Japan’s Ruling Bloc Submits Bill to Shrink Lower House, Drawing the Ire of the Opposition

The Yomiuri Shimbun

15:44 JST, December 6, 2025

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, submitted a bill to reduce the number of House of Representatives seats on Friday. The core provision of the bill would cut at least 45 seats, or about 10% of the current total of 465 seats.

Specifics on how the cut will be made are to be negotiated between the ruling and opposition parties. If no conclusion is reached in a year, the bill says that a total of 45 seats will automatically be cut in the constituency and proportional representation segments.

The LDP and JIP intend to pass the bill during the current Diet session, which ends on Dec. 17, but opposition parties are strongly opposed.

The bill says the goal is a 10% reduction in the current number of seats, so that the total does not exceed 420 seats. Specifics such as how many seats are to be cut in each segment are to be discussed in a ruling-opposition consultative body.

The ruling parties want more than to merely discuss seat reduction; they hope to link this to reform of the current electoral system that combines single-seat constituencies with proportional representation.

The bill also includes a provision saying that if the ruling and opposition parties do not agree on concrete ways to reduce seats within a year, 25 seats will automatically be cut in single-seat constituencies and 20 in the proportional representation segment.

In that case, a government council on redistricting constituencies for lower house elections will begin drafting a revised electoral district plan and submit a recommendation to the government within a year.

On the other hand, if ruling and opposition parties reach a decision, legislation will be passed that incorporates the seat cut and the methods for the cut that are agreed on. And if constituencies need to be redrawn, the council will discuss this.

Considering the time that parties will need to come to an agreement and that the council will need to make its recommendation, it is expected to take more than two years to actually reduce the number of seats.

After submitting the bill on Friday, Katsunobu Kato, chairperson of the LDP’s political system reform headquarters, told reporters, “The number of seats and the electoral system have a fundamental relation to our democracy. We hope the law will be enacted through broad discussion.”

Yasuto Urano, acting chairperson of the JIP’s election strategy committee, said, “We want to thoroughly deliberate on the bill in this Diet session and get it passed.”

At a press conference also on Friday, Yoshihiko Noda, president of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, agreed in principle with reducing the number of seats, but criticized the ruling coalition’s approach. “It’s not good to have the ruling bloc deciding on everything itself, including about the period [for making a decision] and the number of seats to be reduced,” he said. “We strongly object.”