Next Japanese general election

Next Japanese general election

← 2024 On or before 27 October 2028
All 465 seats in the House of Representatives 233 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Leader Sanae Takaichi Yoshihiko Noda Hirofumi Yoshimura Fujita Fumitake Party LDP CDP Ishin Leader since 4 October 2025 23 September 2024 1 December 2024 8 August 2025 Leader's seat Nara 2nd Chiba 14th N/A[a] Osaka 12th Last election 191 seats 148 seats 38 seats Current seats 196 148 35 Seats needed 38 85 198   Leader Yuichiro Tamaki Tetsuo Saito Tarō Yamamoto Party DPP Komeito Reiwa Leader since 4 December 2024 9 November 2024 1 April 2019 Leader's seat Kagawa 2nd Hiroshima 3rd Did not stand[b] Last election 28 seats 24 seats 9 seats Current seats 27 24 9 Seats needed 206 209 224   Leader Tomoko Tamura Sohei Kamiya Naoki Hyakuta Party JCP Sanseitō CPJ Leader since 18 January 2024[c] 30 August 2023 1 September 2023 Leader's seat Tokyo PR block Did not stand[b] Did not stand[b] Last election 8 seats 3 seats 3 seats Current seats 8 3 2 Seats needed 225 230 230
Districts and PR districts, shaded according to winners' vote strength
Incumbent Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi LDP

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A general election is scheduled to be held in Japan no later than 27 October 2028 to elect all 465 seats of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Diet. Voting will take place in all constituencies, including 289 single-seat electoral districts and 11 proportional blocks (176 seats).^[1]

An election may occur before the scheduled date if the Prime Minister dissolves Parliament for a snap election or if the House of Representatives passes a motion of no confidence in the government. Early elections are more likely during minority governments, as the Prime Minister does not command a majority in the House of Representatives and House of Councillors.

The 2024 general election resulted in the loss of majority of the Liberal Democratic Party–Komeito governing coalition under Prime Minister Ishiba.^[2]

In the snap election, the LDP, and its coalition partner the Komeito, lost its majority for the first time since 2009, while opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP) and Democratic Party for the People (DPFP) made gains.^[3] Two members of Ishiba's cabinet lost their seats, as the government was reduced to a minority status.^[4] As no party controlled the House of Representatives, Ishiba was reelected Prime Minister in the Diet in a runoff vote, after opposition parties failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Ishiba reshuffled his cabinet.^[5]

Elections for Japan's Upper House, the House of Councilors, were due in July 2025. Once again, the LDP–Komeito coalition lost its majority, as parties like the CDP and DPFP, as well as the far-right nationalist Sanseitō party, made gains.^[6] After both elections, Ishiba invoked a parliamentary plurality in both houses, and believed the LDP had a responsibility to lead the government, as it would in most other parliamentary democracies.^[7] Pressure continued to mount on Ishiba to resign as LDP President, but he refused and said he planned to continue serving as Prime Minister.^[8]

On 7 September, Shigeru Ishiba announced that he would resign as President of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan.^[9][10][11] Ishiba stated he sought to claim "responsibility" as party leader for losses in recent elections, and to avoid dividing the party.^[12] Ishiba's announcement effectively cancelled the emergency election process entirely. He instead instructed Moriyama, whose resignation had not been accepted by Ishiba, to begin the process to hold an extraordinary presidential election.^[13] Ishiba said he determined now was the "appropriate time" to step aside, after a written version of the Japan–U.S. tariff agreement had been finalized.^[14] Ishiba promised to continue serving as Prime Minister until a new leader was elected, and did not endorse a candidate in the subsequent election. His tenure lasted about one year.^[15]

In the LDP leadership election on 5 October, Sanae Takaichi was elected as LDP's first woman president. In her first acts as party president, Takaichi appointed Tarō Asō as vice president and Shun'ichi Suzuki as secretary-general of the LDP.^[16]

On 10 October, Komeito chief representative Tetsuo Saito announced that it would leave the ruling coalition, over disagreements with Takaichi's leadership and the party's handling of the slush fund scandal, ending 26 years of the LDP-Komeito coalition.^[17] Following this, the vote to confirm Takaichi as prime minister was delayed to 20 October.^[17] Opposition parties began exploring options to form a government without the LDP,^[18] with even one LDP lawmaker raising the idea of Ishiba remaining as prime minister alongside Takaichi as party president, to save the coalition.^[19]

Talks continued among the parties, with significant policy differences between the 3 opposition parties, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ), the Democratic Party for the People (DPP) and Ishin no Kai (JIP) ^[20] a significant obstacle for the formation of a non-LDP government. After meetings between the LDP with each of the 3 main opposition parties, with another separate joint meeting between the 3 opposition parties^[21] on 20 October, Takaichi and Ishin leader Hirofumi Yoshimura agreed to sign a confidence and supply agreement. As a result, Takaichi was elected prime minister by the Diet on 21 October, with the support of Ishin and independents.^[22]

The 465 seats of the House of Representatives are contested via parallel voting. Of these, 289 members are elected in single-member constituencies using first-past-the-post voting, while 176 members are elected in 11 multi-member constituencies via party list proportional representation. Candidates from parties with legal political party-list, which requires either ≥5 Diet members or ≥1 Diet member and ≥2% of the nationwide vote in one tier of a recent national election, are allowed to stand in a constituency and be present on the party list. If they lose their constituency vote, they may still be elected in the proportionally allocated seats. However, if such a dual candidate wins less than 10% of the vote in their majoritarian constituency, they are also disqualified as a proportional candidate.