The seat was held by former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe until his assassination in July 2022.
[2] Unlike many prefectures where the capital is also the most populous city, Yamaguchi's major city is Shimonoseki, located at the western tip of Honshū and adjacent to Kyushu island's Fukuoka-Kitakyūshū metropolitan area which lies just south across the Kanmon Straits.
Western Yamaguchi formed the four-member 1st district until the electoral reform of the 1990s, its representatives included Shintarō Abe, Shinzō Abe (former Prime Minister of Japan) and Tatsuo Tanaka, but also other prominent conservatives such as finance minister Yoshirō Hayashi or Takeo Kawamura who went on to become Chief Cabinet Secretary in the 2000s.
He was elected LDP president and Prime Minister in 2006 against Tarō Asō and Sadakazu Tanigaki in succession to Junichiro Koizumi (Kanagawa 11th district), but resigned after one year.
Abe then subsequently won the 2012 general election in a landslide victory against the DPJ of Yoshihiko Noda (Chiba 4th district), returning the LDP to power (with coalition partner New Komeito, the LDP have a two-thirds majority and can break a deadlock in the National Diet) and became prime minister again.