Record 27 Million Ballots Cast in Early Voting Amid Heavy Snow Forecasts

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:12 JST, February 9, 2026

In early voting for constituencies in the House of Representatives election, ballots were cast by 27,017,098 voters, according to preliminary figures released Sunday by the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. That represents both 26.10% of all eligible voters and a new record.

Early voting ran for 11 days, from Jan. 28 to Saturday. The ballot total was up by about 5.63 million from 2017, when 21,379,977 people voted early.

Compared to the 2024 lower house election, which saw 20,955,450 early ballots, about 6.06 million more people voted before election day. Early voting increased in every prefecture compared with 2024, including in northern parts of Japan that were hit by heavy snowfall. Tochigi Prefecture posted the highest growth, up by 43% from 2024.

This election marks the first time since 1990 for voting to take place in February. Soon after the election was called, few people were voting early, but this seems to have changed amid forecasts that a strong winter pressure pattern would intensify on election day, bringing heavy snow, particularly along the Sea of Japan coast.

The number of early voting sites has been rising nationwide, and for this election a record 6,548 polling places were set up, the most ever.