# Shikoku proportional representation block

The Shikoku proportional representation block (Hirei [daihyō] Shikoku burokku (比例[代表]四国ブロック)) is one of eleven proportional representation (PR) "blocks", multi-member constituencies for the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan. It consists of Shikoku region covering Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime and Kōchi Prefectures. Following the introduction of proportional voting it elected seven representatives in the 1996 general election. When the total number of PR seats was reduced from 200 to 180, the Shikoku PR block shrank to six seats.

## Summary of results

With a district magnitude of six, Shikoku is the smallest PR block. The vote share necessary to obtain a seat is usually well above ten percent. In three elections after the consolidation of the LDP-DPJ-party system by the merger of the LP into the DPJ in 2001, only the top three parties were able to win seats in Shikoku. In 2012, the LDP recorded its worst result since the introduction of proportional party list voting and the DPJ vote share crashed by more than 25 percentage points, the newly created Japan Restoration Party managed to gain two proportional seats in Shikoku.
| General election | LDP | LDP | LDP | DPJ | DPJ | DPJ | Kōmeitō | Kōmeitō | Kōmeitō | JCP | JCP | JCP | SDP | SDP | SDP | NFP ('96)/LP ('00) | NFP ('96)/LP ('00) | NFP ('96)/LP ('00) | JRP ('12)/JIP ('14) | JRP ('12)/JIP ('14) | JRP ('12)/JIP ('14) | Others | Others | Others |
| General election | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats |
| 1996 | 785,589 | 41.6 | 3 | 245,323 | 13.8 | 1 | – | – | – | 227,014 | 12.1 | 1 | 132,868 | 7.1 | 0 | 455,269 | 24.2 | 2 | – | – | – | 39,067 | 2.1 | 0 |
| 2000 | 700,719 | 36.0 | 3 | 402,457 | 20.7 | 1 | 266,791 | 13.7 | 1 | 213,729 | 11.0 | 1 | 196,277 | 10.1 | 0 | 162,700 | 8.4 | 0 | – | – | – | 5,316 | 0.3 | 0 |
| 2003 | 708,051 | 38.2 | 3 | 587,828 | 31.7 | 2 | 309,160 | 16.7 | 1 | 148,953 | 8.0 | 0 | 98,243 | 5.3 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2005 | 821,746 | 38.3 | 3 | 711,927 | 33.2 | 2 | 317,575 | 14.8 | 1 | 175,994 | 8.2 | 0 | 119,089 | 5.5 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 2009 | 719,594 | 32.0 | 2 | 973,038 | 43.2 | 3 | 293,204 | 13.0 | 1 | 150,171 | 6.7 | 0 | 94,558 | 4.2 | 0 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 19,507 | 0.9 | 0 |
| 2012 | 567,193 | 30.7 | 2 | 296,914 | 16.0 | 1 | 276,907 | 15.0 | 1 | 106,976 | 5.8 | 0 | 42,762 | 2.3 | 0 | – | – | – | 394,393 | 21.3 | 2 | 165,091 | 8.8 | 0 |
| 2014 | 547,185 | 34.9 | 3 | 326,803 | 20.8 | 1 | 247,776 | 15.8 | 1 | 158,848 | 10.1 | 0 | 33,257 | 2.1 | 0 | – | – | – | 200,882 | 12.8 | 1 | 55,277 | 3.1 | 0 |
Party names are abbreviated as follows (Romanisation of Japanese name in brackets):
* LDP: Liberal Democratic Party, (Jiyūminshutō)
* DPJ: Democratic Party of Japan (Minshutō)
* Komeito (Kōmeitō)
* JCP: Japanese Communist Party, (Nihon Kyōsantō)
* SDP Social Democratic Party, Shakaiminshutō
* NFP: New Frontier Party, Shinshintō
* LP: Liberal Party, Jiyūtō
* NSP: New Socialist Party, Shin-shakaitō
* LL: Liberal League, Jiyū-rengō
* HRP: Happiness Realization Party, Kōfuku-jitsugen-tō

## List of representatives

Note: Party affiliations as of election day.
| Years | Elected representatives | Elected representatives | Elected representatives | Elected representatives | Elected representatives | Elected representatives | Elected representatives |
| 1996 | Naoaki Haruna | Masanori Gotō | Kazuyoshi Endō | Shōzō Nishimura | Ihei Ochi died 2000, replaced by Akira Shichijō | Mamoru Nishida | Hajime Morita |
| 2000 | Naoaki Haruna | Masanori Gotō | Kazuyoshi Endō | Mamoru Nishida | Hajime Morita | Akira Shichijō | – |
| 2003 | Miho Takai | Masanori Gotō | Noritoshi Ishida | Hajime Morita | Yoshirō Okamoto | Akira Shichijō | – |
| 2005 | Junya Ogawa | Masanori Gotō resigned 2005, replaced by Miho Takai | Noritoshi Ishida | Akira Shichijō | Yoshirō Okamoto | Katsuko Nishimoto | – |
| 2009 | Hirobumi Niki | Takako Nagae | Hideyuki Takahashi | Noritoshi Ishida | Takuya Hirai | Shun'ichi Yamaguchi | – |
| 2012 | Junya Ogawa | Fumiki Sakurauchi | Arata Nishioka | Noritoshi Ishida | Takakazu Seto | Yasuji Izuhara | – |
| 2014 | Junya Ogawa | Hiroyuki Yokoyama | Noritoshi Ishida | Teru Fukui | Takakazu Seto | Mamoru Fukuyama | – |

## Election results
### 2014 general election

Following on from the LDP landslide win at the 2012 general election, in which the party won 12 of the 13 electorates in Shikoku plus two of the six seats from the PR list, the LDP maintained their dominant position in the region by retaining all 10 of their electorates (two electorates were abolished to address voter malapportionment) and gaining a seat on the PR list from the dissolved Japan Restoration Party (JRP).
The JRP, which won 2 seats with 21.3% of the vote at the 2012 general election, had split in May 2014, with former members subsequently forming the Japan Innovation Party and Party for Future Generations. Of the two JRP members previously elected from the Shikoku PR list, Fumiki Sakurauchi [ja] joined the Party for Future Generations and contested the PR block in 2014, while Arata Nishioka [ja] contested the Ehime 2nd district [ja] as an independent; both candidates lost.
Former Ehime Prefectural Assembly [ja] member Hiroyuki Yokoyama [ja] the Japan Innovation Party's unsuccessful candidate in Ehime 2nd district, gained a seat for the new party, while the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and Komeito representatives were able to retain their seats.
Elected candidates :
| Party | Representative | Party rank | Term # |
| LDP | Teru Fukui | 1 | 6th |
| DPJ | Junya Ogawa | 1 | 4th |
| LDP | Mamoru Fukuyama [ja] | 2 | 2nd |
| Komeito | Noritoshi Ishida | 1 | 7th |
| Innovation | Hiroyuki Yokoyama [ja] | 1 | 1st |
| LDP | Takakazu Seto [ja] | 3 | 2nd |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– |
| | Liberal Democratic Party | 547,185 | 34.85 | +4.19 | 3 | +1 |
| | Democratic Party of Japan | 326,803 | 20.82 | +4.77 | 1 | 0 |
| | Komeito | 247,776 | 15.78 | +0.81 | 1 | 0 |
| | Japan Innovation Party | 200,882 | 12.79 | New | 1 | New |
| | Japanese Communist Party | 158,848 | 10.12 | +4.34 | 0 | 0 |
| | Party for Future Generations | 44,515 | 2.84 | New | 0 | New |
| | Social Democratic Party | 33,257 | 2.12 | –0.19 | 0 | 0 |
| | Happiness Realization Party | 10,762 | 0.69 | +0.25 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 1,570,028 | 100.00 | – | 6 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,570,028 | 96.92 | | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 49,834 | 3.08 | | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 1,619,862 | 100.00 | | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 3,259,284 | 49.70 | | | |
| Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications |||||||

### 2012 general election

Prior to the election, the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) held three of the six PR block seats as well as 5 of the 13 small electorates that make up the block. The opposition LDP held 2 of the PR seats and the 8 remaining electorates, while their traditional junior coalition partner Komeito held the final PR seat.
The 2012 general election delivered a landslide victory to the LDP, with 294 of the 480 seats won at the national level. The election decimated the DPJ from a pre-election position of 230 to just 57 seats. In the Shikoku PR block, the DPJ lost 2 of their seats as their vote was reduced to 16.0%, down from 43.2% in the 2009 election. Junya Ogawa lost his seat in Kagawa 1st district but was the DPJ candidate to suffer the narrowest defeat, so he was able to retain a seta in the house. The newly-formed Japan Restoration Party gained the two seats lost by the DPJ. In the 13 single-member electorates, the LDP gained 4 seats, with Yuichiro Tamaki being the only DPJ member to retain his seat in the Kagawa 2nd district.
Elected candidates :
| Party | Representative | Party rank | Term # |
| LDP | Takakazu Seto | 1 | 1st |
| Restoration | Fumiki Sakurauchi | 1 | 1st |
| DPJ | Junya Ogawa | 1 | 3rd |
| LDP | Yasuji Izuhara | 14 | 2nd |
| Komeito | Noritoshi Ishida | 1 | 6th |
| Restoration | Arata Nishioka | 1 | 1st |
| Party | Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
| | Liberal Democratic Party | 567,193 | 30.66 | 2 | 0 |
| | Japan Restoration Party | 394,393 | 21.32 | 2 | New |
| | Democratic Party of Japan | 296,914 | 16.05 | 1 | –2 |
| | Komeito | 276,907 | 14.97 | 1 | 0 |
| | Japanese Communist Party | 106,976 | 5.78 | 0 | 0 |
| | Your Party | 93,090 | 5.03 | 0 | New |
| | Tomorrow Party of Japan | 63,830 | 3.45 | 0 | New |
| | Social Democratic Party | 42,762 | 2.31 | 0 | 0 |
| | Happiness Realization Party | 8,171 | 0.44 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | Total | 1,850,236 | 100.00 | 6 | 0 |
| Valid votes | Valid votes | 1,850,236 | 96.94 | | |
| Invalid/blank votes | Invalid/blank votes | 58,365 | 3.06 | | |
| Total votes | Total votes | 1,908,601 | 100.00 | | |
| Registered voters/turnout | Registered voters/turnout | 3,291,313 | 57.99 | | |
| Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications ||||||

### 2009 general election

Shikoku block results in the 2009 general election :
| LDP: 719,594 votes (32.0%), 2 seats | LDP: 719,594 votes (32.0%), 2 seats | LDP: 719,594 votes (32.0%), 2 seats | LDP: 719,594 votes (32.0%), 2 seats | LDP: 719,594 votes (32.0%), 2 seats | DPJ: 973,038 votes (43.2%), 3 seats | DPJ: 973,038 votes (43.2%), 3 seats | DPJ: 973,038 votes (43.2%), 3 seats | DPJ: 973,038 votes (43.2%), 3 seats | DPJ: 973,038 votes (43.2%), 3 seats | Kōmeitō: 293,204 votes (13.0%), 1 seat | Kōmeitō: 293,204 votes (13.0%), 1 seat | Kōmeitō: 293,204 votes (13.0%), 1 seat | Kōmeitō: 293,204 votes (13.0%), 1 seat | Kōmeitō: 293,204 votes (13.0%), 1 seat |
| # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" (sekihairitsu) | Elected | # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" | Elected | # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" | Elected |
| 1 | Takuya Hirai | Kagawa 1 | 83.3% | Elected | 1 | Hirobumi Niki | Tokushima 3 | 98.5% | Elected | 1 | Noritoshi Ishida | PR only | PR only | Elected |
| 1 | Shun'ichi Yamaguchi | Tokushima 2 | 80.2% | Elected | 1 | Takako Nagae | Ehime 1 | 97.8% | Elected | 2 | Hidehisa Ochiai | PR only | PR only | – |
| 1 | Masazumi Gotōda | Tokushima 3 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Hideyuki Takahashi | Ehime 4 | 89.7% | Elected | JCP: 150,171 votes (6.7%), no seat | JCP: 150,171 votes (6.7%), no seat | JCP: 150,171 votes (6.7%), no seat | JCP: 150,171 votes (6.7%), no seat | JCP: 150,171 votes (6.7%), no seat |
| 1 | Yasuhisa Shiozaki | Ehime 1 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Yoshito Sengoku | Tokushima 1 | Won district | Won district | # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" | Elected |
| 1 | Seiichirō Murakami | Ehime 2 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Miho Takai | Tokushima 2 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Masaru Sasaoka | PR only | PR only | – |
| 1 | Kōichi Yamamoto | Ehime 4 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Jun'ya Ogawa | Kagawa 1 | Won district | Won district | 2 | Motonori Furuta | Tokushima 1 | 10.8% | – |
| 1 | Teru Fukui | Kōchi 1 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Yūichirō Tamaki | Kagawa 2 | Won district | Won district | 2 | Michiko Chikaishi | Kagawa 3 | 9.9% | – |
| 1 | Gen Nakatani | Kōchi 2 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Yōichi Shiraishi | Ehime 3 | Won district | Won district | 2 | Katsuhiko Tanaka | Ehime 1 | 6.1% | – |
| 1 | Yūji Yamamoto | Kōchi 3 | Won district | Won district | 1 | Tomoi Nakayama | Kōchi 3 | 86.9% | – | SDP: 94,558 votes (4.2%), no seat | SDP: 94,558 votes (4.2%), no seat | SDP: 94,558 votes (4.2%), no seat | SDP: 94,558 votes (4.2%), no seat | SDP: 94,558 votes (4.2%), no seat |
| 1 | Tōru Shirai | Ehime 3 | 77.2% | – | 1 | Kumiko Tamura | Kōchi 1 | 86.4% | – | # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" | Elected |
| 1 | Yoshio Kimura | Kagawa 2 | 72.3% | – | 1 | Kiyo Kusumoto | Kōchi 2 | 65.9% | – | 1 | Tomoko Okahira | Ehime 2 | 89.9% | – |
| 1 | Yoshirō Okamoto | Tokushima 1 | 51.8% | – | 12 | Kenshi Uno | PR only | PR only | – | 1 | Haruhiko Maida | Kagawa 3 | 73.3% | – |
| 13 | Akira Shichijō | PR only | PR only | – | 13 | Masuko Yoshida | PR only | PR only | – | HRP: 19,507 votes (0.9%), no seat | HRP: 19,507 votes (0.9%), no seat | HRP: 19,507 votes (0.9%), no seat | HRP: 19,507 votes (0.9%), no seat | HRP: 19,507 votes (0.9%), no seat |
| 14 | Katsuko Nishimoto | PR only | PR only | – | – | – | – | – | – | # | Candidate | District | "Loss ratio" | Elected |
| 15 | Masaharu Sasanuma | PR only | PR only | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | Akemi Takeo | PR only | PR only | – |
| 16 | Toshiyuki Minakuchi | PR only | PR only | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | Keiko Kushihata | PR only | PR only | – |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | Yukinori Tōjō | PR only | PR only | – |
| – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | Shūhei Oka | PR only | PR only | – |