Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party Cedes 14 Lower House Seats to Other Parties in Rare Instance Stemming From Landslide Win

The Yomiuri Shimbun

17:45 JST, February 10, 2026

Sunday’s House of Representatives election saw a rare occurrence — the Liberal Democratic Party had to give away 14 lower house seats to other parties because it did not have enough candidates to fill all the seats it won in the proportional representation segment.

Among 176 seats up for grabs in the proportional representation segment, the LDP ended the election with 67, up eight from the previous general election in 2024. The LDP actually obtained enough votes for 81 proportional representation seats, but its number of candidates was below that figure. As a result, 14 seats were transferred to other parties.

The LDP fielded a total of 319 candidates in the proportional representation segment, up 34 from the previous general election. However, many of the candidates who ran in both constituencies and the proportional representation segment won their constituencies.

Therefore, the number of LDP candidates who were eligible to be winners in the proportional representation segment fell short in four blocs — Tokyo, Southern Kanto, Hokuriku-Shinetsu and Chugoku.

In accordance with the Public Offices Election Law, the excess LDP seats were ceded to other parties. Six went to the Centrist Reform Alliance; two each to the Japan Innovation Party, the Democratic Party for the People and Team Mirai; and one each to Sanseito and Reiwa Shinsengumi.

A shortage of proportional representation candidates usually occurs when a certain party achieves a landslide victory in constituencies.

In the 2005 general election, when the lower house was dissolved over whether postal businesses should be privatized, the LDP won 77 seats in the proportional representation segment, the largest ever number under the current electoral system.

At that time, one seat in the Tokyo proportional representation bloc was ceded to the Social Democratic Party.

A senior LDP member expressed mixed feelings about the most recent occurrence, saying, “When the lower house was dissolved, I never imagined we’d win this big.”

Team Mirai, which significantly increased its number of lower house seats, also had to cede two proportional representation seats in the Kinki bloc — one to the CRA and another to the JIP.

This was because the two candidates of Team Mirai who ran simultaneously in constituencies and the proportional representation segment did not secure 10% of the valid votes in their constituencies. They were therefore not eligible to be successful in the proportional representation race.

The CRA received a total of seven proportional representation seats from the LDP and Team Mirai, thereby securing a total of 42 throughout the proportional representation segment. That was much lower than the 64 that the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Komeito secured in the previous general election’s proportional representation segment.

The CRA fielded a total of 28 candidates from Komeito, and the top positions on its list of proportional representation candidates were dominated by people from Komeito. As a result, all the candidates from Komeito won seats.