Voter turnout stands at 55.93 % in Japan General Election

Jiji Press

November 1, 2021

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Voter turnout for single-seat constituencies in Sunday’s election for the House of Representatives stood at 55.93%, the third-lowest figure in post-World War II history, the internal affairs ministry said Monday.

The figure is 2.25 percentage points higher than the second-lowest reading of 53.68% marked in the previous Lower House election in 2017.

Voter turnout attracted attention in the first major national election since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Japan last year.

The low voter turnout apparently reflected people’s caution about the coronavirus crisis and a lack of clear differences in policy pledges between political parties, which failed to draw public interest to the election.

By prefecture, turnout was highest in Yamagata Prefecture at 64.34%, and lowest in Yamaguchi Prefecture at 49.67%.

In recent years, voter turnout reached 67.51% in the 2005 Lower House election, in which proposed postal reform attracted keen public attention, and 69.28% in the 2009 election, in which the now-defunct Democratic Party of Japan wrested power from the Liberal Democratic Party.

But turnout rewrote the postwar low for two following elections, at 59.32% in 2012 and 52.66% in 2014.

Voter turnout came to 56.06% for men and 55.80% for women.