The results of the unified local elections on April 10 and 24 underline the waning of the Democratic Party of Japan's strength. On April 10, the DPJ lost in the gubernatorial elections in Hokkaido, Tokyo and Mie. Its strength decreased from 415 seats to 346 seats in 41 prefectural assemblies and from 165 seats to 147 seats in assemblies of 15 major cities.
The Liberal Democratic Party became the No. 1 party in the prefectural assemblies, except in Osaka, and secured a majority in 21 of them. Still its total number of seats in the prefectural assemblies went down from 1,248 to 1,119 and that in the assemblies of 15 major cities fell from 262 to 222.
On April 24, the DPJ won only in three of the 10 city and ward mayor elections in which it confronted the LDP. In the Lower House by-election in the Aichi No. 6 constituency, the DPJ could not even run its own candidate.