Following the closing of the 208th session of the
National Diet on 15 June 2022, the
Second Kishida Cabinet held an extraordinary session to schedule an upper house election in which it was determined that the election would be formally announced to the public on June 22 with the vote to be held on 10 July 2022. In May 2018, the government enacted a revision to the Public Offices Election Law that increased the number of seats in the House of Councillors by six, with three new seats being contested in
2019 and the other three being contested in 2022. As such, three new seats — one in the
Saitama at-large district and two in the
national PR block — were added to the House of Councillors as a result of the election. A seat in the
Kanagawa at-large district was left vacant following the resignation of
Shigefumi Matsuzawa (
independent), who was elected to the House of Councillors in the 2019 election. Matsuzawa resigned from his seat in the House of Councillors to run in the
2021 Yokohama mayoral election, for which he came in fifth. Since the seat was not eligible for a
by-election, a merger election was held as a part of this election. This was the first time in 30 years - since the
Saitama at-large district held one as part of the
1992 election - that a merger election was held. As a result, the Kanagawa at-large district elected five members this election instead of four, with the fifth-place winner serving for only three years instead of six. Furthermore, in October 2021,
Kenji Nakanishi (
Liberal Democratic), who was elected to the House of Councillors from the Kanagawa at-large district in the
2016 election, resigned his seat to compete in the
2021 Japanese general election for a seat in the
House of Representatives, leaving his seat in the House of Councillors vacant prior to this election as well. The "Special Postal Voting" system - put in place by the Corona Postal Voting Act passed in response to the global
COVID-19 pandemic - was still in effect during this election. This system secured voting opportunities for those who could not vote in-person due to the pandemic. It was the first time the "Special Postal Voting" system was used for a House of Councillors election. In addition, a revision to the Public Offices Election Act was passed in April 2022 that allowed for
party political broadcasts to be made through
FM broadcasting. On 8 July 2022, former Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe (served 2006–2007 and 2012–2020) was
assassinated in
Nara City while delivering a campaign speech for
Kei Satō, a member of the House of Councillors running for reelection. The assassination took place just two days before the election. Prime Minister Kishida denounced the assassination as an attack on Japan's democracy and vowed to defend a "free and fair election at all cost". The
Democratic Party For the People had been described as "cozying up" to the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The lack of policy agreements and electoral pacts led to more opposition candidates contesting in single-seat prefectural districts.
Pre-election Composition == Electoral system ==