1980 Japanese House of Councillors election

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 22 June 1980. On 16 May the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) brought no-confidence motion before the Diet relating to corruption issues, proposing more defense spending and rises in public utility charges as reasons for the House of Representatives to withdraw its backing from the government. Unexpectedly, 69 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members of the Diet from the Fukuda Takeo, Miki Takeo and Hidenao Nakagawa factions abstained from voting on the motion. The government was defeated by 56 votes in total of 243 and resigned. For the first time elections for both the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives were elected at the same time. In the elections of both the houses the LDP gained a majority.

1980 Japanese House of Councillors election

22 June 1980
127 of the 252 seats in the House of Councillors 127 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Masayoshi Ōhira Ichio Asukata Yoshikatsu Takeiri Party LDP Socialist Kōmeitō Last election 124 seats, 35.8% 56 seats, 17.3% 28 seats, 14.2% Seats after 135 47 26 Seat change 11 9 2 Popular vote 23,778,190 7,341,828 6,669,387 Percentage 42.5% 13.1% 11.9% Swing 6.7% 4.2% 2.3%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Kenji Miyamoto Kasuga Ikkō Yōhei Kōno Party JCP Democratic Socialist New Liberal Club Last election 16 seats, 8.4% 11 seats, 6.7% 4 seats, 3.9% Seats after 12 11 2 Seat change 4 2 Popular vote 4,072,019 3,364,478 351,291 Percentage 7.3% 6.0% 0.6% Swing 1.1% 0.7% 3.3%
President of the House of Councillors before election Ken Yasui LDP Elected President of the House of Councillors Masatoshi Tokunaga LDP

Results

Party		National			Constituency			Seats
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Not up	Won	Total after	+/–
	Liberal Democratic Party	23,778,190	42.49	21	24,533,083	43.27	48	66	69	135	+11
	Japan Socialist Party	7,341,828	13.12	9	12,715,880	22.43	13	25	22	47	–9
	Kōmeitō	6,669,387	11.92	9	2,817,379	4.97	3	14	12	26	–2
	Japanese Communist Party	4,072,019	7.28	3	6,652,311	11.73	4	5	7	12	–4
	Democratic Socialist Party	3,364,478	6.01	3	2,917,239	5.14	2	6	5	11	0
	Socialist Democratic Federation	627,273	1.12	1				2	1	3	New
	New Liberal Club	351,291	0.63	0	349,989	0.62	0	2	0	2	–2
	Other parties	1,675,494	2.99	1	628,056	1.11	1	0	2	2	–
	Independents	8,077,786	14.44	3	6,086,621	10.73	5	5	8	13	+4
Vacant							1	0	1	1	–
Total		55,957,746	100.00	50	56,700,558	100.00	77	125	127	252	0
Valid votes		55,957,746	92.80		56,700,558	94.00
Invalid/blank votes		4,341,399	7.20		3,618,584	6.00
Total votes		60,299,145	100.00		60,319,142	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		80,925,034	74.51		80,925,034	74.54
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, National Diet

By constituency

Constituency	Total seats	Seats won
		LDP	JSP	Kōmeitō	JCP	DSP	SDF	Others	Ind.
Aichi	3	1				1			1
Akita	1	1
Aomori	1	1
Chiba	2	1	1
Ehime	1	1
Fukui	1	1
Fukuoka	3	1	1	1
Fukushima	2	1	1
Gifu	1	1
Gunma	2	1	1
Hiroshima	2	1				1
Hokkaido	4	2	1		1
Hyōgo	3	1	1		1
Ibaraki	2	1	1
Ishikawa	1	1
Iwate	1	1
Kagawa	1	1
Kagoshima	2	2
Kanagawa	2	1	1
Kōchi	1	1
Kumamoto	2	2
Kyoto	2	1			1
Mie	1	1
Miyagi	1	1
Miyazaki	1	1
Nagano	2	1	1
Nagasaki	1	1
Nara	1	1
Niigata	2	1	1
Ōita	1	1
Okinawa	1							1
Okayama	2	1	1
Osaka	3	1		1					1
Saga	1	1
Saitama	2	1	1
Shiga	1								1
Shimane	1	1
Shizuoka	2	1	1
Tochigi	2	2
Tokushima	1	1
Tokyo	4			1	1				2
Tottori	1	1
Toyama	1	1
Wakayama	1	1
Yamagata	1	1
Yamaguchi	1	1
Yamanashi	1	1
National	50	21	9	9	3	4	1		3
Total	126	69	22	12	7	6	1	1	8

References

• About Japan Series (1999), Changing Japanese Politics, No. 24, Tokyo: Foreign Press Center.
• Mahendra Prakash (2004), Coalition Experience in Japanese Politics: 1993-2003, New Delhi: JNU[1].
• https://archive.today/20070712184335/http://www.binghamton.edu/cdp/era/elections/jpn80par.html