Saga 1st district

Saga 1st district is a constituency of the House of Representatives in the Diet of Japan (national legislature). It is located in Saga Prefecture and consists of Tosu, parts of Saga and Kanzaki as well as the Miyaki District. As of September 2012, 237,748 eligible voters were registered in the district.[1]

Saga 1st district has been a swing district since its creation in 1996: it alternately elected candidates for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ)/its precursor New Frontier Party (NFP). The district is currently represented by Kazuchika Iwata (LDP), a former second-generation Saga prefectural assemblyman. In 2012, Iwata defeated Kazuhiro Haraguchi (DPJ), Minister of Internal Affairs and Communication in the Hatoyama cabinet. Haraguchi had initially won the district narrowly for the NFP in 1996 but lost it in 2000 to Takanori Sakai (LDP) who was appointed as Cabinet Office Vice Minister in the 2nd realigned Mori cabinet. In March 2003, Sakai was arrested (and later sentenced to 32 months in prison) for having received illicit corporate donations in violation of the Political Funds Control Law.[2][3] Takamaro Fukuoka replaced Sakai as LDP candidate for Saga 1 in the 2003 election and lost to Haraguchi. The "postal privatization" election of 2005 gave the LDP a landslide victory, and Fukuoka beat Haraguchi despite the fact that the DPJ's opposition ally, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), unlike in previous elections did not nominate a candidate in Saga 1st district. In the landslide LDP defeat of 2009, Haraguchi won the district for the third time.

Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Saga At-large district where five representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote.

List of representatives
Representative Party Dates Notes
Kazuhiro Haraguchi NFP 1996–2000 Reelected to a proportional seat in the Kyūshū bloc, joined "Voice of the People" in the NFP dissolution, merged into Minseitō, then DPJ in 1998
Takanori Sakai LDP 2000–2003 Violation of the Political Funds Control Act, but in office until dissolution
Kazuhiro Haraguchi DPJ 2003–2005 Reelected to a proportional seat in the Kyūshū bloc
Takamaro Fukuoka LDP 2005–2009 Failed reelection to a proportional seat in the Kyūshū bloc; became member of the House of Councillors from Saga in the 2010 election
Kazuhiro Haraguchi DPJ 2009–2012 Reelected to a proportional seat in the Kyūshū bloc
Kazuchika Iwata LDP 2012–2014 Reelected to a proportional seat in the Kyūshū bloc
Kazuhiro Haraguchi DPJ 2014- Incumbent

Election results
2012[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
LDP (NK) Kazuchika Iwata 70,547 49.2
DPJ (PNP) Kazuhiro Haraguchi (elected by PR) 63,007 43.9
JCP Hitoshi Ōmori 9,857 6.9
2009[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
DPJ (SDP, NPP support) Kazuhiro Haraguchi 96,618
LDP (Kōmeitō support) Takamaro Fukuoka 75,475
Happiness Realization Party Ken Koba 1,568
Turnout 175,824 74.77
2005[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
LDP Takamaro Fukuoka 84,643
DPJ Kazuhiro Haraguchi 75,449
JCP Akemi Mutō 8,029
Turnout 170,282 73.28
2003[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
DPJ Kazuhiro Haraguchi 70,271
LDP Takamaro Fukuoka 66,446
SDP Hisahiro Shibata 8,315
JCP Yasutoshi Kamimura 4,977
Turnout 152,297 66.13
2000[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
LDP Takanori Sakai 70,155
DPJ Kazuhiro Haraguchi 62,932
SDP Katsuyō Ogata 30,018
JCP Yasutoshi Kamimura 7,173
Liberal League Kō Nagai 1,612
1996[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
NFP Kazuhiro Haraguchi 62,515
LDP Takanori Sakai 60,286
SDP Katsuyō Ogata 27,514
JCP Yasutoshi Kamimura 7,670
Liberal League Takashi Kimura 2,493

References
  1. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC): 平成24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>選挙区ごとの選挙人名簿及び在外選挙人名簿登録者数等 (in Japanese)
  2. The Japan Times, June 27, 2003: Sakai, cohort plead not guilty to defrauding state
  3. The Japan Times, March 23, 2007: Prosecutors drive ex-labor minister to penitentiary
  4. 総選挙2012>開票結果　小選挙区　佐賀. Yomiuri Shimbun (in Japanese). Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  5. 衆議院>第45回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2010-01-11. Retrieved 2010-01-07. External link in |work= (help)
  6. 衆議院>第44回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Archived from the original on 2009-08-22. Retrieved 2009-12-30. External link in |work= (help)
  7. 衆議院 >第43回衆議院議員選挙 >佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2009-12-30. External link in |work= (help)
  8. 衆議院>第42回衆議院議員選挙>佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2009-12-30. External link in |work= (help)
  9. 衆議院>第41回衆議院議員選挙 >佐賀県>佐賀1区. ザ･選挙 (in Japanese). JANJAN. Retrieved 2010-01-07. External link in |work= (help)

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