Ruling Party Leaders Agree to Aim to Pass Lower House Seat Cut Bill

Tokyo, March 17 (Jiji Press)–The leaders of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its ally, the Japan Innovation Party, agreed Tuesday to aim to pass a bill to reduce the number of seats in the House of Representatives by 10 pct during the ongoing Diet session. At their meeting on the day, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, also president of the LDP, and JIP leader Hirofumi Yoshimura also agreed to enact bills during the session to establish a secondary capital for Japan and to criminalize the act of damaging the Japanese flag. Regarding the envisioned cut in the number of Lower House seats, the ruling parties submitted a bill during last year’s extraordinary Diet session to automatically reduce 25 constituency seats and 20 proportional representation seats if the ruling and opposition camps failed to reach a consensus on the matter within a year. However, this bill was scrapped when the Lower House was dissolved in January for a general election. After the election, the JIP proposed reducing only proportional representation seats, but many in the LDP are cautious. At a press conference after Tuesday’s meeting with Takaichi, Yoshimura said that they agreed again to submit a bill to reduce 45 Lower House seats. “The LDP also included a seat reduction in its campaign platform,” Yoshimura pointed out. Takaichi and Yoshimura also agreed to make efforts for the early passage of a bill to expand the use of maiden names. “We confirmed our aim of enacting it during the current session as much as possible, but this may be difficult,” Yoshimura said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]