2021 Japanese general election

2021 Japanese general election

← 2017 31 October 2021 2024 →
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All 465 seats in the House of Representatives 233 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	55.98% (2.30pp; Const. votes) 55.97% (2.29pp; PR votes)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Fumio Kishida Yukio Edano Ichirō Matsui Party LDP CDP Ishin Last election 284 seats Did not exist 11 seats Seats won 259 96 41 Seat change 25 New[a] 30 Constituency vote 27,626,235 17,215,621 4,802,793 % and swing 48.08% (0.26pp) 29.96% (New) 8.36% (5.18pp) Regional vote 19,914,883 11,492,115 8,050,830 % and swing 34.66% (1.38pp) 20.00% (New) 14.01% (7.94pp)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Natsuo Yamaguchi Yuichiro Tamaki Kazuo Shii Party Komeito DPP JCP Last election 29 seats New party 12 seats Seats won 32 11 10 Seat change 3 New 2 Constituency vote 872,931 1,246,812 2,639,631 % and swing 1.52% (0.02pp) 2.17% (New) 4.59% (4.43pp) Regional vote 7,114,282 2,593,396 4,166,076 % and swing 12.38% (0.13pp) 4.51% (New) 7.25% (0.65pp)
Districts and PR districts, shaded according to winners' vote strength
Prime Minister before election Fumio Kishida LDP Elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida LDP

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General elections were held in Japan on 31 October 2021,^[1] as required by the constitution. Voting took place in all constituencies in order to elect members to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet. As the constitution requires the cabinet to resign in the first Diet session after a general election, the elections will also lead to a new election for Prime Minister in the Diet, and the appointment of a new cabinet, although ministers may be re-appointed. The election was the first general election of the Reiwa era.

The election followed a tumultuous period in Japanese politics which saw the sudden resignation of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2020 due to health issues and the short premiership of his successor Yoshihide Suga, who stepped down as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) after only about a year in office due to poor approval ratings. The period since the previous general election in 2017 also saw the consolidation of much of the country's centre-left into a newly strengthened Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and the forming of the left-wing populist party Reiwa Shinsengumi led by former actor Taro Yamamoto.

The LDP, led by new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, maintained a comfortable majority despite losing seats.^[2][3] The primary two left-wing opposition parties, the CDP and the Japanese Communist Party, both underperformed expectations and lost seats relative to their standings in the chamber immediately before the election; this occurred despite both parties cooperating in a significant electoral alliance to avoid vote splitting. The CDP's poor results led to the resignation of party leader Yukio Edano shortly after the election. The Osaka-based conservative party Ishin no Kai gained 30 seats, becoming the third-largest party in the chamber.

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