Hokkaidō 9th district is a constituency of the House of Representatives

House of Representatives of Japan

The is the lower house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors of Japan is the upper house.The House of Representatives has 480 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 180 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation,...

 in the Diet of Japan

Diet of Japan

The is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally...

 (national legislature). It consists of Hokkaido

Hokkaido

, formerly known as Ezo, Yezo, Yeso, or Yesso, is Japan's second largest island; it is also the largest and northernmost of Japan's 47 prefectural-level subdivisions. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaido from Honshu, although the two islands are connected by the underwater railway Seikan Tunnel...

's Hidaka

Hidaka Subprefecture

is a subprefecture of Hokkaidō, Japan. The west side of the Hidaka mountains occupies most of the area. Hidaka is sparsely populated and has many of Hokkaidō's natural resources...

 and Iburi Subprefecture

Iburi Subprefecture

is a subprefecture of Hokkaidō, Japan.- Geography :Located in south-central Hokkaido, Iburi stretches East-West and North-South. Iburi covers an area of . Iburi borders Oshima subprefecture to the West, Shiribeshi, Ishikari, and Sorachi subprefectures to the North, and Hidaka subprefecture to the...

s. As of 2009, 414,438 eligible voters were registered in the district.

Hokkaido 9th district, like neighbouring 8th and 10th district, is considered a "Democratic kingdom" (minshu-ōkoku), a stronghold of the Democratic Party of Japan

Democratic Party of Japan

The is a political party in Japan founded in 1998 by the merger of several opposition parties. Its socially liberal platform is generally considered center-left in the Japanese political spectrum...

 (DPJ). Since its creation in 1996 it has been represented by DPJ co-founder Yukio Hatoyama

Yukio Hatoyama

is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan between 16 September 2009 and 2 June 2010, and was the first ever Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan....

.

In the 2000, 2003 and 2005 general elections, the Liberal Democratic Party

Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

The , frequently abbreviated to LDP or , is a centre-right political party in Japan. It is one of the most consistently successful political parties in the democratic world. The LDP ruled almost continuously for nearly 54 years from its founding in 1955 until its defeat in the 2009 election...

's candidate was Hirofumi Iwakura, later mayor of Tomakomai

Tomakomai, Hokkaido

is a city and port located in Iburi, Hokkaido, Japan. Though its name implies a small, idyllic town, it is the largest city in the Iburi Subprefecture. As of 2008, it had an estimated population of 173,504 and a population density of 310 persons per km²...

, Iburi Subprefecture. In 2000, Iwakura lost the district to Hatoyama by a margin of less than 3,000 votes.

Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Hokkaido 4th district where five representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote

Single non-transferable vote

The single non-transferable vote or SNTV is an electoral system used in multi-member constituency elections.- Voting :In any election, each voter casts one vote for one candidate in a multi-candidate race for multiple offices. Posts are filled by the candidates with the most votes...

. Yukio Hatoyama (New Party Sakigake), Tatsuo Takahashi (LDP) and Tomoko Kami (JCP) had already stood as candidates there in 1993.

Election results