Japanese general election, 2009

• Liberal Democratic Party
• Kōmeitō
• Democratic Party
• Social Democratic Party
• New People's Party
• New Party Japan
• Japanese Communist Party
• Minna no Tō
• Independent

The Shūgiin - election in 2009 was the 45th election to Shūgiin, the Japanese House of Commons. It took place on August 30, 2009. Prime Minister Taro Aso had to resolve the Shūgiin on 21 July 2009.

The choice was between the unchanged 480 seats of Shūgiin; 300 were filled by simple majority vote in Einmandatswahlkreisen, the remaining 180 deputies were elected on proportional representation lists in regional blocks. Since the Shūgiin in the choice of the Prime Minister is the decisive factor, depended on a possible change of government the election outcome. The governing coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party ( LDP) and Kōmeitō held since the previous Shūgiin - election in 2005 a two-thirds majority of the seats.

On the same day found, among other things, the gubernatorial election in Ibaraki and the mayoral election in Yokohama, the largest community of Japan, instead. In addition, nine Supreme Court judges were confirmed.

History and determining the election date

The election took place after the resignations of the LDP leader and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda 2007 2008, who had followed the case of the last Shūgiin - election in 2005 still reigning Jun'ichirô Koizumi. Successor Taro Aso had already after three months a burglary of his approval ratings in the polls suffered to below 30 percent, while it precluded early elections with reference to the need for a viable government to combat the economic recession several times.

2009 also had the opposition process a change of leadership: The former leader of the Democratic Party, Ichiro Ozawa, joined in May 2009 after a several months smoldering donations scandal back. Yukio Hatoyama was elected by the Democratic deputies of both chambers of parliament to succeed and as opposition leader ASOS challenger.

The discussion about the timing of possible elections had led to resentment among the coalition parties. The Kōmeitō that depends heavily on the support of the members of the Buddhist Soka Gakkai, wanted to avoid the Shūgiin choice with the elections to the Parliament of the Tokyo prefecture coincides on July 12, 2009. Tokyo is considered a stronghold of the Komeito, and the party feared because of their participation in government at the national level an impairment of their election results if the elections simultaneously or carried out in close succession. The Kōmeitō had as well as the LDP suffered seat losses in the election for Sangiin, the House of Lords, in July 2007.

After internal party calls for his resignation and the defeat of the LDP in the prefecture election in Tokyo on July 12, 2009 Asō announced the election date. A last attempt of LDP MPs to ex- Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa from the Machimura faction, the largest faction of the LDP, Asō to topple before the dissolution of the Shūgiin failed.

Parties and Candidates

The parties represented in Parliament before the election were led by the following top candidates.

• For the government coalition: Taro Asō for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP ), since September 2008 Party Chairman and Prime Minister
• Akihiro Ōta for Kōmeitō, party chairman
• Hideo Watanabe, founded for the 2008 Kaikaku Club ( " Reform Club ", English Japan Renaissance Party. ), Party chairman; the party supports the government in parliament without formal involvement in the coalition or cabinet posts.

• Yukio Hatoyama of the Democratic Party (DPJ ), chairman of the party
• Kazuo Shii for the Japanese Communist Party ( JCP ), Chairman of the Central Committee
• Mizuho Fukushima for the Social Democratic Party (SDP ) party chairman
• Tamisuke Watanuki for the New People's Party, Party Chairman
• Yasuo Tanaka for Japan New Party, which is currently represented only in Sangiin.

Smaller parties like the Okinawa Shakai Taishūtō ( " socialist mass party Okinawa "), a regional party in the prefecture of Okinawa by Keiko Itokazu, the Minna no Tō ("Party of all " ) had by Yoshimi Watanabe or the New Party Daichi of Muneo Suzuki at the time of choice is not the legal status of political parties (see political parties in Japan # legal regulations ). They approached only with individual candidates or regional lists. The religious community Kōfuku no Kagaku founded in May 2009, the Kōfuku - jitsugen -tō ( "Happiness Realization Party"), the candidates aufstellte in most of the 300 constituencies and proportional representation lists in all eleven blocks.

A total came to 1374 candidates, of which 1139 constituency candidates: 289 LDP 271 DPJ 8 of Kōmeitō, 152 of the CPY, 31 of the SDP, 9 of the New People's Party, 14 of the Minna no Tō, one of the Kaikaku club, 2 the New Party Japan, the 288 - Kōfuku jitsugen -tō and 74 Independent and Other. A total of 653 candidates were the same constituency on a proportional representation list.

Electioneering

The official campaign start was on August 18, 2009.

The end of July presented the major parties before their election programs ( manifesuto ). Among the demands of the Democratic Party were the introduction of a child's allowance in the amount of 26,000 yen as of 2011, the reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 25 % over 1990 to 2020, abolishing the toll, reducing the influence of the ministerial bureaucracy and a ban on the amakudari. They also waived the previous demands for the immediate termination of the use of marine fueling Self-Defense Forces in the Indian Ocean ( Operation Enduring Freedom ) and wanted to phase out the use instead. The Liberal Democratic Party, which presented its manifesto a few days later, accused the Democrats, their demands were not financially viable. The Liberal Democratic Party promised among other things, an annual economic growth of two per cent, a reorganization of the tax system with the VAT increase, the abolition of the prefectures in favor of a system of regions ( dō - Shuu- be ) within eight to ten years, free kindergartens and preschools as well as an awareness of the scandal to recover lost pension rights until 2011. greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by 15 percent by 2020 compared to 2005.

Turnout and results

For the Shūgiin election had since the 19th August, a record number of over 10 million voters used the opportunity to cast their vote before election day.

The turnout was 69.28 % for the direct election and 69.27 % in the proportional representation. She was thus the highest since the introduction of grave electoral system in 1996.

(*) Kōfuku - jitsugen -tō ( "Happiness Realization Party"), Shinto honshitsu ( " New Party, The essence ' " ) sekai, keizai kyōdōtai -tō ( " World Economic Community Party"), Shinto furīweikurabu ( " New Party Freeway Club" ), nihon - sumairu -tō ( "Japan Smile Party " ), rinkaitō ( " forest and sea - Party")

Whole constituency votes are not necessarily " all voters". For explanation of decimal places, see Elections in Japan: " proportional fraction of votes ".

54 of the elected representatives were women.

In proportional representation block Kinki 2009, several seats were awarded differs from the original d' Hondt distribution by votes shares since the Democratic Party had nominated too few candidates (or too many concurrent constituency candidates their constituencies won ) and several candidates from other parties, both in a constituency as competed in the proportional representation, were disqualified because they did not reach the necessary quorum of one- tenth of the votes in their constituencies: the Democratic Party received two, the Minna no Tō one seat less than they would have been entitled according to the distribution of votes, the Kōmeitō was awarded a mandate more, the Liberal Democratic Party won two. In addition, the Democrats have thus no potential substitutes Kinki; and since the resignation Mitsue Kawakamis 2010, a seat was there vacant until the next election Shūgiin 2012 - proportional representation seats can not be filled through by-elections.

Regional summary

Effects

The LDP lost after the very successful election of 2005, more than half its seats and the first time since 1993, the government participation - unlike in 1993 not by the escape of Deputies but only by a voter vote. The Democratic Party has the largest majority of seats a single party in Shūgiin in postwar history.

The Democratic party chairman Hatoyama was elected in a special session of both chambers of parliament as Prime Minister on 16 September 2009. He led coalition negotiations with the former DPJ allies in the opposition, the Social Democratic Party and the New People's Party. Together, the three parties have in Sangiin, the House of Lords, by a small majority. The New People's Party lost the seats of its chairman Watanuki and Secretary General of Hisaoki Kamei and was out at the coalition talks about her new Chairman Shizuka Kamei. The negotiations were concluded on 9 September with the formal signing of the coalition agreement. Social Democrats and the New People's Party are represented in the new cabinet each with a ministerial positions by their party chairman.

The LDP chairman Asō and the three most important politicians in the LDP party leadership ( tō - san'yaku: General Secretary, Chairman of the Executive Council, Chairman of the political Research Council ) presented on election night their resignations in view. The Cabinet Asō occurred on September 16, even back before the election, Hatoyama. In the election of the Prime Minister, the LDP deputies gave their votes to the Chairman of the General Assembly of LDP lawmakers from both chambers, Masatoshi Wakabayashi, from; some deputies had previously spoken out against it, vote for the outgoing chairman Asō. The choice of party leaders took place on 28 September, the campaign had begun on September 18. Sadakazu Tanigaki sat down opposite his younger competitors taro Kono and Yasutoshi Nishimura clear through.

The chairman of the Kōmeitō, Akihiro Ōta, lost his seat and resigned. His successor as party leader Natsuo Yamaguchi was.

The Kaikaku Club lost its single seat; the four deputies in Sangiin agreed after the election with the LDP on the formation of a common fraction.

The inequality of the election, a maximum discrepancy of 2.3 in the number of registered voters in the Shūgiin constituencies, was declared by the Supreme Court in March 2011 to be unconstitutional. 2009 so that was the first choice with unconstitutional constituency boundaries since the introduction of grave electoral system and the Einmandatswahlkreise 1994.