Japan Ruling Camp Submits Bill to Reduce Lower House Seats by 10 Pct

Tokyo, Dec. 5 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, also known as Nippon Ishin no Kai, submitted Friday a bill to cut the number of seats in the House of Representatives by about 10 pct. The bill stipulates that at least 45 seats will be slashed from the current total of 465. If the ruling bloc and opposition parties fail to reach a conclusion on the issue within the next year, the 289 single-seat constituencies and 176 proportional representation seats will be automatically cut to 264 and 156, respectively, according to the bill. Although the ruling parties hope that the bill will be enacted during the ongoing extraordinary Diet session, which will end on Dec. 17, they have been faced strong pushback from opposition parties. The bill calls for the current number of Lower House seats to be reduced to a figure not exceeding 420, with the goal of achieving a 10 pct reduction. Discussions on concrete methods for the proposed reduction will be left to a panel of lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties. The panel will be required to reach a conclusion on the matter within one year of the legislation taking effect. Once a reduction in the number of single-seat constituencies is decided, the government’s council on the Lower House electoral map will make recommendations within one year. A new electoral map will likely be drawn up as early as fiscal 2027. The seat reduction bill will first be discussed at the Lower House special committee on political reform. However, the committee is currently handling three bills to revise rules on political donations from companies and organizations, and opposition parties are demanding that the committee prioritize proceedings on the bills. Katsunobu Kato, head of the LDP’s political system reform headquarters, told reporters on Friday that he will make efforts to gain understanding from opposition parties. “We want our bill to be fully discussed and passed,” said Yasuto Urano, acting chief of the JIP’s election strategy committee. The coalition agreement between the LDP and the JIP, reached in October, calls for submitting a seat reduction bill during the ongoing Diet session. Some in the LDP opposed the bill, but the party’s leadership prioritized cooperation with the JIP, given that the JIP had suggested that it might withdraw from the coalition. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]