Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling pair and an opposition party have compiled a draft bill to reform the House of Representatives election system featuring a plan to shed 31 proportional representation seats. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its Japan Innovation Party ally and the opposition Democratic Party for the People plan to submit the bill to the lower chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, within this week after their respective internal procedures. They aim to enact the legislation during the current extraordinary Diet session, which is scheduled to run until Dec. 12. Under the draft bill, drawn up by the parties’ working-level officials Monday, the number of seats allocated to the Hokkaido, Tohoku and Hokuriku-Shinetsu regional proportional representation blocs will be cut by two each to six, 10 and eight. The number will be cut by three to 16 each for the northern Kanto and Tokyo blocs, and that for the Kyushu bloc will be 17, down also by three. Seats for the southern Kanto and Tokai blocs will decrease by four each to 19 and 17. The Kinki bloc will see its number drop by five to 23. The Chugoku and Shikoku blocs will be integrated, with the new bloc to be given 13 seats, down by three from the combined 16 for the current two blocs. The draft bill basically follows the agreement struck by the secretaries-general of the LDP, the JIP and the DPFP on Oct. 29. The all-important lower chamber has a total of 465 seats–289 single-seat constituency seats and 176 proportional representation seats. For proportional representation seat allocation, the draft calls for introducing a modified Sainte-Lague method, which is said to be advantageous to smaller parties, in place of the current D’hondt method. The minimum share of valid votes that losing constituency candidates must collect to be eligible for a proportional representation seat will be raised from one-10th to one-sixth. The draft calls for keeping proportional representation seats vacant when there is a lack of candidates, in a review of the current system under which such seats are given to other parties. The calculation method for refunds of election deposits will also be reviewed. The refunds will be increased from the amount equivalent to two times the sum of 6 million yen multiplied by the number of proportional representation seat winners to 2.5 times, reflecting a view that the current format causes political parties to curb their numbers of proportional representation candidates. Meanwhile, the LDP, the JIP and the DPFP agreed to continue talks on whether to introduce a system allowing multiple parties to create a unified list of proportional representation candidates. The ruling and opposition camps have affirmed that a full-scale reform of the Lower House election system will be discussed by a panel of academic experts under the head of the chamber. The LDP-JIP-DPFP draft bill says that the series of reform measures in the legislation will be in place until the advisory panel reaches a conclusion on the envisaged fundamental overhaul. A council mainly comprising academic experts for discussions on the demarcation of Lower House single-seat constituencies is slated to draw up by May 29, 2027, a rezoning plan based on the results of the 2025 national census. The three parties’ draft stipulates that their Lower House election system reform legislation, if enacted, would take effect on the same date as that for a constituency-rezoning bill that the government would submit to the Diet based on a conclusion from the demarcation council. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
