2012 Japanese general election

16 December 2012

All 480 seats in the House of Representatives
241 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

59.32% (9.87pp; Const. votes)
59.31% (9.88pp; PR votes)

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Shinzō Abe	Yoshihiko Noda	Shintaro Ishihara
Party	LDP	Democratic	Restoration
Last election	119 seats	308 seats	Did not exist
Seats won	294	57	54
Seat change	175	251	New
Constituency vote	25,643,309	13,598,774	6,942,354
% and swing	43.01% (4.33pp)	22.81% (24.62pp)	11.64% (New)
Regional vote	16,624,457	9,268,653	12,262,228
% and swing	27.79% (1.06pp)	15.49% (26.92pp)	20.50% (New)

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Natsuo Yamaguchi	Yoshimi Watanabe	Yukiko Kada
Party	Komeito	Your	Tomorrow
Last election	21 seats	5 seats	Did not exist
Seats won	31	18	9
Seat change	10	13	New
Constituency vote	885,881	2,807,245	2,992,366
% and swing	1.49% (0.38pp)	4.71% (3.84pp)	5.02% (New)
Regional vote	7,116,474	5,245,586	3,423,915
% and swing	11.90% (0.45pp)	8.77% (4.50pp)	5.72% (New)

	Seventh party

Leader	Kazuo Shii
Party	JCP
Last election	9 seats
Seats won	8
Seat change	1
Constituency vote	4,700,290
% and swing	7.88% (3.66pp)
Regional vote	3,689,159
% and swing	6.17% (0.86pp)

Districts and PR districts shaded according to winners' vote strength

Prime Minister before election

Yoshihiko Noda
Democratic

Elected Prime Minister

Shinzo Abe
LDP

Politics of Japan
This article is part of a series on


Constitution and Laws Constitution of Japan (1947–present) Meiji Constitution (1890–1947) Laws
The Monarchy The Emperor (List) Naruhito Crown Prince Fumihito Imperial House Chrysanthemum Throne Imperial Succession Imperial Household Agency
Executive Government Prime Minister (List) Shigeru Ishiba (LDP) Cabinet (List) Second Ishiba Cabinet (LDP–Komeito coalition) Ministries Administrative Agencies
Legislature National Diet House of Representatives Speaker Fukushiro Nukaga Vice Speaker Kōichirō Genba House of Councillors President Masakazu Sekiguchi Vice President Hiroyuki Nagahama
Judiciary Supreme Court Chief Justice Yukihiko Imasaki Justices of the Supreme Court Intellectual Property High Court
Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda Japanese yen Banknotes Coins
Elections List of districts of the House of Representatives of Japan List of districts of the House of Councillors of Japan Japanese House of Councillors national proportional representation block Political parties Japanese general elections 1890 1892 1894 (Mar) 1894 (Sep) 1898 (Mar) 1898 (Aug) 1902 1903 1904 1908 1912 1915 1917 1920 1924 1928 1930 1932 1936 1937 1942 1946 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1958 1960 1963 1967 1969 1972 1976 1979 1980 1983 1986 1990 1993 1996 2000 2003 2005 2009 2012 2014 2017 2021 2024 Japanese House of Councillors elections 1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019 2022 2025 Unified local elections 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023
Administrative divisions Prefectures Governors (List) Subprefectures Districts Municipalities Submunicipalities
Foreign relations Ministry of Foreign Affairs Foreign policy (history) Diplomatic missions of / in Japan Japanese passport Visa requirements Visa policy Algeria Angola Djibouti Egypt Ethiopia Kenya Namibia Nigeria Somalia South Africa Argentina Barbados Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Ecuador Mexico Paraguay Peru Trinidad and Tobago United States Uruguay Venezuela Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China East Timor Georgia India Indonesia Iran Israel Laos Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal North Korea Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Saudi Arabia Singapore South Korea Sri Lanka Taiwan Thailand Turkey Vietnam Albania Austria Belgium Croatia Czech Republic Denmark France Germany Greece Hungary Holy See Iceland Ireland Italy Kosovo Lithuania Malta Montenegro Netherlands Poland Portugal Russia Serbia Spain Sweden Ukraine United Kingdom Australia Fiji New Zealand Palau Tonga Africa Arab world Latin America Oceania Southeast Asia European Union United Nations G20 G7
Japan portal Other countries

General elections were held in Japan on 16 December 2012. Voters gave the Liberal Democratic Party a landslide victory, ejecting the Democratic Party from power after three years. It was the fourth worst defeat suffered by a ruling party in Japanese history.

Voting took place in all representatives' constituencies of Japan including proportional blocks, in order to appoint Members of Diet to seats in the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet of Japan.

In July 2012, it was reported that the deputy prime minister Katsuya Okada had approached the Liberal Democratic Party to sound them out about dissolving the House of Representatives and holding the election in January 2013. An agreement was reached in August to dissolve the Diet and hold early elections "shortly" following the passage of a bill to raise the national consumption tax. Some right-wing observers asserted that as the result of introducing the consumption tax to repay the Japanese public debt, the DPJ lost around 75% of its pre-election seats.