Tokyo, Oct. 29 (Jiji Press)–The secretaries-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its Japan Innovation Party ally and the opposition Democratic Party for the People signed on Thursday an agreement on a reform of the House of Representatives election system, including a cut of 31 proportional representation seats. They confirmed that the three parties will accelerate discussions to jointly draw up a related bill and submit it to the current extraordinary session of the Diet, Japan’s parliament. The powerful lower chamber of the Diet, has a total of 465 seats–289 single-seat constituency seats and 176 proportional representation seats. “Discussions among (the three parties’) officials in charge of drafting the bill will start today,” former Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki of the LDP, who was also present at the day’s secretary-general meeting, told reporters. DPFP Secretary-General Kazuya Shinba said: “If we had not stepped in, proportional representation seats might have been reduced by 45 (as the ruling parties had sought). We were able to reach a good compromise.” On Wednesday, the DPFP and the JIP expressed their support for the LDP proposal at a meeting among working-level officials of ruling and opposition parties, including Suzuki. In addition to the seat cut, the LDP proposal calls for the adoption of a modified Sainte-Lague method for proportional representation seat allocation, which is more advantageous to small parties than the current format, the merger of the Chugoku and Shikoku proportional representation blocs in western Japan to reduce the total number of blocs from 11 to 10, and a hike in the share of votes required for candidates who fail to win a constituency seat to secure a proportional representation seat. The LDP also seeks to allow proportional representation seats to remain vacant when there is a lack of candidates and lower the threshold for the number of votes required for candidates not to lose their election deposits in such cases. The party also plans to introduce a system allowing two or more parties to compile a joint list of proportional representation candidates. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
