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On the afternoon of May 15, the Democratic Party of Japan held a plenary meeting of the Party Political Reform Promotion Headquarters (Chief, DPJ Acting Secretary General Shinji Tarutoko) at the Diet building. At the meeting, Tarutoko explained the following matters: (1) The process for the 16 Consultative Meetings that have been held with each party (Chaired by Tarutoko) on the election system of the House of Representatives; (2) The content of the Chair’s personal proposal made at the 16th Meeting held on April 25; and (3) the vision of each party that participated into the Meetings. Following his presentation, Tarutoko responded to the opinions and questions raised by the around 70 members of Parliament in attendance.
At the start of the plenary meeting, Tarutoko explained that, “Although we have had to cut meetings short twice since last autumn; nevertheless, we have been conducting Consultative Meetings with each party. To a certain extent, we reached the limits of discussion before the Golden Week holiday period.” Tarutoko remarked that although it was decided at a Secretary General and Secretariat Chief Meeting that the mission of the Consultative Meetings would be to reach a conclusion on the issues of disparity in the value of one vote, a reduction in the number of Diet members, and fundamental reform, since opinions such as “put the priority on the discussion of the ‘no increase, 5 seats less plan’ at the Consultative Meetings,” and “demand the withdrawal of the proposal to reduce the number of Diet members by 80 seats” were made, Tarutoko came to feel that he “was being asked to make decisions that were beyond my capacity.” He continued, “We are currently planning to ask for a higher level decision, from a Secretary General and Secretariat Chief Meeting.” Tarutoko stressed to the participating MPs, “I would like to bring a conclusion rapidly, so that your opinions are appreciated.”
Participating MPs raised opinions and questions such as: “the proposal made by Chair Tarutoko is hard to understand”; “how many seats are we going to win if we introduce the Chair’s personal proposal?”; “we should indicate the will of our party clearly and submit legislation regarding a reduction of the number of seats in the House of Representative by 80 seats”; “we should discuss more about a multiple-seat constituency system”; “we should not go back to the multiple-seat constituency system”; “how does this relate to the House of Councillors’ election system?”; and “what would be the impact of abolishing voting blocks and conducting a national proportion system?”
The discussion lasted for about an hour, and it was approved with applause that the direction of the future discussion among parties will be given over to Secretary General and Acting Secretary General. Tarutoko said, “We hope to come to a certain conclusion that will be praised by you all.” He ended the meeting with the promise to make every effort to consult the group again based on the Chair’s personal proposal.
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