The first election to the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Japanese Diet, was held on July 1, 1890, with 300 seats to be filled. The franchise was limited to about one percent of the total population. Mutsu Munemitsu, minister of agriculture in the first cabinet of Kōshaku (Prince) Yamagata Aritomo (1838—1922), the first prime minister under Japan’s new parliamentary system, won a seat in the House of Representatives in his home region of Wakayama. He was the only member of the cabinet to become a member of the House of Representatives. This document certifies his election.