Japan Press Weekly

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2014 June 11 - 17 [POLITICS]

JCP Kokuta opposes ‘third-party organ’ to maintain single-seat constituency system

At the last minute of the current Diet session, the ruling and opposition parties other than the Japanese Communist and Social Democratic parties are trying to set up a “third-party organization” under the Speaker of the Lower House with an eye to reducing the number of representatives. Concerning this move, JCP member of the House of Representatives Kokuta Keiji told Akahata in an interview as follows:

The results of the past six general elections clearly show that the current election system of single-seat constituencies and proportional representation fails to reflect the will of the voters.

In order to reform the Lower House election system, all political parties have had working-level consultations 29 times since October 2011. In June 2013, representatives of all parties agreed to “evaluate and examine” the present system “from a broad point of view”, based on the common awareness that it seriously distorts the voters’ will.

This year, however, five political parties, including the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan, proposed to bring the working-level talks to an end and establish a third-party organ to “examine” the existing system. In Lower House Management Committee meetings, they are trying to forcibly impose its establishment in spite of opposition from the JCP and the SDP.

An electoral system is the basis of democracy as well as a matter of citizens’ right to vote. The electoral reform issue should be discussed among all political parties.

The five parties claim that it is necessary to set up the organ and have it consider the reduction in the number of Lower House seats without changing the current election system. Their claim goes against the consensus of all political groups to “evaluate and examine” the system itself.

To cut the number of parliamentary seats has scarcely been discussed in the working-level negotiations. The seats reduction will lead to abandoning the people’s will as well as impairing the Diet’s function to monitor the government. In terms of the ratio of representatives to the total population, the number of Japan’s Lower House seats is only one-third to a half of that of European nations.

The important thing is to do away with the single-seat constituency system and reform the current system so that it will more accurately reflect the various opinions of the general public.

Past related articles:
> Single-seat constituency system & party subsidies provoke public criticism [January 27, 2013]
> Drastically change election system to reflect voters’ will [December 19, 2012]