 1980 Toshio Inamura(Social Democratic) Yoshio Yoshikawa(LDP) 1983 1986 1989 by-election Kinuko Ōfuchi(Social Democratic) 1989 1990 by-election Kazuo Majima(LDP) 1992 Michio Hasegawa(New Frontier) 1995 1998 Naoki Tanaka(LDP) Yuko Mori(Liberal) Kazuo Majima(LDP) 2001 Takahiro Kuroiwa(Ind.) 2002 by-election 2004 Masamichi Kondo(Ind.) Yuko Mori (DPJ) Ichiro Tsukada(LDP) 2007 2010 Naoki Tanaka (DPJ) Yaichi Nakahara(LDP) Naoki Kazama(DPJ→DP→CDP) 2013 2016 Yuko Mori(Liberal) Sakura Uchikoshi(CDP) 2019 2022 Kazuhiro Kobayashi(LDP)
Election results
See also List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan
References