Photo/Illutration Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda has repeatedly made negative remarks about the planned Lower House seat redistribution. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A quarter-century has passed since the first Lower House election was held under the current electoral system, which combines single-seat constituencies and proportional representation.

It makes sense now for the ruling and opposition parties to start discussing and reviewing this system for the future.

But they must keep in mind that their foremost priority is to rectify disparity in the value of a vote by legally implementing the "add 10, take away 10" seat redistribution formula.

A meeting of six Diet Affairs Committee chairpersons of the ruling and opposition parties has agreed, in principle, on the establishment of a joint deliberative council on the Lower House election system.

But this has been delayed due to questions raised by the opposition parties against repeated negative remarks made about the add 10, take away 10 formula by Lower House Speaker Hiroyuki Hosoda, who belongs to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

The formula, based on the 2020 national census, seeks to keep the difference in the value of a vote to less than 2.0 by adding 10 Lower House seats for single-seat constituencies in Tokyo and the four prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, Chiba and Aichi.

It also removes one seat each from single-seat constituencies in the 10 prefectures of Miyagi, Fukushima, Niigata, Shiga, Wakayama, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Ehime and Nagasaki.

The government's electoral rezoning council will recommend the new redistribution plan to the prime minister in June.

But in the meantime, Hosoda told a meeting last week, "We need to stop and think about bullying the rural prefectures," noting to the effect that the formula amounted to giving preferential treatment to Tokyo at the expense of the other prefectures.

He was also quoted as saying in December, "We should be able to do better than just taking seats from the rural prefectures and giving them to urban areas."

As the head of the legislature, Hosoda cannot possibly be condoned for repeating such remarks as if in contempt of the law.

However, Hosoda is not the only problem.

In late February, a group of LDP lawmakers requested party Secretary-General Toshimitsu Motegi to initiate discussions regarding Lower House election reforms, including a review of the add 10, take away 10 formula. And out of about 260 LDP Lower House members, 155 reportedly supported the request.

The formula is based on what is called the "Adams method" for the reapportionment of seats in each prefecture in accordance with population fluctuations.

Proposed by lawmakers of the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, it was adopted under a 2016 legal revision. With the time nearing for the practical application of this formula, it is exceedingly irresponsible of the LDP now to try to scrap the very plan it pushed.

The equality of the value of each vote is a fundamental principle spelled out in the Constitution.

But we also understand the concern that the reduction in the number of Lower House representatives will make it harder for local voices to be heard.

Still, elections are fundamental to democracy, and any change in the electoral system must have the broad approval of the ruling as well as opposition parties. No conclusion can be reached in haste.

The way to go is to begin by implementing the add 10, take away 10 formula as promised, and then proceed to discussions of long-term issues by the joint deliberative council on the Lower House election system.

If radical revisions are sought, a review of the functions of the two chambers of the Diet will be unavoidable. In that case, discussions should be held jointly with the Upper House reform council.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 13

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