Japan Press Weekly

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2012 August 29 - September 4 [POLITICS]

Diet seat-cutting bill passed through Lower House amid opposition parties’ walkout

The Democratic Party of Japan on August 28 unilaterally passed a bill to cut the number of Diet seats through the House of Representatives plenary session, while opposition parties, including the Japanese Communist Party, walked out of the chamber in protest against a forced vote on the bill.

The bill in question will go to a vote in the House of Councilors but will unlikely be enacted because opposition forces are the majority there.

JCP representative Sasaki Kensho, at a Steering Committee meeting held prior to the Lower House plenary session, demanded that the DPJ stop attempting to take a forcible vote in the plenary session and agree to hold ruling-opposition party talks.

Sasaki stated, “The electoral system constitutes the foundation of parliamentary democracy. To unilaterally change this system means a collapse of democracy.”

He added, “No matter if the system is advantageous or disadvantageous for each of our parties, we should discuss how we can reform the system so that it will accurately reflect the will of the people,” and pressed the DPJ to go back to the basics of elections.

On the previous day, the DPJ and a DPJ-member chairman of the ad hoc committee on electoral reform held a committee meeting without a consensus from the opposition parties and approved the DPJ-submitted bill with the attendance of only DPJ lawmakers.