Overview
- The ruling partners submitted the bill on Dec. 5 to reduce the Lower House by at least 45 seats by the end of next year, aiming for roughly a 10% cut from the current 465 members.
- The plan establishes a bipartisan parliamentary group this year to draft detailed legislation during the regular Diet session that begins in late January.
- If cross-party talks do not yield a deal within a year, the bill stipulates an automatic reduction of 25 single-seat constituency seats and 20 proportional representation seats.
- Negotiations were contentious, with the Japan Innovation Party at one point threatening to leave the ruling bloc, and some Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers criticizing the approach as hasty.
- LDP heavyweight Katsunobu Kato defended the focus on seat counts as fundamental to democracy, as the coalition also signals a separate debate with opposition parties on broader electoral-system revisions.