Reduction of Members of Parliament	No.637 June 16, 2009
		Noisy voices of ‘financial difficulty’ and ‘economic crisis’ have lately turned to a violent agendum to reduce the number of Diet members. Both of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the opposition, Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), are rushing in elaborating the plan at the risk of diminishing democracy little by little. The issue is important as it relates to Constitution and affects on the supposed higher consumption tax rate. Do Not Let Democracy be Traded! The LDP and the DPJ are willing to decrease seats in the parliament. Claim to Abolish Upper House May 25, the LDP’s reform office entered on the project: the party discussed agenda not only to reduce the number of proportional representation seats for the House of Representatives but also to remove the House of Councilors. The LDP was overwhelmed and motivated by an atmosphere, in which they claimed ‘without accepting own sacrifices, the consumption tax issue would not be rached’. Acting Chief Secretary of the party, Ishihara Nobuteru, told emphatically in the subsequent press meeting that in ten years the constitution might be revised and that the two-chamber system should be converged to a unicameral one. Then on May 27, the same LDP office decided to study the idea in its Election System Commission, which suggested a single chamber of 500 members (currently 480 for the Lower House and 242 for the Upper House) as well as a gradual reduction of the Diet seats as an initial step. The party is to combine the Diet seat issue with the policy of administrative reorganization in which the existing 50 prefectures will be rearranged to fewer, bigger provinces. DPJ Has More Concrete Steps As for a shrinkage of Diet members, the opposition DPJ has advanced farther than the ruling LDP. When the government party moved forward, the opposition responded very quickly. The DPJ, which proposed in the manifesto for the general elections in 2003 to reduce by 80 the number of proportional representations in the Lower House (now 180 seats), takes the same step for the general election to come in this summer. Their suggestion was already presented to the Diet in 2004 in the bill to amend the Public Election Act. Chief Secretary Okada Katsuya of DPJ told boldly May 25 that it was necessary to reduce the members in the Upper House, too. The party analyzed the issue June 3 in their Manifesto Committee and the meeting of Upper House members. Though any clear specification is made in the election manifesto due to strong objection among the members, the agendum remains as a general topic. Though the DPJ did not indicate when it would shrink the Lower House by eighty seats, President Hatoyama Yukio stated on June 5 that his party would definitely implement the policy in the succeeding elections after it wins a government. While the LDP is more coward in carrying out the unicameral policy, the opposition takes seemingly a tougher attitude. Unite Solidly to Defend Constitution! According to a simulation made by the Asahi Shinbun newspaper based on the DPJ’s proposal of (100 proportional representation seats), the estimated seats to be distributed are: (in the parentheses the seats won in the 03 general elections) Japanese Communist Party 4 (9) Social-Democratic Party 1 (5) New Komeito 12 (25) Liberal Democratic Party 43 (69) Democratic Party 40 (72) New Komieto is viewed to diminish to a half. A harsh blow will be given to the constitution defenders. The ruling LDP is hesitant, because the coalition partner, New Komeito, is reluctant to reduce the number of proportional representation seats, while the DPJ does not pay slight attention to the Social-Democratic Party. What will happen to Constitution and democracy, if both of the ruling and opposition parties get involved in rivalry? The smaller number of lawmakers will surely bring more evils and sacrifices to people in general. The government could say that politicians have paid the costs to rehabilitate the state’s finance. Then, it could surge the consumption tax rate and dismiss many public workers in compliance with the new administrative division policy. The government would gain an easier tool to rewrite the constitution in the single chamber of parliament. The coalition LDP-New Komeito government spends an unprecedented sum of money to cope with the on-going serious depression, producing greater deficits, by which democracy will plunge into a disaster. The economic depression and financial crisis must be managed by a taxation to have Big Business pay more. The payment must not be made by the higher rate of consumption tax. Democracy must not be endangered. Controversies on political money, including the government subsidies to political parties, remain unsolved. Let’s get united to defend Constitution with Communist Party and with Social-Democratic Party. Let’s reject the plan to reduce lawmakers in the parliament.