Multi-seat District System Is Discussed

As reduction of seats in the House of Representatives did not achieve broad support, the parties discuss introduction of multi-seat district in the election of the house. A committee in the house on election reform discussed how the parties would be willing to the multi-seat district in the extraordinary session of the Diet. It was obvious that small parties were supportive for the system, while big parties would oppose to it.

Post war democracy in Japan was based on multi-seat district system in the Lower House. Each district, allocated to every prefecture according to its population, had multiple seats in the election. For instance, 1st district of Hokkaido, which was located to Sapporo and its suburb, had 6 seats. The voters wrote one name among the candidates on the ballot. In the last election of multi-seat district system in 1993, the Liberal Democratic Party and Japan Socialist Party took two seats each in the district, Japan New Party and Komeito respectively won one seat.

 

Current single-seat district system was introduced in the election of 1996. The lawmakers hoped to build bipartisan system in Japan, in which the opposition party can always have chance to form alternative administration, modeling on the parliamentary system of the United Kingdom in which the Conservatives and the Labors were facing each other with political tension. To compensate small parties that would lose competence in single-seat system, proportional district was simultaneously introduced.

 

Another reason of introducing single-seat district was eliminating negative impact of faction politics. In the multi-seat system, one party could win multiple seats. When one faction in the LDP fielded a candidate in a district, another faction also sent another candidate to the same district to enhance its political power in the party. The multi-seat districts always became battlefields of LDP factions.

 

Regardless that negative aspect of the system, some parties, mainly the small parties, advocate replacing current single-seat districts to multi-seat ones. The Democratic Party for the People proposed introduction of multi-seat districts with multiple choices of candidates in a ballot. Japan Innovation Party (JIP) also supports the idea.

 

It is natural for small parties to hope to change election system into multi-seat district. While it is not easy for a party without approval rate of 50 percent or more to win a seat in a single-seat district, it can win one of some seats in multi-seat district. In a district with six seats, a party that does not have a great approval rate can win one of the six seats.

 

The LDP is basically against multi-seat district system, because it is likely to reduce current share of the seats in the House. Toyama prefecture, for example, currently has three single-seat districts and the LDP occupies all those three seats. If multi-seat system is introduced, the LDP is likely to lose one of those three seats. So, the LDP is not very serious for the discussion.

 

For the LDP, discussion of multi-seat system is an alternative issue to the argument of seat reduction which JIP insists. However, the LDP may pretend to be willing to consider the multi-seat system. Election reform is a tool for lawmakers to demonstrate their work for a better representation of voters.

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