House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 21 July 2019 to elect 124 of the 245 members of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the then 710-member bicameral National Diet, for a term of six years.

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Quick Facts Turnout, Party ...

2019 Japanese House of Councillors election

← 2016 21 July 2019 2022 →
124 of the 245 seats in the House of Councillors 123 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	48.80% (5.90pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– Liberal Democratic Shinzō Abe 35.37 113 −7 CDP Yukio Edano 15.81 32 New Komeito Natsuo Yamaguchi 13.05 28 +3 Ishin Toranosuke Katayama Ichirō Matsui 9.80 16 +4 Communist Kazuo Shii 8.95 13 −1 DPFP Yuichiro Tamaki 6.95 21 +19 Reiwa Taro Yamamoto 4.55 2 New Social Democratic Seiji Mataichi 2.09 2 0 Anti-NHK Takashi Tachibana 1.97 1 New Independents – – 17 +5 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Election results President before President after Chuichi Date Liberal Democratic Akiko Santō Liberal Democratic

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74 members were elected by single non-transferable vote (SNTV)/First-past-the-post (FPTP) voting in 45 multi- and single-member prefectural electoral districts. The nationwide district elected 50 members by D'Hondt proportional representation with optionally open lists, the previous most open list system was modified in 2018 to give parties the option to prioritize certain candidates over the voters' preferences in the proportional election.^[1][2]

The election saw Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ruling coalition lose the two-thirds majority needed to enact constitutional reform.^[3][4] The Liberal Democratic Party also lost its majority in the House of Councillors, but the LDP maintained control of the House of Councillors with its junior coalition partner Komeito.

The term of members elected in the 2013 regular election (including those elected in subsequent by-elections or as runners-up) was to end on 28 July 2019. Under the "Public Offices Election Act" (kōshoku-senkyo-hō), the regular election must be held within 30 days before that date, or under certain conditions if the Diet is in session or scheduled to open at that time, between 24 and 30 days after the closure of the session and thus potentially somewhat after the actual end of term.^[5]

Going into the election, the Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner Komeito controlled a two-thirds super-majority of seats in the House of Representatives but did not control a similar super-majority of seats in the House of Councillors, necessary to initiate amendments of the Constitution of Japan.

The following districts saw a change in their representation within the House at this election. One set of reforms were introduced in 2012 and first took effect at the 2013 election. The districts below are affected by the 2015 reforms, which started to take effect in the 2016 election.

In May 2018, the government announced that they are planning to introduce a revision into the Public Offices Election Law before the 2019 election. The proposed changes increased the number seats in the House by 6, 2 seats in the Saitama at-large district and 4 in the national PR block. As Saitama currently has the highest voters-to-councillor ratio, the increase would reduce its ratio gap with the least populous district (below the constitutional 3 to 1 limit). Meanwhile, the seat increase in the PR block is aimed to address the absence of representation of prefectures in the merged-prefecture districts (namely Tottori-Shimane and Tokushima-Kōchi) and popular discontent in those prefectures. The plan also introduced a ranking system for the PR lists. This essentially changed it from a most open list system into a less open list system, mirroring the one used in the House of Representatives elections. To reduce the chance of the non-representation of a prefecture, candidates from prefectures not running in the merged districts were to be prioritised on the list.^[7]

Under the plan, the new Saitama seat and two new PR seats were contested in 2019, while the other three would be contested in 2022.