Japan Lower House Passes Constituency Reduction Bill

Tokyo, April 23 (Jiji Press)--Japan's House of Representatives voted Tuesday for a bill designed to reduce wide vote-value disparities between Lower House electoral districts. At its plenary session, the lower chamber of the Diet passed the bill to amend the public offices election law to the House of Councillors with a majority support mainly from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, New Komeito. The leading opposition Democratic Party of Japan voted against the bill, which calls for eliminating five of the 300 single-seat Lower House constituencies and rezoning some other districts. Meanwhile, another major opposition Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party) abstained from voting. The Upper House is expected to start deliberations on the bill soon after the Golden Week holiday period ends in early May. If the opposition-controlled upper chamber votes down the legislation, the all-important Lower House would override the outcome in a second vote with a two-thirds majority to enact it under Article 59 of the Japanese constitution, which stipulates the superiority of the Lower House. The law also allows the Lower House to enact the bill in a second vote in case that the Upper House fails to make a final action on the bill within 60 days after the Lower House's initial passage. Due to the constitutional rules, the bill will certainly become law by the end of the current Diet session on June 26. Complaining about the ruling coalition's handing of the Diet business, the DPJ boycotted Friday's special Lower House committee meeting held to approve the bill, which the party said cannot alone rectify the unconstitutionally wide vote weight gaps between densely and sparsely populated constituencies without full-fledged electoral system reforms. But the party decided to join the plenary session in order to clearly show its stance against the bill in the vote, DPJ Diet affairs chief Yoshiaki Takagi said. END