DPP approves LDP plan to cut Lower House proportional representation seats

The opposition Democratic Party for the People (DPP) on Wednesday approved the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s revised proposal that includes a cut of 31 proportional representation seats in the House of Representatives.

The DPP had drawn up its own plan to cut 19 proportional representation seats in the all-important lower chamber of parliament, but accepted the LDP proposal because it includes the introduction of a system based on the opposition party’s proposal that would allow two or more parties to compile a joint list of proportional representation candidates.

The Japan Innovation Party, the LDP’s coalition partner, which had demanded a cut of 45 proportional representation seats, held a meeting of executives the same day and decided to accept the LDP proposal.

“Most of our opinions, except the number of seats (to be cut), were adopted (into the LDP proposal),” DPP acting leader Motohisa Furukawa told a news conference, referring to the unified candidate list system.

Later on Wednesday, working-level officials from nine ruling and opposition parties held a meeting on election system reform for the Lower House, expressing their approval or disapproval of the revised LDP proposal.

The Lower House currently has a total of 465 seats — 289 single-seat constituency seats and 176 proportional representation seats.

In addition to the cut of 31 seats and the introduction of the joint candidate list system, the LDP proposal calls for the adoption of a modified Sainte-Lague method for proportional representation seat allocation, which is more advantageous to small parties than the current format; the merger of the Chugoku and Shikoku proportional representation blocs in western Japan to reduce the total number of blocs from 11 to 10; and a hike in the share of votes gained for candidates who fail to win a constituency seat to secure a proportional representation seat.

The party also called for allowing proportional representation seats to remain vacant when there is a lack of candidates, and lowering the threshold for votes gained for forfeiting election deposits in such cases.

Furthermore, the LDP proposed a study on the handling of political subsidies when a lawmaker elected from a political party under the proportional representation system moves to another party.