Japan Press Weekly

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2012 June 13 - 19 [POLITICS]

DPJ unilaterally submits bill to cut Lower House seats

The Democratic Party of Japan on June 18 submitted to the Diet a bill to cut Diet seats by 80 while it failed to receive other parties’ support for the proposal.

At a secretaries general’s meeting on a Lower House election system reform, held prior to the DPJ’s submission of the bill, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi argued that an election system must ensure a fair reflection of public will and the equal right to vote.

As the parties representatives’ recent discussions have revealed, all parties except the DPJ share the view that the current electoral system needs to be drastically revised since it distorts the public will.

The election system should be changed to one centering on the proportional-representation system, which properly reflects voters’ will, Ichida stressed.