# Wakayama 3rd district

Wakayama 3rd district is a former constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature), located in Wakayama Prefecture and consisted of Arida, Gobo, Shingu, and Tanabe cities and the Arida, Hidaka, Higashimuro, and Nishimuro districts. As of 2012, 298,296 eligible voters were registered in the district.
Since its creation in 1996, Wakayama 3rd district was represented by Toshihiro Nikai for the New Frontier Party (NFP), the Conservative Party, the New Conservative Party and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Nikai, a former Transport, Hokkaido and Economy minister, is a member of the LDP's Ibuki faction since his own faction of former Conservative Party members dissolved in 2009.
Kimiyoshi Tamaki, a longtime Wakayama prefectural representative, failed to unseat Nikai in the 2009 election that brought the Democratic Party a landslide win. He was safely elected in the Kinki proportional representation block where all Democratic party list candidates managed to secure a seat in the House.
Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Wakayama 2nd district where three, later two representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote.
The district was abolished as a part the 2022 reapportionment. All the municipalities in the district became part of the Wakayama 2nd district.

## List of representatives

| Election | Representative | Party | Notes |
| 1996 | Toshihiro Nikai | NFP | joined LP after the dissolution of the NFP in 2000. After leaving LP, joined the CP. |
| 2000 | Toshihiro Nikai | CP | joined NCP in 2002. |
| 2003 | Toshihiro Nikai | NCP | merged into LDP in 2003. |
| 2005 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | |
| 2009 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | |
| 2012 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | |
| 2014 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | |
| 2017 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | |
| 2021 | Toshihiro Nikai | LDP | Constituency abolished |

## Election results

2021 :
| Party | Candidate | Age | Votes | ％ | ±％ | Defeat rate | Supports |
| LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 82 | 102,834 | 69.34％ | －3.61％ | ー | Kōmeitō |
| JCP | Yoshihiro Hatano | 61 | 20,692 | 13.95％ | ー | 20.12％ | SDP |
| Kunimori | Nana Honma | 52 | 19,034 | 12.83％ | ー | 18.51％ | |
| Independent | Hideki Negoro | 51 | 5,745 | 3.87％ | ー | 5.59％ | |
2017 :
| Party | Candidate | Age | Votes | ％ | ±％ | Defeat rate | Supports | Notes |
| LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 78 | 109,488 | 72.95％ | －3.55％ | ー | Kōmeitō | |
| JCP | Fumirō Kusumoto | 63 | 40,608 | 27.05％ | ー | 37.09％ | SDP | |
2014 :
| Party | Candidate | Age | Votes | ％ | ±％ | Defeat rate | Supports | Notes |
| LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 75 | 108,257 | 76.50％ | ＋16.07％ | ー | Kōmeitō | |
| JCP | Yasuhisa Hara | 63 | 33,260 | 23.50％ | ＋11.96％ | 30.72％ | | |
2012 :
| Party | Candidate | Age | Votes | ％ | ±％ | Defeat rate | Supports |
| LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 73 | 112,916 | 60.43％ | ＋8.37％ | ー | Kōmeitō |
| JSP | Daisuke Yamashita | 45 | 52,358 | 28.02％ | ー | 46.37％ | |
| JCP | Yasuhisa Hara | 61 | 21,570 | 11.54％ | ＋3.81％ | 19.10％ | |
2009 :
| Party | Candidate | Age | Votes | ％ | ±％ | Defeat rate | Supports | Notes |
| LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 70 | 117,237 | 52.06％ | －14.36％ | ー | Kōmeitō | |
| DP | Kimiyoshi Tamaki | 54 | 102,342 | 45.44％ | ー | 87.29％ | | elected in the Kinki block. |
| HRP | Yūko Minato | 26 | 5,634 | 2.50％ | ー | 4.81％ | | |
2005 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | LDP | Toshihiro Nikai | 145,735 | |
| | DPJ | Terushige Manabe | 53,532 | |
| | JCP | Minoru Ueda | 20,140 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 226,653 | 72.48 |
2003 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | New Conservative Party | Toshihiro Nikai | 148,274 | |
| | JCP | Minoru Ueda | 40,930 | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 205,613 | 65.26 |
2000 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes |
| Conservative Party | Toshihiro Nikai | 138,527 |
| Independent | Riki Azuma | 55,546 |
| JCP | Tsutomu Hayashi | 25,516 |
1996 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes |
| NFP | Toshihiro Nikai | 115,681 |
| LDP | Minoru Noda | 101,074 |
| JCP | Yasuhisa Hara | 18,155 |