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General elections were held in Japan on 22 June 1980. The incumbent Liberal Democratic Party won an overall majority for the first time since 1972.
Campaign
Vote of no confidence in the Ohira cabinet
The election was triggered following a vote of no confidence brought by the Japan Socialist Party (JSP) on 16 May 1980 regarding corruption and rises in public utility charges as reasons for the House of Representatives of Japan (lower house) to withdraw its backing from the LDP government.
Unexpectedly, 69 Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) members of the Diet from the Fukuda Takeo, Miki Takeo and Hidenao Nakagawa factions abstained from voting on the motion, leading to the fall of the government.
For the first time, the election for the House of Representatives was held in conjunction with the election for the House of Councillors on the same day.
Death of the Prime Minister
Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party died during the campaign. Ōhira had expected the vote of no confidence to fail, and was visibly shaken when it passed by a margin of 243–187. Given the choice of resigning or calling new elections, Ōhira chose the latter and began campaigning for LDP candidates. He was hospitalized for exhaustion on 31 May and died of a massive heart attack 12 days later.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Masayoshi Ito became acting prime minister after Ōhira's death. In the elections of both the houses LDP gained a majority. The election results for the lower house are shown in the table below. Yoshio Sakurauchi, the Secretary General of LDP, led the LDP to its greatest victory in fifteen years, capitalizing on the "sympathy vote" generated by Ōhira's death. The Prime Minister was succeeded by Zenkō Suzuki after the election.
Results
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Liberal Democratic Party | 28,262,442 | 47.88 | 284 | +36 | |
| Japan Socialist Party | 11,400,748 | 19.31 | 107 | 0 | |
| Japanese Communist Party | 5,803,613 | 9.83 | 29 | –10 | |
| Kōmeitō | 5,329,942 | 9.03 | 33 | –24 | |
| Democratic Socialist Party | 3,896,728 | 6.60 | 32 | –4 | |
| New Liberal Club | 1,766,396 | 2.99 | 12 | +8 | |
| Socialist Democratic Federation | 402,832 | 0.68 | 3 | +1 | |
| Other parties | 109,168 | 0.18 | 0 | – | |
| Independents | 2,056,967 | 3.48 | 11 | –8 | |
| Total | 59,028,836 | 100.00 | 511 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 59,028,836 | 97.82 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 1,313,492 | 2.18 | |||
| Total votes | 60,342,328 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 80,925,034 | 74.57 | |||
| Source: Statistics Bureau of Japan, National Diet | |||||
By prefecture
| Prefecture | Total seats |
Seats won | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LDP | JSP | Kōmeitō | DSP | JCP | NLC | SDF | Ind. | ||
| Aichi | 22 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Akita | 8 | 5 | 3 | ||||||
| Aomori | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Chiba | 16 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| Ehime | 9 | 6 | 3 | ||||||
| Fukui | 4 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| Fukuoka | 19 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Fukushima | 12 | 9 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Gifu | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Gunma | 10 | 7 | 3 | ||||||
| Hiroshima | 12 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Hokkaido | 22 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Hyōgo | 20 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Ibaraki | 12 | 9 | 3 | ||||||
| Ishikawa | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| Iwate | 8 | 6 | 2 | ||||||
| Kagawa | 6 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
| Kagoshima | 11 | 9 | 2 | ||||||
| Kanagawa | 19 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||
| Kōchi | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Kumamoto | 10 | 7 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Kyoto | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Mie | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Miyagi | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Miyazaki | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| Nagano | 13 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Nagasaki | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Nara | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Niigata | 15 | 8 | 5 | 2 | |||||
| Ōita | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Okayama | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Okinawa | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Osaka | 26 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 1 | ||
| Saga | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Saitama | 15 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| Shiga | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Shimane | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||||||
| Shizuoka | 14 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Tochigi | 10 | 6 | 3 | 1 | |||||
| Tokushima | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Tokyo | 43 | 15 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 1 | |
| Tottori | 4 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| Toyama | 6 | 5 | 1 | ||||||
| Wakayama | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Yamagata | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Yamaguchi | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Yamanashi | 5 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Total | 511 | 284 | 107 | 33 | 32 | 29 | 12 | 3 | 11 |
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