electionstracker

Japan 2009 general election

What was the result of the 2009 general election in Japan?

Democratic Party of Japan won 308 of 480 seats with 42.4% of the vote. 69.3% of registered voters cast a ballot.

  • Japan
  • Held:
  • Final result
  • ParlGov, read 5 October 2026

Which party won the most seats?

Final results from ParlGov, read : Democratic Party of Japan won 308 of 480 seats with 42.4% of the vote; 69.3% of registered voters cast a ballot, up 1.8 points on 2005.

  • Democratic Party of Japan 308 +195 seats 42.4% +11.4 points
  • Liberal Democratic Party 119 −177 seats 26.7% −11.4 points
  • Komeito 21 −10 seats 11.4% −1.8 points
  • Japanese Communist Party 9 0 seats 7.0% −0.2 points
  • Japan Socialist Party 7 0 seats 4.3% −1.2 points
  • Your Party 5 4.3%
  • People's New Party 3 −1 seat 1.7% 0.0 points
  • New Party Nippon 1 0 seats 0.8% −1.7 points
  • New Party Daichi 1 0 seats 0.6% 0.0 points
  • Seats won
  • Change on the previous election at the right
  • Share of the vote
  • Share at the previous election
  • Change in points at the right

Changes are against the Japan 2005 general election, party by party.

241 of 480 seats make a majority

Key numbers

  1. 42.4%

    Share of the vote won by Democratic Party of Japan

    Democratic Party of Japan won 308 of 480 seats. A majority needs 241.

  2. +195 seats

    Seats gained by Democratic Party of Japan

    The largest gain in seats compared with 2005. Liberal Democratic Party lost 177 seats.

  3. 69.3%

    Voter turnout

    Up 1.8 points on 2005.

Seats and votes by party

PartySeats± seats%± pointsVotes
Democratic Party of Japan308+19542.4+11.429,844,799
Liberal Democratic Party119−17726.7−11.418,810,217
Komeito21−1011.4−1.88,054,007
Japanese Communist Party907.0−0.24,943,886
Japan Socialist Party704.3−1.23,006,160
Your Party54.33,005,199
People's New Party3−11.70.01,219,767
New Party Nippon100.8−1.7528,171
New Party Daichi100.60.0433,122
Independents6−12

± is the change against the Japan 2005 general election, party by party.

Votes by party
  • Democratic Party of Japan 29,844,799
  • Liberal Democratic Party 18,810,217
  • Komeito 8,054,007
  • Japanese Communist Party 4,943,886
  • Japan Socialist Party 3,006,160
  • Your Party 3,005,199
  • People's New Party 1,219,767
  • New Party Nippon 528,171
  • New Party Daichi 433,122
  • Independents

ParlGov lists parties with at least 1 percent of the vote or 2 seats, so the rows do not add up to the valid votes.

How many people voted?

69.3% of the 103,949,442 registered voters cast a ballot (71,999,121 ballots), up 1.8 points on 2005. 70,370,255 of them were valid votes. The highest turnout since 1990 in our data.

How do the votes compare with the seats?

  • Democratic Party of Japan42.4% of votes64.2% of seats
  • Liberal Democratic Party26.7% of votes24.8% of seats
  • Komeito11.4% of votes4.4% of seats
  • Japanese Communist Party7.0% of votes1.9% of seats
  • Japan Socialist Party4.3% of votes1.5% of seats
  • Your Party4.3% of votes1.0% of seats
  • People's New Party1.7% of votes0.6% of seats
  • New Party Nippon0.8% of votes0.2% of seats
  • New Party Daichi0.6% of votes0.2% of seats
Each party's share of the vote (outlined) and of the seats (filled)

The Gallagher index of disproportionality is 17.0 (0 when seats follow votes exactly); the effective number of parties is 3.7 by votes and 2.1 by seats; Democratic Party of Japan led Liberal Democratic Party by 15.7 points of the vote.

Time and source Data as of