General elections were held in Japan on 7 October 1979 to elect the 511 members of the House of Representatives. Prime Minister Ōhira Masayoshi's announcement that a consumption (sales) tax would be imposed was a hot-button issue in the run-up to the election. Facing widespread public disapproval, the prime minister abandoned the tax proposal.[1] The prime minister's party, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), ended up losing one seat, while the Japan Communist Party experienced a surge in voter support and its best ever electoral result, which mostly came at the expense of the Japan Socialist Party and the LDP-breakaway New Liberal Club.
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All 511 seats in the House of Representatives of Japan 256 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 68.01% (![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Districts shaded according to winners' vote strength | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This was the first election in the LDP's history in which the party increased its share of the popular vote compared to the previous election.
Results
editParty | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democratic Party | 24,084,131 | 44.59 | 248 | –1 | |
Japan Socialist Party | 10,643,450 | 19.71 | 107 | –16 | |
Japanese Communist Party | 5,625,528 | 10.42 | 39 | +22 | |
Kōmeitō | 5,282,683 | 9.78 | 57 | +2 | |
Democratic Socialist Party | 3,663,692 | 6.78 | 35 | +6 | |
New Liberal Club | 1,631,812 | 3.02 | 4 | –13 | |
Socialist Democratic Federation | 368,660 | 0.68 | 2 | New | |
Other parties | 69,101 | 0.13 | 0 | – | |
Independents | 2,641,064 | 4.89 | 19 | –2 | |
Total | 54,010,121 | 100.00 | 511 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 54,010,121 | 99.06 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 511,892 | 0.94 | |||
Total votes | 54,522,013 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 80,169,924 | 68.01 | |||
Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan, National Diet |
By prefecture
editPrefecture | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LDP | JSP | Kōmeitō | JCP | DSP | NLC | SDF | Ind. | ||
Aichi | 22 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | ||
Akita | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |||||
Aomori | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Chiba | 16 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||
Ehime | 9 | 7 | 2 | ||||||
Fukui | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Fukuoka | 19 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
Fukushima | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | |||||
Gifu | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
Gunma | 10 | 7 | 3 | ||||||
Hiroshima | 12 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Hokkaido | 22 | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Hyōgo | 20 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | |||
Ibaraki | 12 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Ishikawa | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
Iwate | 8 | 6 | 2 | ||||||
Kagawa | 6 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
Kagoshima | 11 | 8 | 3 | ||||||
Kanagawa | 19 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | ||
Kōchi | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Kumamoto | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||
Kyoto | 10 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |||
Mie | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Miyagi | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Miyazaki | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
Nagano | 13 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Nagasaki | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
Nara | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Niigata | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | |||||
Ōita | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Okayama | 10 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
Okinawa | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Osaka | 26 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 7 | 3 | |||
Saga | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Saitama | 15 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Shiga | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Shimane | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Shizuoka | 14 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||
Tochigi | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Tokushima | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Tokyo | 43 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | ||
Tottori | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
Toyama | 6 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
Wakayama | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||||
Yamagata | 8 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Yamaguchi | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
Yamanashi | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
Total | 511 | 248 | 107 | 57 | 39 | 35 | 4 | 2 | 19 |
References
edit- ^ "The Political History of Japan's Consumption Tax". nippon.com. 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2020-03-12.