The Niigata at-large district (Japanese: 新潟県選挙区, Hepburn: Niigata-ken senkyoku) is a constituency that represents Niigata Prefecture in the House of Councillors in the Diet of Japan. It currently has four Councillors in the 242-member house, but this representation will decrease to two by July 2019.
Outline
The constituency represents the entire population of Niigata Prefecture and has 1,925,565 registered voters as of September 2015. Since the first House of Councillors election in 1947 Niigata has elected four Councillors to six-year terms, two at alternating elections held every three years. The district's number of voters is the third-lowest of the 10 prefectures that are represented by four Councillors; by comparison, the Hokkaido, Hyogo at-large district and Fukuoka districts each have more than 4 million voters but are represented by the same number of Councillors as Niigata. To address this malapportionment in representation, a 2015 revision of the Public Officers Election Law will decrease the representation of Niigata, Miyagi and Nagano districts to two Councillors while increasing Hyogo, Hokkaido and Fukuoka districts to six Councillors. This change will begin to take effect at the 2016 election, at which time Niigata will elect only one Councillor.
The Councillors currently representing Niigata are: