# Hokkaido at-large district

The Hokkaido at-large district is a constituency of the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It consists of the prefecture (dō) of Hokkai[dō] and is represented by six Councillors electing three at a time every three years by single non-transferable vote for six-year terms. In the election period from 2019 to 2022, Hokkaido's Councillors are (party affiliation as of September 2019):
* Gaku Hasegawa (LDP, Hosoda faction; term ends in 2022),
* Eri Tokunaga (DPFP; term ends in 2022),
* Yoshio Hachiro (CDP; term ends in 2022),
* Harumi Takahashi (LDP; term ends in 2025),
* Kenji Katsube (CDP; term ends in 2025) and
* Tsuyohito Iwamoto (LDP; term ends in 2025).
After the House of Councillors had replaced the House of Peers according to the constitution of 1947, Hokkaido was represented by eight Councillors. In the early years of the 1955 System, all four seats went to the two major postwar parties, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Japan Socialist Party (JSP). But smaller parties such as the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) had a chance to pick up seats in Hokkaido as the vote share sufficient to gain a seat was often significantly below 20 percent. The high number of candidates increased the risk of vote splitting for the major parties: In 1974, two incumbent LDP candidates and conservative independent Tatsuo Takahashi ranked 5th, 6th and 7th leaving all four seats to the center-left to left opposition parties Kōmeitō, JSP and JCP.
In a major reapportionment in 1994 the number of Councillors from Hokkaido was halved to four. It became effective in the 1995 and 1998 elections. During the period as two-member district, Hokkaidō usually split seats evenly between opposition and ruling parties like most two-member districts – although the Democrats unsuccessfully aimed for both seats in the 2004, 2007 and 2010 elections. In another 2015 reapportionment, effective in the two classes from the 2016 and 2019 elections, Hokkaidō's representation in the upper house was raised to six.

## Elected Councillors

| class of 1947 | class of 1947 | class of 1947 | class of 1947 | election year | class of 1950 | class of 1950 | class of 1950 | class of 1950 |
| #1 (1947: #1, 6-year term) (1950: #5, 3-year term) | #2 (1947: #2, 6-year term) | #3 (1947: #3, 6-year term) | #4 (1947: #4, 6-year term) | election year | #1 (1947: #5, 3-year term) | #2 (1947: #6, 3-year term) | #3 (1947: #7, 3-year term) | #4 (1947: #8, 3-year term) |
| Junsuke Itaya † (JLP) | Sueji Hori (Indep.) | Makoto Chiba (JSP) | Misao Kaga (Indep.) | 1947 | Katsuzō Wakaki (Indep.) | Gengo Kinoshita (JSP) | Keiki Machimura (Indep.) | Yonesaburō Kobayashi (Indep.) |
| Eiji Arima (DP) | Sueji Hori (Indep.) | Makoto Chiba (JSP) | Misao Kaga (Indep.) | 1950 incl. by-election | Gengo Kinoshita (JSP) | Takashi Azuma (Farmers Cooperative Party) | Katsuzō Wakaki (JSP) | Sadayoshi Matsuura (Farmers Cooperative Party) |
| Makoto Chiba (JSP, left) | Katsutarō Kita (Indep.) | Sueji Hori (Yoshida LP) | Eiji Arima (Progressive) | 1953 | Gengo Kinoshita (JSP) | Takashi Azuma (Farmers Cooperative Party) | Katsuzō Wakaki (JSP) | Sadayoshi Matsuura (Farmers Cooperative Party) |
| Makoto Chiba (JSP, left) | Katsutarō Kita (Indep.) | Sueji Hori (Yoshida LP) | Eiji Arima (Progressive) | 1956 | Hidetoshi Tomabechi (LDP) | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Takashi Azuma (JSP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) |
| Isao Yoneta (JSP) | Sueji Hori (LDP) | Ihei Ikawa (LDP) | Makoto Chiba (JSP) | 1959 | Hidetoshi Tomabechi (LDP) | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Takashi Azuma (JSP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) |
| Isao Yoneta (JSP) | Sueji Hori (LDP) | Ihei Ikawa (LDP) | Makoto Chiba (JSP) | 1962 | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Tokuichi Kobayashi (Indep.) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) |
| Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | Ihei Ikawa (LDP) | Yūnosuke Takahashi (LDP) | Genshō Takeda (JSP) | 1965 | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Tokuichi Kobayashi (Indep.) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) |
| Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | Ihei Ikawa (LDP) | Yūnosuke Takahashi (LDP) | Genshō Takeda (JSP) | 1968 | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Yōichi Kawaguchi (LDP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) |
| Yūnosuke Takahashi (LDP) | Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | Genshō Takeda (JSP) | Masaichi Iwamoto (LDP) | 1971 | Tadashi Ōya (JSP) | Yōichi Kawaguchi (LDP) | Shinichi Nishida (LDP) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) |
| Yūnosuke Takahashi (LDP) | Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | Genshō Takeda (JSP) | Masaichi Iwamoto (LDP) | 1974 | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Takehiko Aizawa (Kōmeitō) |
| Shūji Kita (LDP) | Keiichi Nakamura (LDP) | Kaneyasu Marutani (JSP) | Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | 1977 | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) | Chūzaburō Yoshida (JSP) | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Takehiko Aizawa (Kōmeitō) |
| Shūji Kita (LDP) | Keiichi Nakamura (LDP) | Kaneyasu Marutani (JSP) | Seiichi Kawamura (JSP) | 1980 | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) | Masamitsu Iwamoto (LDP) | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) |
| Shūji Kita (LDP) | Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Kaneyasu Marutani (JSP) | Masami Kudō (LDP) | 1983 | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) | Masamitsu Iwamoto (LDP) | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) |
| Shūji Kita (LDP) | Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Kaneyasu Marutani (JSP) | Masami Kudō (LDP) | 1986 | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Masamitsu Iwamoto (LDP) | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) |
| Yasuko Takemura (Indep.) | Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Shūji Kita (LDP) | Yūko Takasaki (JCP) | 1989 | Takakatsu Tsushima (JSP) | Masamitsu Iwamoto (LDP) | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) | Sadako Ogasawara (JCP) |
| Yasuko Takemura (Indep.) | Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Shūji Kita (LDP) | Yūko Takasaki (JCP) | 1992 | Hisashi Kazama (Kōmeitō) | Noriyuki Nakao (Indep.) | Naoki Minezaki (JSP) | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) |
| Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Katsuya Ogawa (NFP) | – | – | 1995 | Hisashi Kazama (Kōmeitō) | Noriyuki Nakao (Indep.) | Naoki Minezaki (JSP) | Masaaki Takagi (LDP) |
| Hisamitsu Sugano (JSP) | Katsuya Ogawa (NFP) | – | – | 1998 | Naoki Minezaki (DPJ) | Yoshio Nakagawa (LDP) | – | – |
| Chūichi Date (LDP) | Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | – | – | 2001 | Naoki Minezaki (DPJ) | Yoshio Nakagawa (LDP) | – | – |
| Chūichi Date (LDP) | Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | – | – | 2004 | Yoshio Nakagawa (LDP) | Naoki Minezaki (DPJ) | – | – |
| Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | Chūichi Date (LDP) | – | – | 2007 | Yoshio Nakagawa (LDP) | Naoki Minezaki (DPJ) | – | – |
| Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | Chūichi Date (LDP) | – | – | 2010 | Gaku Hasegawa (LDP) | Eri Tokunaga (DPJ) | – | – |
| Chūichi Date (LDP) | Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | – | – | 2013 | Gaku Hasegawa (LDP) | Eri Tokunaga (DPJ) | – | – |
| Chūichi Date (LDP) | Katsuya Ogawa (DPJ) | – | – | 2016 | Gaku Hasegawa (LDP) | Eri Tokunaga (DP) | Yoshio Hachiro (DP) | – |
| Harumi Takahashi (LDP) | Kenji Katsube (CDP) | Tsuyohito Iwamoto (LDP) | – | 2019 | Gaku Hasegawa (LDP) | Eri Tokunaga (DP) | Yoshio Hachiro (DP) | – |
* ↑ joined Ryokufūkai
* ↑ joined JSP
* ↑ joined Ryokufūkai
* ↑ joined JLP
* ↑ joined Ryokufūkai
* ↑ joined LDP
* ↑ JSP support
* ↑ JSP support

## Recent election results

Notes:
* Decimals from anbunhyō ("fractional proportional votes" from ambiguous votes) omitted; note that the rounded whole numbers may still include fractions of numbers >2 of ambiguous votes and do not necessarily represent "whole" voters
* (2016 only) (*): ineligible as runner-up replacement (kuriage-tōsen), lost deposit
2019 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| LDP | Harumi Takahashi | 828,220 | 34.4 | new |
| CDP | Kenji Katsube | 523,737 | 21.7 | new |
| LDP | Tsuyohito Iwamoto | 454,285 | 18.8 | new |
| JCP | Kazuya Hatayama | 265,862 | 11.0 | new |
| DPP | Nami Haraya | 227,174 | 9.4 | new |
| N-Koku | Takahira Yamamoto | 63,308 | 2.6 | new |
| Meeting to Decide About Euthanasia | Osamu Nakamura | 23,785 | 1.0 | −0.1 |
| HRP | Yoshinori Moriyama | 13,724 | 0.6 | −0.2 |
| The Worker's Party aiming for liberation of labor | Seiji Iwase | 10,108 | 0.4 | new |
2016 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| LDP (K) | Gaku Hasegawa | 648,269 | 25.5 | −7.8 |
| DP (SDP Hokkaidō) | Eri Tokunaga | 559,996 | 22.0 | −3.6 |
| DP (SDP Hokkaidō) | Yoshio Hachiro | 491,129 | 19.3 | new |
| LDP (K, NPD) | Katsuhiro Kakiki | 482,688 | 19.0 | new |
| JCP | Tsuneto Mori | 239,564 | 9.4 | (to 2013) −2.0 |
| Kokoro | Kazuo Satō (*) | 34,092 | 1.3 | new |
| Support no party | Osamu Nakamura (*) | 29,072 | 1.1 | new |
| Independent | Yoshihiro Iida (*) | 26,686 | 1.0 | new |
| HRP | Yoshinori Moriyama (*) | 21,006 | 0.8 | (to 2013) −0.2 |
| Independent | Kan'yō Mizukoshi (*) | 12,944 | 0.5 | new |
2013 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | LDP (NK) | Chūichi Date | 903,693 | 37.7 | |
| | DPJ | Katsuya Ogawa | 583,995 | 24.4 | |
| | NPD | Takahiro Asano | 352,434 | 14.7 | |
| | JCP | Tsuneto Mori | 272,102 | 11.4 | |
| | YP | Takanobu Azumi | 261,802 | 10.9 | |
| | HRP | Yoshinori Moriyama | 23,194 | 1.0 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,502,360 | 54.41 | (to 2010) −7.48 |
2010 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | LDP | Gaku Hasegawa | 948,267 | 34.3 | |
| | DPJ | Eri Tokunaga | 708,523 | 25.6 | |
| | DPJ | Masashi Fujikawa | 567,167 | 20.5 | |
| | YP | Ken'ichi Nakagawa | 320,992 | 11.6 | |
| | JCP | Kazuya Hatayama | 200,231 | 7.2 | |
| | HRP | Makoto Ōbayashi | 22,166 | 0.8 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,849,955 | 61.89 | (to 2007) −0.51 |
2007 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | DPJ | Katsuya Ogawa | 1,018,597 | 36.0 | |
| | LDP (NK) | Chūichi Date | 757,463 | 26.8 | |
| | Independent (NPD, DPJ, PNP) | Kaori Sahara | 621,497 | 22.0 | |
| | JCP | Kazuya Hatayama | 206,463 | 7.3 | |
| | Independent | Hideyoshi Hashiba | 103,282 | 3.7 | |
| | SDP | Takao Asano | 79,474 | 2.8 | |
| | Independent | Masayuki Arakawa | 22,154 | 0.8 | |
| | Ishin | Nobuhito Sendai | 18,234 | 0.6 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,907,079 | 62.40 | (to 2004) +0.66 |
2004 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| LDP | Yoshio Nakagawa | 741,831 | 26.7 |
| DPJ | Naoki Minezaki | 618,277 | 22.3 |
| DPJ | Masahito Nishikawa | 552,993 | 19.9 |
| Independent | Muneo Suzuki | 485,382 | 17.5 |
| JCP | Chiharu Oka | 254,338 | 9.2 |
| SDP | Keiko Yamauchi | 106,631 | 3.8 |
| Ishin | Nobuhito Sendai | 19,020 | 0.7 |
2001 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| LDP | Chūichi Date | 985,274 | 39.3 |
| DPJ | Katsuya Ogawa | 683,704 | 27.2 |
| JCP | Satoshi Miyauchi | 284,575 | 11.3 |
| LP | Masahito Nishikawa | 196,348 | 7.8 |
| SDP | Yoshiko Sugiyama | 165,670 | 6.6 |
| WP | Tamiko Matsumura | 87,597 | 3.5 |
| Independent | Mitsuhiro Yokoyama | 36,119 | 1.4 |
| LL | Akifumi Kumagai | 33,500 | 1.3 |
| NSP | Nobuyuki Saitō | 25,261 | 1.0 |
| Ishin | Nobuhito Sendai | 11,469 | 0.5 |
1998 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPJ | Naoki Minezaki | 804,611 | 31.2 |
| LDP | Yoshio Nakagawa | 723,786 | 28.1 |
| JCP | Tomoko Uchiyama | 605,119 | 23.5 |
| LP | Kentarō Ono | 161,505 | 6.3 |
| SDP | Shirō Kayano | 146,159 | 5.7 |
| NSP | Masami Mizuyoshi | 34,374 | 1.3 |
| YLP | Ken'ichi Sawada | 33,390 | 1.3 |
| LL | Ryōko Matsukawa | 32,557 | 1.3 |
| Independent | Hideo Murata | 28,480 | 1.1 |
| Ishin | Nobuhito Sendai | 7,249 | 0.3 |
1995 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| JSP | Hisamitsu Sugano | 563,029 | 27.5 |
| NFP | Katsuya Ogawa | 511,139 | 25.3 |
| LDP | Yoshitaka Kimoto | 488,807 | 24.2 |
| JCP | Yūko Takasaki | 392,714 | 19.5 |
| New Era | Etsuko Yoshino | 40,106 | 2.0 |
| Independent | Hiroshi Maeya | 21,716 | 1.1 |