Tottori-Shimane at-large district

The Tottori-Shimane at-large district (鳥取県・島根県選挙区, Tottori-Shimane senkyoku) is a constituency of the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It was formed pursuant to a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law from a merger of the Tottori and Shimane at-large districts, the two smallest districts in the country, to address the imbalance in representation between rural and urban voters.[1] The district has 1,068,348 registered voters (as of September 2016)[2] and was contested for the first time at the House of Councillors election that was held on 10 July 2016.

Kazuhiko Aoki of the Liberal Democratic Party was the first councillor elected by the district at the 2016 election. As only half of the house's members are elected at each election, the councillors elected by the Shimane and Tottori districts at the 2013 election will continue to represent their respective prefectures until the next election, due to be held by July 2019. At that time, a second councillor will be elected by the merged district.

2016 election

At the July 2016 House of Councillors election, the terms of two Councillors who were elected at the 2010 election were due to expire; Kazuhiko Aoki of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) represented Shimane Prefecture while Tottori Prefecture was represented by Kazuyuki Hamada, who was elected in 2010 as an LDP candidate but defected to an opposing party a year later. As the only incumbent LDP member in the new district, Aoki received the party's nomination to contest the newly merged district and also received an endorsement from Komeito, the LDP's junior coalition partner.[3] Hamada, aware of the difficulty he faced in defeating Aoki, resigned from the Party for Japanese Kokoro in April 2016 and joined Initiatives from Osaka the same month, receiving their nomination to contest the election from the national proportional representation block.[4]

In an attempt to defeat the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition, the four main opposition parties (Democratic Party, Japanese Communist Party, Social Democratic Party and People's Life Party) agreed to field a single candidate in each single-seat district, who would run as a nominally independent candidate.[5] In the Tottori-Shimane district, the opposition block endorsed Tottori native Hirohiko Fukushima, a former director-general of the Consumer Affairs Agency and former mayor of Abiko, Chiba.[6] The third candidate in the election was Shimane native Bunta Kokuryō of the Happiness Realization Party.[7] In the election, Aoki received 62.7% of the vote to comfortably defeat Fukushima, who received 34.7%.[3]

2016[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Democratic Kazuhiko Aoki (Incumbent)
(Endorsed by Komeito)		 387,787 62.7 N/A
Independent Hirohiko Fukushima
(Endorsed by (Democratic, Communist, Social Democratic and People's Life parties)		 214,917 34.7 N/A
Happiness Realization Bunta Kokuryō 15,791 2.6 N/A

References
  1. "Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet". Japan Times. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  2. "平成２８年９月２日現在選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数" [Current enrolled voters including overseas electors as of 2 September 2016] (in Japanese). 27 December 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. "開票結果・速報(選挙区・鳥取・島根)【参議院選挙2016】" [Results (Tottori-Shimane District) [House of Councillors Election 2016]]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  4. "こころ・浜田和幸参院議員、おおさか維新入党へ" [Kokoro's Councillor Hamada to join Initiatives from Osaka]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). 6 April 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  5. "Opposition parties, activists ink policy pact for Upper House election". Japan Times. 7 June 2016. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  6. "福嶋 浩彦" [Hirohiko Fukushima]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  7. "国領　豊太" [Bunta Kokuryō]. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 1 February 2017.

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