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Secretary General Goshi Hosono held a press conference at party headquarters in the evening of March 25. He announced that in a meeting held on March 19, the DPJ Standing Officers Council had decided to support former House of Representatives member Hideo Hiraoka in the by-election for the House of Councillors in Yamaguchi (campaign due to begin on April 11, with the election taking place on April 28). Mr. Hiraoka will be standing as an independent candidate. The decision was subsequently confirmed on the same day in an executive meeting. It was also confirmed by the executive meeting that a campaign headquarters for the Yamaguchi by-election would be established, with DPJ President Banri Kaieda acting as chair of headquarters, Hosono acting as secretary general and Chair of the Election Campaign Committee Toshiyuki Kato serving as deputy secretary general. Hosono announced the party’s concerted support for Mr. Hiraoka, stating that “We aim to get started with the campaign while deciding on the appointment of other executive positions. By the end of the week we intend to hold a meeting of Diet members of both houses to confirm our resolve for the election, and Mr. Hiraoka is scheduled to travel to Tokyo for this meeting.”
In view of the fact that the disparity in the value of one vote in the House of Representatives election in December 2012 stood at a maximum ratio of 2.43, a group of lawyers had launched a lawsuit seeking to have the election declared invalid. On March 25, the Hiroshima High Court issued a ruling declaring the election results in Hiroshima No. 1 and No. 2 districts to be invalid. When asked by a reporter for the party’s reaction to this ruling, Hosono replied “I have just seen the report on the ruling and it is something that we feel keenly and must take on board.” Hosono also pointed out that “This is the first ruling to declare the election results invalid and is limited to Hiroshima No. 1 and No. 2 districts. However, it represents an extremely severe judgment on the legitimacy of government administration, given that it has repercussions for all House of Representatives members and the parliamentary system overall.” He went on to state that “It is necessary for all Diet members and all political parties to consider this ruling with the utmost seriousness. An urgent and necessary response is to move to eliminate this situation. The bill to reduce the number of seats in both houses of the Diet was passed directly prior to the election, but since then the high courts of both Sapporo and Fukuoka have issued rulings that the bill in its current form would fail to eliminate the existing state of unconstitutionality. In light of these various rulings by the judicial branch of government, including the recent ruling by the Hiroshima High Court, it must be said that the legislative branch of government has until now neglected to take the various measures required.” Hosono expressed his recognition that the time has now come for all parties to engage in open discussion to extricate the parliamentary system from the current morass as soon as possible, stating that “Each party may have various excuses, but the time has come to speak frankly. The DPJ has to date maintained its own concept for electoral reform, but we are ready and willing to engage in serious considerations on how we can reach an agreement, without sticking doggedly to our existing party line.”
Hosono also stated “The smoothest method for correcting the disparity in the value of one vote is to alter the number of Diet seats. As it is unlikely that any party would seek to increase the number of Diet seats, the quickest way to resolve the matter would be to reduce the number of seats. It is the will of the people of Japan that the current disparity be corrected and that the means to achieve this is to reduce the number of Diet seats. It is therefore imperative that we engage in resolute efforts to achieve such a reduction.”
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