Photo/Illutration Sanae Takaichi, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, holds a coalition agreement document with Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), on Oct. 20. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The ruling coalition parties are dropping their highly criticized plan to reduce the number of Lower House seats through a bill passed during the current Diet session, officials of both parties said.

Opposition parties have blasted the plan as hasty and poorly planned.

The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party), submitted a seat-reduction bill to the Lower House on Dec. 5.

But they feel they cannot gain sufficient support during the current extraordinary Diet session to pass the legislation, the officials said.

Senior officials from the LDP and Nippon Ishin are expected to meet soon to confirm a future course of the bill, the sources said. They will likely agree to submit the bill during the regular Diet session next year.

Parts of the bill could be revised to win over opposition lawmakers, particularly in the Upper House, where the coalition lacks a majority.

The current bill left the specifics of the seat reduction plan to discussions between the ruling and opposition parties.

However, it stipulated that if no agreement is reached within a year, 20 seats in proportional-representation blocs and 25 representing single-seat constituencies would be automatically cut.

Opposition parties rejected the automatic reduction stipulation, and talks never began.

When they were forming the coalition, the LDP and Nippon Ishin agreed to submit and pass a bill during the extraordinary Diet session to cut up to 10 percent of the Lower House’s 465 seats.

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