Gunma 1st district

群馬県第1区Parliamentary constituency
for the Japanese House of RepresentativesPrefectureGunmaProportional BlockNorthern KantoElectorate345,119 (as of 1 September 2022)^[1]Current constituencyCreated1994SeatsOnePartyLDPRepresentativeYasutaka NakasoneMunicipalitiesMaebashi, Numata, Tone District

Gunma 1st District (群馬県第1区, Gunma-ken dai-ichi-ku) is a single-member constituency of the Japanese House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet. It is located in Gunma Prefecture and consists of the cities of Maebashi and Numata and the district of Tone as well as parts of the cities of Kiryū, Shibukawa and Midori. As of 2012, 387,120 eligible voters were registered in the district.^[2]

Until 2009, Gunma had been a traditional "conservative kingdom" (hoshu-ōkoku), the Japanese equivalent of a "red state" in the United States. Like all single member districts in Gunma, the 1st district had been represented by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1997. The LDP used the Costa Rica method (kosutarika-hōshiki) with Koji Omi and Genichiro Sata as alternating candidates for the district. In the election of 2009, Omi was the LDP's candidate; incumbent Sata only ran in the Northern Kantō proportional representation block. Both Omi and Sata had represented the pre-reform three-member 1st district of Gunma. The Democratic Party's candidate in 2009 was Takeshi Miyazaki, a former journalist for the Jōmō Shimbun.^[3] In 2012, Sata regained the district for the LDP. In 2013, the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho accused Sata of inappropriate sexual conduct.^[4] In the 2014 elections, Sata lost considerable support and did not receive endorsement from Komeito, but still managed to hold onto his seat.

Between 2017 and 2021, the representative was Asako Omi, the daughter of previous representative Kōji Omi. In 2021, the district was won by Yasutaka Nakasone, son of former Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone and grandson of Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was Prime Minister from 1982 to 1987.

Areas covered

Current district

As of 24 January 2023, the areas covered by this district are as follows:

• Maebashi
• Numata
• Tone District

As part of the 2022 redistricting, all cities in Gunma Prefecture were consolidated into single districts, with the exception of Takasaki. As a result of this, the district lost the parts it had gained of the cities of Kiryū, Shibukawa and Midori during the 2013 redistricting

Areas 2013–2022

From the first redistricting in 2013, and the second redistricting in 2022, the areas covered by this district were as follows:^[5][6]

• Maebashi
• Kiryū (former villages of Niisato and Kurohone)
• Numata
• Shibukawa (former villages of Akagi and Kitatachibana)
• Midori (former village of Azuma)
• Tone District

As part of the 2013 redistricting, the district gained area in the cities of Kiryū, Shibukawa and Midori. Seta District was merged into the city of Maebashi in 2009, though the area is still covered under the boundaries of Maebashi.

Areas from before 2013

From the creation of the district in 1994, until the first redistricting in 2013, the areas covered by this district were as follows:^[7]

• Maebashi
• Numata
• Seta District
• Tone District

Elected representatives

Representative	Party		Dates	Notes
Kōji Omi		LDP	1996 – 2000
Genichirō Sata		LDP	2000 – 2003
Kōji Omi		LDP	2003 – 2005
Genichirō Sata		LDP	2005 – 2009
Takeshi Miyazaki		DPJ	2009 – 2012
Genichirō Sata		LDP	2012 – 2017
Asako Omi		LDP	2017 – 2021
Yasutaka Nakasone		LDP	2021 –	Incumbent

Election results

2017^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Asako Omi	92,641	48.75	15.76
	Kibō no Tō	Takeshi Miyazaki	71,569	37.66	37.66
	Communist	Setsuko Storebashi	25,818	13.59	2.19
Turnout				51.26	0.55

2014^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democratic	Gen'ichirō Sata	61,927	32.99	12.02
	Independent	Hiroshi Ueno	54,530	29.05	7.79
	Democratic	Takeshi Miyazaki (elected in PR block)	49,862	26.56	9.89
	Communist	Setsuko Tanahashi	21,394	11.40	5.15
Turnout				50.71	5.35

2012^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP (Kōmeitō)	Gen'ichirō Sata	94,709	45.0
	JRP (YP)	Hiroshi Ueno (elected by PR)	46,835	22.3
	DPJ	Takeshi Miyazaki	35,074	16.7
	TPJ (NPD)	Arata Gotō	20,663	9.8
	JCP	Hideo Ubukata	13,152	6.2

2009^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	DPJ	Takeshi Miyazaki	122,711
	LDP	Koji Omi	109,846
	JCP	Hiroaki Sakai	15,783
	Independent	Akira Yamada	5,505
	Happiness Realization Party	Akihiko Takizaki	1,795

2005^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Genichiro Sata	136,920
	DPJ	Hitoshi Takahashi	78,544
	JCP	Yoshie Kondō	18,578
	SDP	Tomihisa Tsuchiya	11,233
Turnout			251,670	64.46

2003^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Koji Omi	130,242
	DPJ	Hitoshi Takahashi	68,960
	JCP	Nobuo Matsuura	16,126
Turnout			222,686	57.05

2000^[13]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Genichiro Sata	134,247
	DPJ	Tsugio Kumagawa	61,658
	JCP	Fumiko Yamada[14]	31,147
Turnout				61.57

1996^[15]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	LDP	Koji Omi	110,103
	NFP	Tsugio Kumagawa	58,025
	DPJ	Hitoshi Takahashi	31,358
	JCP	Kaoru Hasegawa	21,193

References