Japanese general election, 2003

← 2000

November 9, 2003

2005 →

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

Turnout

59.86%

	First party	Second party	Third party
			NKP
Leader	Junichiro Koizumi	Naoto Kan	Takenori Kanzaki
Party	Liberal Democratic	Democratic	New Kōmeitō
Leader since	24 April 2001	10 December 2002	7 November 1998
Leader's seat	Kanagawa-11th	Tokyo-18th	Fukuoka-1st (lost) Kyushu-PR Block
Last election	233 seats 40.97% (district) 28.31% (block)	127 seats 27.61% (district) 25.18% (block)	31 seats 2.02% (district) 12.97% (block)
Seats before	247	137	31
Seats won	237	177	34
Seat change	10	40	3
Popular vote	26,089,326 (district) 20,660,185 (block)	21,814,154 (district) 22,095,636 (block)	886,507 (district) 8,733,444 (block)
Percentage	43.85% (district) 34.96% (block)	36.66% (district) 37.39% (block)	1.49% (district) 14.78% (block)

	Fourth party	Fifth party

Leader	Kazuo Shii	Takako Doi
Party	Communist	Social Democratic
Leader since	24 November 2000	28 September 1996
Leader's seat	Southern Kantō PR block	Hyōgo-7th (lost) Kansai-PR Block
Last election	20 seats 12.08% (district) 11.23% (block)	19 seats 3.80% (district) 9.36% (block)
Seats before	20	18
Seats won	9	6
Seat change	11	12
Popular vote	4,837,952(district) 4,586,172 (block)	1,708,672(district) 3,027,390 (block)
Percentage	8.13% (district) 7.76% (block)	2.87% (district) 5.12% (block)

Parliamentary districts won by

Prime Minister before election

Junichiro Koizumi
Liberal Democratic

Prime Minister-designate

Junichiro Koizumi
Liberal Democratic

A general election took place in Japan on November 9, 2003. Incumbent Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of the Liberal Democrat Party won the election but with a reduced majority. The main opposition Democratic Party made considerable gains, winning 177 of the 480 seats in the House of Representatives, its largest share ever. Other traditional parties like the Communist Party and the Social Democrat Party lost a significant numbers of seats, making a two-party system a possibility in future Japanese politics.

On October 11, 2003, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dissolved the House of Representatives of the Diet after he was re-elected as the Liberal Democrat Party chief on September 20. The dissolution was based on Article 7 of the Constitution of Japan, which can be interpreted as saying that the Prime Minister has the power to dissolve the lower house after so advising the Emperor. The election was the first since Koizumi was named Prime Minister in April 2001. The major participants were the Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) and the Democrat Party (DPJ). The LDP retains strong support in rural areas and among older voters due to heavy subsidies in agriculture, while the DPJ has had greater support among youth and in urban areas. However, this has tended to favor the LDP, because sparsely populated rural districts have disproportionate weight in Japan's electoral system.

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