DPJ to submit legislation on cutting number of Diet seats
TOKYO —
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) plans to submit to the Diet two pieces of legislation to reduce the number of seats in the lower house chosen by proportional representation, as well as cut the number of single-seat constituencies.
The DPJ has signaled its intention to cut 80 proportional seats as part of a pledge in its 2009 election manifesto to implement political reform.
The DPJ also agreed to a plan, proposed by the opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), to cut five single-seat constituencies in the lower house in order to ensure more equal representation. At present, some sparsely populated rural electorates are better represented than urban areas.
Under the first piece of legislation, five prefectures would each lose one single seat—Fukui, Yamanashi, Tokushima, Kochi and Saga. The electoral boundaries would be redrawn in those prefectures.
The second piece of legislation would redraw the nation’s 11 zones for proportional representation, reducing the number of seats from 180 to 100. For example, the number of seats in the Tokyo region would be cut from 17 to 10, while the Kansai region would see its number cut from 29 to 16.
Meanwhile, NHK reported that opposition parties, except for the LDP, oppose the plan. They say the proposals are undemocratic and want the government to take into account the wishes of the smaller parties.
Japan Today
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Michael J. Morris
Good! It's about time we got rid of all these so called parties that consist of one or two members. I always have to laugh whenever there is some type of controversial bill or decision and NHK interviews the 10 or so party presidents, who have no members and hardly any supporters, like we really care what they think. One man, one vote and make them equal. Don't let farmers in bf inaka keep voting for the LDP and have a disproportionate amount of power.
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some14some
yes, govt should help these smaller parties like they help to "chushokigyo" (small-medium businesses)
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marcelito
Needs to be done....what happened to cutting the public servant s salaries bill that was supposed to accompany this...are the bureaucrats delaying it again?
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tkoind2
DJP and LDP weeding out the competition sounds like. Sure we need greater economy of leadership. But it must be done in a way that does not undermine what little representation there is out there.
From my point of view, it is not the number or representatives that qualifies as priority one. It is the nature of the political system that fills those seats with people who represent their parties and themselves and not the people.
So expect only greater concentration of inept power from this change.
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globalwatcher
Please do the same, Mr. Ishihara. There are too many municipal politicians in Tokyo. Cut it!
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Blair Herron
20% salary cut is seriously hard for the families of the public servant, especially for non-career (lower in rank). But, most of the public servants that I know are willing to accept that if the salary cut would save the economy. They are proud to serve the country. Gambare JCG!!!
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globalwatcher
@Blair, i love to read your uplifting spirit and willingness to take a hit. Gambare, Blair and Japan!!
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marcelito
They are proud to serve their country - wonderful , and here was me thinking they join for the unparallel job security , above average salary and perks...I was wrong -they do it out of patriotism by the sound of it. No doubt - nobody likes a salary cut - but its not 20 % ,the figure being thrown around by DPJ is 7% ...LDP is talking about 0.2% now and taking it to 7% one day in the fuzzy future. I know public servants who do jack all and have awesome salary way above private sector plus all the benefits. At the and of the day , PS salaries are comfortably above the country,s average ( around 7 million yen / year was the last published figure for average PS salary - naturally this is including the fat cats at the top ) and since the Jgovt wants to slug all , including the low icome households ( slaving away as P/T or hakken employees ) with a bunch of tax rises they should cut PS expenditure also.
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Blair Herron
Please do not misunderstand me. I'm not talking about public servants as a whole. I'm talking about Coast Guard officers as my husband is one of them. They are obedient to any kind of orders; from jumping into the cold water to salary cut. METI and Finance Ministry (which have a large amount of budget) are the ones wasting taxpayers' money as I see lots of them coming back home by taxi (taxi ticket=12,000yen from Kasumigaseki to suburbs) almost every night when they missed the last train.
Moderator
Back on topic please.
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Blair Herron
Hai. Gomennasai m(_ _)m
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