# Niigata 5th district

Niigata 5th district (新潟[県第]5区 Niigata[-ken dai-]go-ku) is a single-member electoral district for the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. It is located in southern Niigata Prefecture including the region known as Jōetsu. As of September 2012, 282,904 voters were registered in Niigata 5th district, giving its voters above average vote weight.
Before the electoral reform, the area had formed part of the five-member Niigata 3rd district of former Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) president-prime minister, faction leader and "shadow shōgun" Kakuei Tanaka and his daughter Makiko Tanaka who became science and technology minister in the Murayama Cabinet in 1994. The second ranking representative from the 3rd district in the last pre-reform election of 1993 had been former Takeshita faction Liberal Democrat Yukio Hoshino who joined the defecting Japan Renewal Party in the 1993 no-confidence vote against LDP president-prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa. After the reform, Hoshino contested the new single-member 5th district against Tanaka for the New Frontier Party, but lost to Tanaka. Tanaka became foreign minister in the Koizumi Cabinet, but was dismissed in 2002; in the same year, a scandal over (state-funded) salaries for Representative's secretaries who had allegedly been employed (and already paid) by Echigo Kōtsū ("Echigo Transportation", a Tanaka family company) led eventually to her resignation. Hoshino won the resulting by-election as an independent and joined the LDP afterwards. But in the 2003 general election, Tanaka took the 5th district back by a clear margin. She joined the Democratic Party (DPJ) parliamentary group in 2003 and the Democratic Party before the 2009 House of Representatives election. Tanaka was appointed a minister for the third time in the DPJ-led Noda Cabinet in 2012.
In the 2012 House of Representatives election, Tanaka lost the district to LDP candidate Tadayoshi Nagashima. This was 65 years after her father was first elected to represent Niigata in the lower house. Only her husband Naoki (maiden name: Suzuki) continued the Tanaka tradition in the Diet as member of the House of Councillors from Niigata until 2016.
In 2017, Nagashima died in office. The next representative was former governor of Niigata Prefecture Hirohiko Izumida. In 2021, Izumida was challenged by two independent candidates, Tamio Mori, former mayor of Nagaoka, and another former Niigata Governor Ryuichi Yoneyama. Yoneyama, who was endorsed by the CDP and other opposition parties, won the seat. After the elections, Izumida, who managed to get a seat in the PR block, claimed he was asked to pay kickback money if he wanted to win.

## Area

After redistricting in 2022, the boundaries changed significantly. The district includes all of the abolished Niigata 6th district.
* Itoigawa
* Jōetsu
* Minami-Uonuma
* Myōkō
* Tōkamachi
* Uonuma
* Tsunan Town
* Yuzawa Town

## List of representatives

| Representative | Party | Dates | Notes |
| Makiko Tanaka | LDP | 1996 – 2002 | LDP membership suspended in June 2002, resigned in August 2002 |
| Vacant (August–October 2002) |||||
| Yukio Hoshino | Indep. | 2002 – 2003 | Re-joined the LDP in 2002 |
| Makiko Tanaka | Indep. | 2003 – 2009 | Joined the DPJ parliamentary group in 2003, the DPJ in 2009 |
| Makiko Tanaka | DPJ | 2009 – 2012 | Not re-elected in the Hokuriku-Shin'etsu block |
| Tadayoshi Nagashima | LDP | 2012 – 2017 | Died August 18, 2017 |
| Hirohiko Izumida | LDP | 2017 – 2021 | |
| Ryuichi Yoneyama | Indep. | 2021 – 2024 | Moved to the 4th district |
| Mamoru Umetani [ja] | CDP | 2024 – | Moved from the 6th district |

## Election results

2024 :
| Party | Party | Candidate |
| | CDP | Mamoru Umetani [ja] |
| | LDP | Shuichi Takatori |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout |
2021 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| Independent | Ryuichi Yoneyama | 79,447 | 44.96 |
| LDP – Kōmeitō | Hirohiko Izumida | 60,837 | 34.43 |
| Independent | Tamio Mori | 36,422 | 20.6 |
2017 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| LDP – Kōmeitō | Hirohiko Izumida | 91,855 | 51.8 |
| Independent | Etsuko Ohirairi | 79,655 | 44.7 |
| HRP | Reiko Kasahara | 5,735 | 3.2 |
2014 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| LDP – Kōmeitō | Tadayoshi Nagashima | 81,176 | 57.3 | +11.6 |
| PLP | Yūko Mori | 47,420 | 33.5 | new |
| JCP | Kōichi Hattori | 12,993 | 9.2 | +4.5 |
2012 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| LDP – Kōmeitō | Tadayoshi Nagashima | 80,488 | 45.7 | new |
| DPJ – PNP | Makiko Tanaka | 51,503 | 29.3 | −19.8 |
| JRP – YP | Ryūichi Yoneyama | 35,720 | 20.3 | −20.8 |
| JCP | Kōichi Hattori | 8,296 | 4.7 | new |
2009 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | DPJ | Makiko Tanaka | 103,202 | 49.1 |
| | LDP – Kōmeitō, JRP | Ryūichi Yoneyama | 86,453 | 41.1 |
| | SDP | Shōichi Ibe | 17,698 | 8.4 |
| | Independent | Yoshitaka Yamada | 1,458 | 0.7 |
| | HRP | Ken'ya Kasamaki | 1,323 | 0.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 215,195 | 42.52 |
2005 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Independent | Makiko Tanaka | 105,484 | 51.2 |
| | LDP | Ryūichi Yoneyama | 82,993 | 40.3 |
| | JCP | Minoru Saitō | 17,693 | 8.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 211,532 | 73.72 |
2003 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Independent | Makiko Tanaka | 98,112 | 49.1 |
| | LDP | Yukio Hoshino | 61,937 | 31.0 |
| | Independent | Katsuhiko Shirakawa | 30,086 | 15.1 |
| | JCP | Minoru Saitō | 9,506 | 4.8 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 203,623 | 70.93 |
October 27, 2002 by-election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Independent | Yukio Hoshino | 69,146 | 47.9 |
| | Independent | Katsu Ishizumi | 60,045 | 41.6 |
| | JCP | Kayoko Kuwahara | 15,298 | 10.6 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 148,650 | 51.86 |
2000 :
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| LDP | Makiko Tanaka | 137,866 | 68.6 |
| SDP | Kichinosuke Meguro | 50,208 | 25.0 |
| JCP | Eiji Katō | 12,827 | 6.4 |
1996 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | LDP | Makiko Tanaka | 96,759 | 48.9 |
| | NFP | Yukio Hoshino | 75,524 | 38.1 |
| | SDP | Masahide Kataoka | 15,823 | 8.0 |
| | JCP | Masayuki Kondō | 9,961 | 5.0 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 202,899 | 72.64 |