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This district is an urban one centered around Tochigi's prefectural capital of Utsunomiya, formed from parts of the older multi-member 1st District following the 1994 electoral reforms. The district is known as a Conservative Kingdom, with 3 generations of the Funada family, who have always served as president of the local Sakushin Gakuin University, havving been elected either in this district or in the previous larger district.
There have been only 2 times where a member of the Funada party has lost the election. The first occured in the year 2000, when incumbent candidate Hajime Funada lost to Democtratic Party newcomer Hiroko Mizushima by about 16,000 votes. Funada was able to retake the seat in 2003 and hold it again in 2005, thanks in part to the popularity of Junichiro Koizumi's government. However, in 2009 he lost again, this time to newcomer Hisashi Ishimori of the Democratic Party.
Ishimori wouldnt be able to hold this seat in the next election however, suffering a crushing defeat to Funada after losing 90,000 votes over the previous election. Following this election, Funada has won every election and is still the incumbent.
Initially a member of the Liberal Democratic Party, he left that party to help found the New Frontier Party,following his decision to support a no-confidence motion in the LDP government. He then left the New Frontier Party in September 1996, standing in that years election as an independent. In January of 1997, Funada rejoined the
Liberal Democratic Party, four years after he initially left it.
Kashiwakura ran for Tochigi's 2nd district in the 2012 Japanese general election. Even though he lost the district, he gained enough votes to be elected to the North Kanto proportional block
衆議院小選挙区選出議員の選挙区間における人口較差を緊急に是正するための公職選挙法及び衆議院議員選挙区画定審議会設置法の一部を改正する法律の一部を改正する法律 [An Act amending the Public Offices Election Act, and the Act for the establishment of the House of Representatives Electoral Districts Delimitation Council, in order to urgently correct the population disparity in the electoral districts of the House of Representatives single-seat constituencies]. www.shugiin.go.jp. Japanese House of Representatives. 28 June 2013. Retrieved 26 Dec 2024.
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