Osaka at-large district

The Osaka at-large district is a constituency of the House of Councillors that elects Councillors to represent Osaka Prefecture in the National Diet of Japan. From 1947 the district has elected three Councillors every three years by single non-transferable vote for six-year terms, such that there are six Councillors representing the district in the 242-member house. A revision to the Public Officers Electoral Law in 2012 increased the district's representation so that four Councillors were elected at the July 2013 election which will give the district a total eight Councillors by 2019.[1]

The district has 7,140,578 registered voters (as of September 2015), making it the third-largest district behind the Tokyo and Kanagawa districts.[2] The current Councillors for the district are:

Class of 2010 - Term expires in July 2016

• Hirotaka Ishikawa - Komeito party, first-term Councillor
• Issei Kitagawa - Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), second term
• Motoyuki Odachi - Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), second term

Class of 2013 - Term expires in July 2019

• Toru Azuma - Initiatives from Osaka party,[3] first term
• Hisatake Sugi - Komeito, first term
• Kotaro Tatsumi - Japan Communist Party, first term
• Takuji Yanagimoto - LDP, first term

Elected Councillors

class of 1947				election year	class of 1950
–	Tetsuo Iwaki (Democratic)	Masakazu Morishita (Social Democratic)[note 1]	Mitsuji Nakai (Democratic)[note 1]	1947	Gisen Sato (JLP)	Shinzo Ōya (JLP)	Shigeo Murao (Social Democratic)	–
				1950	Gisen Sato (Liberal)	Shinzo Ōya (Liberal)
	Fukuzo Nakayama (Ryokufūkai)		Haruji Mizobuchi (Liberal)	1951 by-el.[note 2]
		Masakazu Morishita (Right Socialist)[note 3]	Tokuji Kameda (Left Socialist)	1953
				1956	Gisen Sato (LDP)[note 4]	Shigeo Tsubaki (Social Democratic)	Giichiro Shiraki (Ind.)
		Mitsuzo Ōkawa (LDP)[note 5]		1957 by-el.[note 6]
		Vacant[note 7]		1959 by-el.[note 8]	Mitsuzo Ōkawa (LDP)
	Bunzo Akama (LDP)[note 9]	Shigeo Murao (Social Democratic)	Tokuji Kameda (Social Democratic)	1959
				1962	Fukuzo Nakayama (LDP)
		Fujio Tashiro (Komeito)[note 10]		1965
				1968	Taro Nakayama (LDP)	Shigeo Murao (Social Democratic)	Giichiro Shiraki (Komeito)
			Shizuko Sasaki (Social Democratic)	1971
	Takeko Kutsunugi (Communist)			1973 by-el.[note 11]
				1974		Atsushi Hashimoto (Communist)
			Tai Morishita (LDP)[note 12]	1977
				1980		Eiichi Nakamura (Ind.)
	Knock Yokoyama (Ind.)			1983
				1986	Kiyoshi Nishikawa (Ind.)	Takeko Kutsunugi (Communist)	Akinori Mineyama (Komeito)
			Kazutaka Tsuboi (LDP)	1987 by-el.[note 13]
		Hidekatsu Yoshii (Communist)		1988 by-el.[note 14]
		Kazuyoshi Shirahama (Komeito)	Takashi Tanihata (Social Democratic)	1989
				1992		Kazutaka Tsuboi (LDP)	Eiichi Yamashita (Komeito)
	Yoshiki Yamashita (Communist)	Kazuyoshi Shirahama (New Frontier)	Shuzen Tanigawa (LDP)	1995
				1998		Takeshi Miyamoto (Communist)
	Takashi Yamamoto (DPJ)	Kazuyoshi Shirahama (Komeito)		2001
				2004	Issei Kitagawa (LDP)	Motoyuki Odachi (DPJ)
	Satoshi Umemura (DPJ)			2007
				2010			Hirotaka Ishikawa (Komeito)
Toru Azuma (Restoration)	Kotaro Tasumi (Communist)	Hisatake Sugi (Komeito)	Takuji Yanagimoto (LDP)	2013
				2016	Rui Matsukawa (LDP)	Hitoshi Asada (Initiatives)		Saori Takagi (Initiatives)

Notes:

1. Resigned 31 March 1951.[4]
2. Held 16 May 1951.[4]
3. Died in office 5 March 1957.[4]
4. Resigned 29 March 1959.[5]
5. Resigned on 5 April 1959 to contest the vacancy caused by the resignation of Gisen Sato[5]
6. Held 23 April 1957.[5]
7. Vacancy caused by Ohkawa's resignation on 5 April 1959 to contest the vacancy caused by the resignation of Gisen Sato[5]
8. Held 30 April 1959.[5]
9. Died in office 2 May 1973.[5]
10. Resigned 25 January 1988.[6]
11. Held 17 June 1973.[5]
12. Died in office 14 November 1987.[4]
13. Held 27 December 1987.[6]
14. Held 28 February 1988.[4]

References

1. "Weighing Vote Disparity in Japan's Upper House". 30 July 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
2. "平成２７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" [Number of resident and non-resident enrolled voters as of 2 September 2015] (in Japanese). 2 September 2015. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
3. Elected as a Japan Restoration Party candidate
4. "List of Former Councillors (Ma to Wa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
5. "List of Former Councillors (A to Sa)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2016.
6. "List of Former Councillors (Ta to Ha)" (in Japanese). House of Councillors. 2007. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2016.