In March 2003, Sakai was arrested (and later sentenced to 32 months in prison) for having received illicit corporate donations in violation of the Political Funds Control Law.

The "postal privatization" election of 2005 gave the LDP a landslide victory, and Fukuoka beat Haraguchi despite the fact that the DPJ's opposition ally, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), unlike in previous elections did not nominate a candidate in Saga 1st district.

In the landslide LDP defeat of 2009, Haraguchi won the district for the third time and became the Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications in the Hatoyama Cabinet.

Haraguchi was defeated by Kazuchika Iwata (LDP), a former second-generation Saga prefectural assemblyman, in 2012 but regained the seat in 2014.

[4] Before the 1994 electoral reform, the area had been part of Saga At-large district where five representatives were elected by single non-transferable vote.