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On June 18, the DPJ submitted legislation to partially amend the Public Offices Election Law and the Act for Establishment of the Council on the House of Representatives Electoral District. The legislation proposes to correct the disparity in the value of one vote, and to reduce the number of Diet members. The main points of the legislation discussed were as follows:
1. Correction of disparity in the value of one
1) Abolishing the current seat distribution system in which there is one seat for each of the 47 prefectures, with the remaining seats distributed among the 253 districts according to their population.
2) On the basis of the results of the census in 2010, implementing a "0 more, 5 less" plan into a draft revision to amend the single-seat constituency system.
2. Reduction in the number of Diet members and implementation of special measures to balance public opinion
1) Eliminating 45 seats of the House of Representatives (eliminating 40 of the proportional representation seats and 5 of the single-seat constituency seats on the basis of the “0 more, 5 less” plan)
2) Switching from the current bloc-based proportional representation system (11 electoral districts) to a nationally unified system.
3) Implementing a procedure such as mixed-member proportional representation (105 out of 140 members will be elected with the “d’Hondt formula” and 35 members will be decided by a procedure such as mixed-member proportional representation.)
3. Discussion on the electoral system reform
In regards to the fundamental reform of the electoral system of the House of Representatives, the DPJ aims to eliminate 80 seats out of a total of 480 seats in the Lower House with consideration to the situation of the electoral system reform of the Upper House. This agenda will be discussed within a year after the next general election at a deliberative council on the electoral system.
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