Uncertainty Looms over Lower House Seat Reduction in Japan

Tokyo, Dec. 1 (Jiji Press)–Dark clouds are hanging over the Japanese ruling coalition’s plan to cut the number of seats in the House of Representatives, the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament. Reducing Lower House seats is a key item in the coalition agreement between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its new coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, also known as Nippon Ishin no Kai. The JIP is demanding a bill to make sure that the number of seats in the chamber will definitely be reduced by 10 pct in a year be passed during the ongoing extraordinary Diet session, which is currently scheduled to run until Dec. 17. The party has warned that it could exit the coalition unless the bill enactment is attained. Although the LDP and the JIP aim to submit the planned bill to the Diet by Friday, the two parties are in no mood to draw up the legislation because frustration within the LDP over the attitude of the JIP is increasing. “The LDP doesn’t seem to be enthusiastic,” a senior JIP lawmaker said Friday, expressing a strong sense of distrust in the bigger coalition partner. At a meeting Nov. 21, working-level officials from the two parties agreed to aim for enacting during the current Diet session legislation specifying their goal of reducing the number of Lower House seats by 10 pct from the current 465. They confirmed that details will be worked out through discussions between the ruling and opposition parties over the year. A difficult issue remains, however. The two parties are still at odds over how to stipulate in the bill what should be done if no conclusion is reached. The JIP is insisting that the bill should say that the number of proportional representation seats in the Lower House will be slashed by 10 pct from 176 at present if a conclusion is not reached in a year’s time. “Measures without guarantees of effectiveness are meaningless,” JIP co-leader Fumitake Fujita told a press conference Wednesday. Meanwhile, frustration at the JIP is growing among LDP members, with a former cabinet minister saying that the new coalition partner is “selfish.” Also, momentum for realizing a reduction in Lower House seats is not strong within the LDP while Prime Minister and LDP President Sanae Takaichi, during a debate among political party heads Wednesday, called on Yoshihiko Noda, leader of the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, to join hands over the issue. Even if the LDP and the JIP submit the planned legislation to the Diet, the course of parliamentary debates could be rocky. Only some two weeks are left before the end of the current extraordinary Diet session. In addition, the post of chair of the Lower House’s political reform special committee, which is expected to handle the legislation, is held by the CDP, meaning that the ruling camp will likely be unable to lead the deliberations. The Lower House committee is also expected to debate a bill to review political donations by companies and other organizations. Discussions on the possible LDP-JIP bill regarding a Lower House seat reduction “should of course come after” the political donation-related legislation, a CDP lawmaker said. The LDP-led ruling bloc has recently regained more than half of the Lower House seats but still lacks a majority in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet. “We have no choice but to wait for the JIP to make a concession” over the issue of reducing Lower House seats, a senior LDP lawmaker said. However, the JIP has demanded an extension of the extraordinary Diet session. The JIP remains adamant, such as implicitly threatening to vote for an opposition-sponsored bill to strengthen regulations on political donations from companies and other organizations, a measure opposed by the LDP, if the party continues to drag its feet on the planned bill related to the Lower House seat reduction. “Unless the bill is enacted, we will leave the ruling coalition,” a JIP heavyweight said. “We will simply say goodbye (to the LDP).” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]