Gunma is a "conservative kingdom" (hoshu ōkoku), a stronghold of the
Liberal Democratic Party, and the pre-1996 multi-seat 3rd district had been home to the families of LDP presidents and Prime Ministers of Japan
Yasuhiro Nakasone,
Takeo Fukuda and
Keizō Obuchi. The new 4th district's first representative was Fukuda's son
Yasuo Fukuda (Machimura faction) who was elected LDP president and Prime Minister himself in 2007 over
Tarō Asō (Asō faction). In the LDP's landslide defeat in 2009, Fukuda held his seat over
Yukiko Miyake, one of the "Ozawa girls", a group of first-time female candidates handpicked by former Democratic Party president
Ichirō Ozawa. Miyake easily won a seat in the
Northern Kantō proportional representation block. She followed Ozawa out of the party in 2012 and ran for his
Tomorrow Party of Japan in Democratic Party president
Yoshihiko Noda's
Chiba 4th district where she failed to win even a tenth of the vote, disqualifying her also for potential re-election in the proportional representation bloc.
In Gunma 4th district, Yasuo Fukuda retired in 2012 and was safely succeeded by his son Tatsuo.