Cut of 45 Lower House Seats to Hit Smaller Parties Hard

Tokyo, June 28 (Jiji Press)–A cut of 45 House of Representatives proportional representation seats pushed by Japan’s ruling coalition will severely affect smaller opposition parties, an estimate by Jiji Press shows. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, have recently submitted to the Diet, Japan’s parliament, a bill on a reduction in seats allocated to the proportional representation format of the all-important lower chamber. Under the bill, the number of Lower House proportional representation seats would be cut by 45 automatically, from 176 to 131, if a ruling-opposition council to be set up under the Lower House speaker fails to reach a conclusion on electoral reform measures including a reduction in Lower House seats within a year. According to the Jiji Press estimate calculated for the 11 Lower House proportional representation blocs based on the preliminary 2025 national census data, the number of seats to be allotted would decrease by seven in the Kinki bloc of western Japan, the largest fall among the 11 blocs, followed by a drop of six seats each in the bloc covering the southern part of the Kanto eastern region and the Tokai central region. The number would drop by five each in the northern Kanto bloc and the Kyushu bloc of southwestern Japan, by four in the Tokyo bloc, by three each in the Tohoku bloc of northeastern Japan and the Hokuriku-Shinetsu bloc of central Japan, and by two each in the Hokkaido bloc of northern Japan, the Chugoku bloc of western Japan and the Shikoku bloc, also western Japan. In the Feb. 8 general election for the Lower House, the number of the LDP’s proportional representation candidates fell below that of seats allotted to the party by 14 as a result of its landslide win in the poll. The 14 seats were subsequently given to other parties. If proportional representation votes obtained by each party in the general election are reflected in the estimate with such circumstances being not taken into account, the number of proportional representation seats won would have fallen sharply at opposition parties, by 50 pct from 14 to seven at Sanseito, by 50 pct from four to two at the Japanese Communist Party, and by 33 pct from 18 to 12 at the Democratic Party for the People. Among other opposition parties, the number would have decreased by 27 pct from 11 to eight at Team Mirai and by 23 pct from 35 to 27 at the Centrist Reform Alliance. Of the two ruling parties, the LDP would have seen a drop of 21 pct from 81 to 64 while the JIP, which was the first to propose the cut of 45 proportional representation seats, would have posted a smallest drop of 15 pct, from 13 to 11. If seats obtained in single-seat constituencies are also included in the calculation, the LDP and the JIP would have suffered a drop of only 5 pct and 6 pct, respectively, because of the high proportions of constituency seats they won in the election. The size of drop would have been 19 pct at the CRA and 23 pct at the DPFP. Sanseito, the JCP and Team Mirai won no seats in constituencies. Debates on the LDP-JIP bill are slated to start Monday at a political reform special committee of the Lower House. The start of deliberations was forcibly decided by the ruling bloc despite strong objections from the opposition side, making the course of discussions uncertain. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]