# Shiga 1st district

Shiga 1st district (滋賀県第1区, Shiga-ken dai-ikku or simply 滋賀1区, Shiga-ikku) is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the national Diet of Japan. It is located in Western Shiga and covers the cities of Ōtsu, the prefectural capital, and Takashima. As of 2009, 314,742 eligible voters were registered in the district.
The district's first representative for the district after its creation in the electoral reform of 1994 was Democratic Socialist Tatsuo Kawabata who had represented the five-member SNTV Shiga At-large district since 1986. After the party realignments of the 1990s, he like most former Democratic Socialists eventually joined the Democratic Party (Minshutō) of Japan where he became a leading figure in the Democratic Socialist faction, also often referred to as Kawabata group. In the landslide "postal election" of 2005, Kawabata lost Shiga 1st district to Liberal Democrat Ken'ichirō Ueno, but regained it in the 2009 general election that swept the Democrats to power. Kawabata became a minister of state in the Hatoyama, Kan and Noda cabinets; Ueno who failed re-election by proportional representation was a candidate in the 2010 Shiga gubernatorial race, but lost to centre-left supported incumbent Yukiko Kada. In the landslide Democratic defeat of 2012, Kawabata lost the district to Liberal Democratic former Shizuoka assemblyman Toshitaka Ōoka. Despite his comparatively narrow margin of defeat that gave him rank 4 on the DPJ list in Kinki, Kawabata also failed to win a proportional seat as the Democratic Party was reduced to fourth party (12.0%) in the Kinki proportional vote and only won three of 29 seats.in
After Yukiko Kada had finished her second term as governor, she unsuccessfully challenged Ōoka for the seat in 2017, however she would win a seat in the House of Councillors two years later.

## List of representatives

| Representative | Party | Dates | Notes |
| Tatsuo Kawabata | NFP | 1996 – 2000 | Joined the New Fraternity Party after the dissolution of the NFP, the Democratic Party in 1998 |
| Tatsuo Kawabata | DPJ | 2000 – 2005 | Gained a seat in the Kinki PR block ("loss ratio" 94.5%) |
| Ken'ichirō Ueno | LDP | 2005 – 2009 | Failed re-election in the Kinki PR block ("loss ratio" 73.1%) |
| Tatsuo Kawabata | DPJ | 2009 – 2012 | Failed re-election in the Kinki PR block ("loss ratio" 90.5%) |
| Toshitaka Ōoka | LDP | 2012 – 2024 | Gained a seat in the Kinki PR block |
| Alex Saito | Ishin | 2024 – | |

## Election results

2024 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Ishin | Alex Saito | 74,126 | 43.0 | |
| | LDP | Toshitaka Ōoka (elected in Kinki PR block) | 70,033 | 40.6 | 11.9 |
| | JCP | Akiko Kinose | 28,359 | 16.4 | |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 323,530 | | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | | 55.10 | 3.80 |
| | Ishin gain from LDP | Ishin gain from LDP | Ishin gain from LDP | Ishin gain from LDP | Ishin gain from LDP |
2021 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | LDP | Toshitaka Ōoka | 97,482 | 52.5 | 4.8 |
| | DPP | Alex Saito (elected in Kinki PR block) | 84,106 | 45.1 | |
| | Anti-NHK | Chiho Hidaka | 5,092 | 2.7 | |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 324,354 | | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | | 58.90 | 2.95 |
| | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold |
2017 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | LDP | Toshitaka Ōoka | 84,994 | 47.7 | 1.5 |
| | Independent | Yukiko Kada | 79,724 | 44.7 | |
| | Social Democratic | Yoshiko Kosaka | 13,483 | 7.6 | |
| Registered electors | Registered electors | Registered electors | 323,630 | | |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | | 55.95 | 0.99 |
| | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold |
2014 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | LDP | Toshitaka Ōoka | 78,567 | 46.2 | 11.3 |
| | Democratic | Tatsuo Kawabata (elected by PR) | 69,543 | 40.9 | 9.0 |
| | JCP | Kōhei Satō | 21,790 | 12.8 | 2.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | | 54.96 | 7.71 |
| | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold | LDP hold |
2012 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| LDP (Kōmeitō) | Toshitaka Ōoka | 67,259 | 34.9 |
| DPJ (PNP) | Tatsuo Kawabata | 60,921 | 31.9 |
| JRP (YP) | Toshiki Okumura | 43,003 | 22.3 |
| JCP | Michiyo Fushiki | 19,643 | 10.2 |
| Independent | Yukimitsu Nishida | 2,048 | 1.1 |
2009 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | DPJ | Tatsuo Kawabata | 112,590 | 51.9 |
| | LDP (Kōmeitō) | Ken'ichirō Ueno | 82,262 | 37.9 |
| | JCP | Takashi Kawauchi | 19,920 | 9.2 |
| | HRP | Yukinori Tainaka | 2,037 | 0.9 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 219,324 | 71.14 |
2005 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | LDP | Ken'ichirō Ueno | 94,671 | 46.1 |
| | DPJ | Tatsuo Kawabata (elected by PR) | 89,503 | 43.6 |
| | JCP | Takashi Kawauchi | 21,111 | 10.3 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 207,994 | 69.53 |
2003 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | DPJ | Tatsuo Kawabata | 87,857 | 51.0 |
| | LDP | Ken'ichirō Ueno | 64,002 | 37.2 |
| | JCP | Takashi Kawauchi | 20,340 | 11.8 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 175,722 | 59.71 |
2000 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| DPJ | Tatsuo Kawabata | 78,834 | 44.2 |
| LDP | Makoto Mekata | 67,001 | 37.6 |
| JCP | Minoru Yoshihara | 29,753 | 16.7 |
| LL | Yoshitaka Kurioka | 2,627 | 1.5 |
1996 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | NFP | Tatsuo Kawabata | 55,967 | 34.7 |
| | LDP | Makoto Mekata (elected by PR) | 53,476 | 33.2 |
| | DPJ | Tsutomu Yamamoto (elected by PR) | 28,231 | 17.5 |
| | JCP | Toshikazu Inoue | 23,590 | 14.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 164,565 | 61.64 |