[1] As with the previous House of Councillors election, the "four-point set of evils" in the minds of voters were the controversial consumption tax, the Recruit scandal, agricultural import liberalisation, and former Prime Minister Sōsuke Uno's sex scandal.

Although party leadership tends to have only minor influence on Japanese elections, positive cabinet approval ratings for the LDP bounced back from Noboru Takeshita's low of 10% to the reform-minded Toshiki Kaifu's 33%.

In addition, the LDP also made sure to field an ample amount of candidates and to informally support independents, who increased by 12 in this election.

Meanwhile, the other three main opposition parties (Komeito, the JCP, and the DSP) lost 11, 10, and 12 seats respectively, and all of them also saw reductions in their popular vote.

Moreover, the JSP continued to suffer from factional infighting and a relative lack of fund-raising when compared to the LDP, and thus its fortunes would only wind up being in the short-term.