A general election took place in Japan on October 20, 1996. Incumbent Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro of the coalition of 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...

, New Party Sakigake

New Party Sakigake

The New Party Sakigake was a Japanese political party that broke away from the Liberal Democratic Party on June 22, 1993. The party was created by Masayoshi Takemura. The party, was a centrist party, and it had many reformist and even moderate ecological elements. The theoretical reader was...

 and the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (Japan)

The Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party (社会民主党 Shakai Minshu-tō, often abbreviated to 社民党 Shamin-tō; also known as the Social Democratic Party of Japan (abbreviated to SDPJ or SDP in English) is a political party that advocates for the establishment of a...

won the election.

Results

The coalition government won a narrow majority in the election. The Social Democratic Party and the New Party Sakigake lost most of its seats in 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,...

 due to the formation of coalition with the LDP. The turnout of the election was 59.65%.

Party	Single-member constituencies	Proportional representation	Total
Liberal Democrat 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...	169	70	239 (211)
New Frontiers New Frontier Party The was a Japanese political party that existed during the mid-1990s. As a merger of several small parties, the party was ideologically diverse, with its membership ranging from moderate socialists to neoliberals and conservatives...	96	60	156 (160)
Democrat	17	35	52
Japanese Communist Japanese Communist Party The Japanese Communist Party is a left-wing political party in Japan.The JCP advocates the establishment of a society based on socialism, democracy and peace, and opposition to militarism...	2	24	26 (15)
Social Democrat Social Democratic Party (Japan) The Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party The Social Democratic Party (社会民主党 Shakai Minshu-tō, often abbreviated to 社民党 Shamin-tō; also known as the Social Democratic Party of Japan (abbreviated to SDPJ or SDP in English) is a political party that advocates for the establishment of a...	4	11	15 (30)
New Party Sakigake New Party Sakigake The New Party Sakigake was a Japanese political party that broke away from the Liberal Democratic Party on June 22, 1993. The party was created by Masayoshi Takemura. The party, was a centrist party, and it had many reformist and even moderate ecological elements. The theoretical reader was...	2	0	2 (9)
Democratic Reformers	1	0	1 (2)
Independent Independent (politician) In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...	9	0	9 (10)

Numbers in parentheses indicate seats held before the election.