General elections were held in Japan on 6 July 1986 to elect the 512 members of the House of Representatives. This marks the last general election as of 2021 in which the LDP was able to obtain at least 300 seats in the House of Representatives, an event that only ever happened once before, in the 1960 election. This general election and 1960's are also tied for the highest number of seats ever obtained by the LDP in a general election, as both saw the LDP winning exactly 300 seats. However, the House of Representatives had fewer total seats in 1960, and so the popular vote for the LDP was actually stronger in 1960. Nonetheless, the 1986 general election also stands as the fourth strongest LDP showing in a general election in terms of the popular constituency votes. The result would not be matched until the Democratic Party of Japan's landslide showing in the 2009 Japanese general election narrowly beat it.
Opposition parties across the board saw seat losses and popular vote losses alongside it, with the lone exceptions being the Japanese Communist Party, which plateaued in its seat count, and the minor Socialist Democratic Federation, which gained a single seat. The biggest losses were in the Japan Socialist Party, which saw its decreasing popular vote numbers continued, alongside losing 27 seats. The DSP also saw a 12-seat loss, which took its representative number back down to 26 seats. Kōmeitō saw a small seat loss of three, and the New Liberal Club, which had been in coalition with the Second Nakasone Cabinet, lost two seats.
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