# Hyōgo at-large district

The Hyogo at-large district (Japanese: 兵庫県選挙区, Hepburn: Hyōgo-ken senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Hyogo Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. It currently has five Councillors in the 242-member house, but this representation will increase to six by July 2019.

## Outline

The constituency represents the entire Hyogo Prefecture, which includes the urban centres of Kobe and the Hanshin region, as well as the rural areas to the north and west of the prefecture and Awaji Island. The district has 4,644,254 registered voters as of June 2016, the eighth-highest in the country. The Councillors currently representing Hyogo are:
* Shinsuke Suematsu (Liberal Democratic Party (LDP); term ends in 2016)
* Shunichi Mizuoka (Democratic Party; term ends in 2016)
* Yoshitada Konoike (LDP; term ends in 2019)
* Takayuki Shimizu (elected as a Japan Restoration Party candidate, currently belongs to Initiatives from Osaka; term ends in 2019)

## Representation in the House

From the first House of Councillors election in 1947 until the 1992 election, Hyogo elected six Councillors in two sets of three at elections held every three years. Under 1994 electoral reform Hyogo's representation was reduced to four (two sets of two), which took effect from the 1995 election. Twenty years later, the district had the same level of representation as not only the Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts, which also had more than 4 million voters each, but also the Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts, which each had less than 2 million voters. To address this malapportionment in representation, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law increased the representation of the Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts to six Councillors; this change began to take effect at the July 2016 election, at which three Councillors were elected by the district for the first time since 1992. The district's representation will return to six Councillors at the next election, due by July 2019. At the same time, the Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts will be reduced to two Councillors.

## 2016 election
### Candidates

The list of candidates for the election on 10 July 2016 was officially released on 22 June 2016. During the nomination period, the opposition Democratic, Communist, Social Democratic and People's Life parties formed an agreement to field only one joint candidate in districts where only one seat is contested. In Hyogo, which will elect three Councillors for the first time since 1992, a total of seven candidates have nominated, including both incumbents Suematsu and Mizuoka. Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner, nominated a candidate for the first time since 1992, after having refrained from competing against the LDP during the period that only two seats were contested. Former Hyogo Prefectural Assembly member Mineo Kaneda will contest the district for the Communist Party for the second time, after having come fourth in the 2013 election. Initiatives from Osaka nominated Daisuke Katayama, a former NHK journalist from Okayama.
Candidates :
| Happiness Realization | Yuko Minato | |
| Liberal Democratic | Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent) | |
| Democratic | Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent) | |
| Communist | Mineo Kaneda | |
| Komeito | Takae Itō | Endorsed by the Liberal Democratic Party |
| Initiatives from Osaka | Daisuke Katayama | |
| Party for Japanese Kokoro | Junnosuke Shimoie | |

### Results

The coalition government's candidates saw a large swing in their favour, with Suematsu and Ito receiving a combined 48.5% of the vote. Mizuoka was unable to win a third term; he was defeated by Katayama by a margin of 4.6%, leaving the Democratic Party without representation in the district. It was one of 13 seats the party lost nationwide in a strong victory for the ruling coalition. Katayama was one of seven successful Initiatives from Osaka candidates. Voter turnout at the election was 53.74%, an increase of 0.72% from the previous election but slightly below the national average of 54.70%, which had also improved slightly from 2013.
Voters in the election also submitted a second ballot for the nationwide 48-seat proportional district. The LDP received 31.7% of the vote, which was below their national result of 35.9%. Initiatives from Osaka received 19.5% of the vote in Hyogo, more than double their nationwide average. The high level of support in Hyogo and Osaka won the party 4 of the 48 seats. The Democratic (15.8%), Komieto (15.3%) and Communist (10.3%) parties were the other parties to receive more than two percent of the vote.
2016 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democratic | Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent) | 641,910 | 26.3 | |
| | Komeito | Takae Itō (Endorsed by LDP) | 542,090 | 22.2 | |
| | Ishin | Daisuke Katayama | 531,165 | 21.8 | |
| | Democratic | Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent) | 420,068 | 17.2 | |
| | Communist | Mineo Kaneda | 228,811 | 9.4 | |
| | Happiness Realization | Yūko Minato | 49,913 | 2.0 | |
| | Japanese Kokoro | Junnosuke Shimoie | 23,954 | 1.0 | |
| Total valid votes | Total valid votes | Total valid votes | 2,437,911 | 97.95 | |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | Informal votes | 50,899 | 2.05 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 2,488,871 | 53.74 | +0.72 |

## Previously elected councillors

| class of 1947 | class of 1947 | class of 1947 | election year | class of 1950 | class of 1950 | class of 1950 |
| #1 (1947: #1, 6-year term) | #2 (1947: #2, 6-year term) | #3 (1947: #3, 6-year term) | election year | #1 (1947: #4, 3-year term) | #2 (1947: #5, 3-year term) | #3 (1947: #6, 3-year term) |
| Chūjirō Haraguchi [ja] (Social Democratic) | Kōkichi Yagi [ja] (Ind.) | Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club) | 1947 | Masao Akagi [ja] (Democrats' Club) | Masagorō Taguchi [ja] (Democratic) | Tetsuo Kobata [ja] (Democratic) |
| Chūjirō Haraguchi [ja] (Social Democratic) | Vacant (27 May 1947 - 2 June 1949) | Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club) | - | Masao Akagi [ja] (Democrats' Club) | Masagorō Taguchi [ja] (Democratic) | Tetsuo Kobata [ja] (Democratic) |
| Chūjirō Haraguchi [ja] (Social Democratic) | Shigemi Yokoo [ja] (Dem. Liberal) | Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club) | 1949 by-election | Masao Akagi [ja] (Democrats' Club) | Masagorō Taguchi [ja] (Democratic) | Tetsuo Kobata [ja] (Democratic) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Dem. Lib.) | Shigemi Yokoo [ja] (Dem. Liberal) | Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club) | 1950 by-election | Masao Akagi [ja] (Democrats' Club) | Masagorō Taguchi [ja] (Democratic) | Tetsuo Kobata [ja] (Democratic) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Dem. Lib.) | Shigemi Yokoo [ja] (Dem. Liberal) | Shinji Fujimori [ja] (Democrats' Club) | 1950 | Masao Akagi [ja] (Ryokufūkai) | Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic) | Katsumi Yamagata [ja] (Liberal) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Liberal) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Right Socialist) | Giichi Kawai [ja] (Left Socialist) | 1953 | Masao Akagi [ja] (Ryokufūkai) | Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic) | Katsumi Yamagata [ja] (Liberal) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (Liberal) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Right Socialist) | Giichi Kawai [ja] (Left Socialist) | 1956 | Ichiro Narita [ja] (LDP) | Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic) | Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (LDP) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic) | Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP) | 1959 | Ichiro Narita [ja] (LDP) | Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic) | Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (LDP) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic) | Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP) | 1959 by-election | Sachio Kishida [ja] (LDP) | Seiichi Matsuura [ja] (Social Democratic) | Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP) |
| Shinichi Okazaki [ja] (LDP) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic) | Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP) | 1962 | Sachio Kishida [ja] (LDP) | Yoshio Sano [ja] (Social Democratic) | Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP) |
| Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic) | Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP) | 1965 | Sachio Kishida [ja] (LDP) | Yoshio Sano [ja] (Social Democratic) | Bunmon Nakano [ja] (LDP) |
| Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Kenjin Matsuzawa [ja] (Social Democratic) | Gentarō Aota [ja] (LDP) | 1968 | Tōru Asai [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Yoshio Sano [ja] (Social Democratic) | Yukako Hagiwara (Dem. Socialist) |
| Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic) | Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP) | 1971 | Tōru Asai [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Yoshio Sano [ja] (Social Democratic) | Yukako Hagiwara (Dem. Socialist) |
| Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic) | Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP) | 1972 by-election | Tōru Asai [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Yukako Hagiwara (Dem. Socialist) |
| Itoko Nakazawa [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic) | Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP) | 1974 | Hideo Yahara [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Hiroko Yasutake (Communist) |
| Michiko Watanabe [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic) | Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP) | 1977 | Hideo Yahara [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Hiroko Yasutake (Communist) |
| Michiko Watanabe [ja] (Kōmeitō) | Mamoru Kotani [ja] (Social Democratic) | Motohiko Kanai [ja] (LDP) | 1980 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Hiroko Yasutake (Communist) |
| Hideo Yahara (Kōmeitō) | Eiko Nukiyama [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Ichiji Ishii [ja] (LDP) | 1983 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Hiroko Yasutake (Communist) |
| Hideo Yahara (Kōmeitō) | Eiko Nukiyama [ja] (Dem. Socialist) | Ichiji Ishii [ja] (LDP) | 1986 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō) |
| Hideo Yahara (Kōmeitō) | Yasuo Nishino [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiji Ishii [ja] (LDP) | 1989 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiro Nakanishi [ja] (LDP) | Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō) |
| Hideo Yahara (Kōmeitō) | Yasuo Nishino [ja] (Social Democratic) | Ichiji Ishii [ja] (LDP) | 1992 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Saburo Komoto (LDP) | Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō) |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Ichiji Ishii (New Frontier) | 1995 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Saburo Komoto (LDP) | Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō) |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Ichiji Ishii (New Frontier) | 1996 by-election | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Chōji Ashio [ja] (minor party) | Kōjin Katakami [ja] (Kōmeitō) |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Ichiji Ishii (New Frontier) | 1998 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Tatsumi Osawa [ja] (Communist) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Yasuhiro Tsuji (DPJ) | 2001 | Shōji Motooka [ja] (Social Democratic) | Tatsumi Osawa [ja] (Communist) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Yasuhiro Tsuji (DPJ) | 2004 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Yasuhiro Tsuji (DPJ) | 2007 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Yasuhiro Tsuji (DPJ) | 2010 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Takayuki Shimizu (Restoration) | 2013 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Shunichi Mizuoka (DPJ) | Seat abolished |
| Seat abolished | Yoshitada Konoike (LDP) | Takayuki Shimizu (Restoration) | 2016 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Takae Itō (Kōmeitō) | Daisuke Katayama (Initiatives from Osaka) |
| Seat restored | | | 2019 | Shinsuke Suematsu (LDP) | Takae Itō (Kōmeitō) | Daisuke Katayama (Initiatives from Osaka) |
* ↑ Resigned 29 November 1949
* ↑ Was disqualified from holding office by the post-war Allied occupying forces on 27 May 1947
* ↑ Held 3 June 1949.
* ↑ Held 12 January 1950
* ↑ Died in office on 4 July 1959
* ↑ Held 20 August 1959
* ↑ Died in office on 27 September 1972
* ↑ Held 5 November 1972
* ↑ Resigned on 8 October 1996 to contest the October 1996 House of Representatives election
* 1 2 3 The number of seats was reduced from six to four by electing one less Councillor in the 1996 and 1999 elections. The number of seats will return to six at the 2019 election.
* ↑ Held 17 November 1996
* ↑ Contested the election under the party name Hyogo's Party to Broaden Tomorrow's Japan (明日の日本をひらく兵庫の会, Ashita no Nihon o Hiraku Hyogo no Kai). He joined the LDP the year after his election.

## Previous election results

2013 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Liberal Democratic | Yoshitada Konoike (Incumbent) (endorsed by Komeito) | 868,069 | 37.8 | |
| | Restoration | Takayuki Shimizu | 598,630 | 26.1 | |
| | Democratic | Yasuhiro Tsuji (Incumbent) | 343,551 | 15.0 | |
| | Communist | Mineo Kaneda | 220,577 | 9.6 | |
| | Your | Eriko Shimomura | 174,132 | 7.6 | |
| | Greens | Namiho Matsumoto | 58,032 | 2.5 | |
| | Happiness Realization | Yūko Minato | 34,827 | 1.5 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 4,545,807 | 53.02 | −1.39 |
2010 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Shinsuke Suematsu (Incumbent) | 694,459 | 29.4 |
| | Democratic | Shunichi Mizuoka (Incumbent) (Endorsed by People's New Party) | 515,541 | 21.8 |
| | Your | Nobuhiko Isaka [ja] | 414,910 | 17.6 |
| | Democratic | Maki Mihashi (Endorsed by People's New Party) | 409,190 | 17.3 |
| | Communist | Terufumi Horiuchi | 199,052 | 8.4 |
| | New Renaissance | Aimi Yoshida | 107,028 | 4.5 |
| | Happiness Realization | Yoshiaki Takagi | 20,651 | 0.9 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | | |