# Kanagawa 1st district

Kanagawa 1st district (神奈川県第1区, Kanagawa-ken dai-ikku or 神奈川1区, Kanagawa ikku) is a single-member constituency of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the national Diet of Japan. It is located in eastern Kanagawa Prefecture and covers the central downtown and southeastern parts of the prefectural capital of Yokohama, namely the Naka (centre), Isogo and Kanazawa wards. It is among many other things home to the Yokohama city hall and the Kanagawa prefectural government building. As of December 1, 2020, 428,115 eligible voters were registered in the district.
Before the electoral reform of the 1990s the area had been split between the four-member 1st district and the five-member 4th district.
In the first post-reform election of 1996, the 1st district was mainly contested by Liberal Democrat Jun Matsumoto (Asō faction), a former member of the city council and newcomer in national politics, Democrat Ken'ichirō Satō (formerly LDP, Fukuda faction, then New Party Sakigake member in the 1990s), an incumbent for the pre-reform 4th district, and newcomer Masahiko Okabe for the New Frontier Party. Matsumoto narrowly won, but Satō kept a seat via the newly introduced proportional representation. In 2000, Satō beat Matsumoto who then also failed to win a proportional seat but retook the 1st district in the 2003 and 2005 general elections. Satō retired from politics in 2007, but in the national landslide Democratic victory of 2009, first time candidate Mieko Nakabayashi won the 1st district against Matsumoto. Matsumoto was Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Abe cabinet, Satō was chairman of the House of Representatives committee on the environment in the 1990s and chaired the disciplinary committee in 2004.
In the landslide Democratic defeat of 2012, Nakabayashi lost more than 84,000 votes compared to 2009. Matsumoto lost only less than 17,000 votes and regained the district. In February 2021, after it emerged that Matsumoto had visited a club in Ginza during a state of emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he left the LDP and ran as an independent candidate in the 2021 election where he lost to CDP candidate Gō Shinohara.

## List of members representing the district

| Member | Party | Dates | Electoral history | Notes |
| Jun Matsumoto | Liberal Democratic | October 21, 1996 – June 2, 2000 | Elected in 1996. Lost re-election. | Lost re-election in the Southern Kanto PR block. |
| Ken'ichirō Satō | Democratic | June 26, 2000 – October 10, 2003 | Re-elected in 2000. Lost re-election. | Redistricted from the former 4th district and Re-elected in 1996 by the Southern Kanto PR block. Re-elected in 2003 by the Southern Kanto PR block. |
| Jun Matsumoto | Liberal Democratic | November 10, 2003 – July 21, 2009 | Elected in 2003. Re-elected in 2005. Lost re-election. | Re-elected in 2009 by the Southern Kanto PR block. |
| Mieko Nakabayashi | Democratic | August 31, 2009 – November 16, 2012 | Elected in 2009. Lost re-election. | Lost re-election in the Southern Kanto PR block. |
| Jun Matsumoto | Liberal Democratic | December 17, 2012 – February 1, 2021 | Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2017. Lost re-election. | |
| Jun Matsumoto | Independent | February 1, 2021 – October 14, 2021 | Re-elected in 2012. Re-elected in 2014. Re-elected in 2017. Lost re-election. | |
| Gō Shinohara | Constitutional Democratic | October 31, 2021 – present | Re-elected in 2021. | Elected in 2014 by the Southern Kanto PR block. Re-elected in 2017 by the Southern Kanto PR block. |

## Election results
### 2021

General election 2021: Kanagawa's 1st :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Constitutional Democratic | Gō Shinohara | 100,118 | 45.0 |
| | Independent | Jun Matsumoto | 76,064 | 34.2 |
| | Ishin | Yoshiharu Asakawa (elected by PR) | 46,271 | 20.8 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 222,453 | 100.0 |
| | Constitutional Democratic gain from Independent | Constitutional Democratic gain from Independent | Constitutional Democratic gain from Independent | Constitutional Democratic gain from Independent |

### 2017

2017 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 103,070 | 47.8 |
| | Constitutional Democratic | Gō Shinohara (re-elected by PR) | 78,019 | 36.2 |
| | Kibō no Tō | Kazuyoshi Nagashima | 34,433 | 16.0 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 215,522 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold |

### 2014

2014 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 113,844 | 52.4 |
| | Innovation | Gō Shinohara (elected by PR) | 68,061 | 31.3 |
| | Communist | Yukio Akashi | 35,465 | 16.3 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 217,370 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold |

### 2012

2012 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 101,238 | 41.2 |
| | Democratic | Mieko Nakabayashi | 50,927 | 20.7 |
| | Restoration | Kōichi Matsumoto | 41,198 | 16.8 |
| | Your | Yoriyuki Yamashita | 36,706 | 14.9 |
| | Communist | Yukio Akashi | 15,664 | 6.4 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 245,733 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic |

### 2009

2009 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Mieko Nakabayashi | 135,211 | 48.1 |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto (re-elected by PR) | 117,840 | 41.9 |
| | Communist | Ryōko Kōzai | 18,898 | 6.7 |
| | Independent | Seiichi Yamamoto | 9,229 | 3.2 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 281,178 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic |

### 2005

2005 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 161,702 | 58.3 |
| | Democratic | Ken'ichirō Satō | 95,601 | 34.4 |
| | Communist | Osamu Takayama | 20,216 | 7.3 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 277,519 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold | Liberal Democratic hold |

### 2003

2003 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 111,730 | 47.6 |
| | Democratic | Ken'ichirō Satō (re-elected by PR) | 97,630 | 41.6 |
| | Communist | Haruko Nakaie | 15,331 | 6.5 |
| | Social Democratic | Teizō Hayashi | 10,243 | 4.4 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 234,934 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic | Liberal Democratic gain from Democratic |

### 2000

2000 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Ken'ichirō Satō | 91,578 | 40.1 |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 81,245 | 35.5 |
| | Communist | Takashi Munakata | 28,411 | 12.4 |
| | Liberal | Hiroshi Iijima | 23,783 | 10.4 |
| | Liberal League | Kiyoshi Matsuda | 3,593 | 1.6 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 228,610 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic | Democratic gain from Liberal Democratic |

### 1996

1996 Japanese general election :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Liberal Democratic | Jun Matsumoto | 55,360 | 26.4 |
| | Democratic | Ken'ichirō Satō (elected by PR) | 54,494 | 26.0 |
| | New Frontier | Masahisa Okabe | 50,684 | 24.2 |
| | Communist | Kimiko Tamura | 26,686 | 12.7 |
| | Social Democratic | Yumiko Hayashi | 22,236 | 10.6 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 209,460 | 100.0 |
| | Liberal Democratic win (new seat) | Liberal Democratic win (new seat) | Liberal Democratic win (new seat) | Liberal Democratic win (new seat) |