House of Councillors

House of Councillors 参議院 Sangiin
Type
Type	Upper house
Leadership
Speaker	Kenji Hirata, DPJ since 14 November 2011
Opposition Leader	Hirofumi Nakasone, LDP since 30 July 2010
Structure
Members	242
Political groups	DPJ/Shinryokufūkai (106)   LDP (83)   Kōmeitō (19)   YP (11)   JPC (6)   SPJ/NRP (5)   SDP (4)   PNP (3)   Independents (5)
Elections
Last election	11 July 2010
Meeting place
National Diet Building, Tokyo
Website
www.sangiin.go.jp

Japan

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Japan

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The House of Councillors (参議院, Sangiin) is the upper house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or designation of the prime minister, the House of Representatives can insist on its decision. In all other decisions, the House of Representatives can override a vote of the House of Councillors only by a two-thirds majority of members present.

The House of Councillors has 242 members who each serve six-year terms, two years longer than those of the House of Representatives. Councillors must be at least 30 years old, compared with 25 years old in the House of Representatives. The House cannot be dissolved, as only half of its membership is elected at each election. Of the 121 members subject to election each time, 73 are elected from the 47 prefectural districts (by single non-transferable vote) and 48 are elected from a nationwide list by proportional representation with open lists. Up to the 1998 election, there were 252 members, 126 elected at a time: 76 from prefectural districts and 50 elected nationwide. At the 2001 elections these numbers were reduced and the total number was 247 (126 elected in 1998 and 121 elected in 2001) and the open list preference vote was introduced.

See List of members of the Diet of Japan for the list of current members of the House of Councillors.

Current composition

(as of January 19, 2011)

Parliamentary group		Councillors
		mandate expires		total
		2013	2016
	Democratic Party of Japan – Shinryokufūkai	62	44	106
	Liberal Democratic Party – Sunrise Party of Japan – "Assembly of Independents"	35	51	86
	Kōmeitō	10	9	19
	Your Party	1	10	11
	Japanese Communist Party	3	3	6
	Social Democratic Party – "Alliance to protect the constitution" (goken rengō)	2	2	4
	People's New Party	3	1	4
	New Renaissance Party	1	1	2
	Independents includes President (Democrat) and Vice President (Liberal Democrat), one OSMP member	4	0	4
total		121	121	242

Latest election

 Summary of the 11 July 2010 Japanese House of Councillors election results

Alliances and parties		Prefectural constituency vote				National PR vote				Elected in 2010	Seats not up	Total seats	+/−
		Votes	%	Seats	+/−	Votes	%	Seats	+/−
	Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Minshutō – 民主党	22,756,000.342	38.97%	28	8	18,450,139.059	31.56%	16	2	44	62	106	10
	People's New Party (PNP) Kokuminshintō – 国民新党	167,555.000	0.29%	0	2	1,000,036.492	1.71%	0	1	0	3	3	3
	New Party Nippon (NPN) Shintō Nippon – 新党日本	no candidate								0	1	1	0
	DPJ–PNP Coalition	22,923,555.342	39.25%	28	10	19,450,175.551	33.27%	16	3	44	66	110	13
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Jimintō – 自民党	19,496,083.000	33.38%	39	14	14,071,671.422	24.07%	12	1	51	33	84	13
	New Komeito Party (NKP) Kōmeitō – 公明党	2,265,818.000	3.88%	3	0	7,639,432.739	13.07%	6	2	9	10	19	2
	New Renaissance Party (NRP) Shintō Kaikaku – 新党改革	625,431.000	1.07%	0	3	1,172,395.190	2.01%	1	1	1	1	2	4
	former LDP–NKP—NRP Coalition	22,387,332.000	38.33%	42	11	22,883,529.351	39.15%	19	4	61	44	105	7
	Your Party (YP) Minna no Tō – みんなの党	5,977,391.485	10.24%	3	3	7,943,649.369	13.59%	7	7	10	1	11	10
	Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Kyōsantō – 共産党	4,256,400.000	7.29%	0	0	3,563,556.590	6.10%	3	1	3	3	6	1
	Social Democratic Party (SDP) Shamintō – 社民党	602,684.000	1.03%	0	0	2,242,735.155	3.84%	2	0	2	2	4	0
	Sunrise Party of Japan (SPJ) Tachini – たち日	328,475.000	0.56%	0	1	1,232,207.336	2.11%	1	1	1	2	3	0
	Happiness Realization Party (HRP) Kōfuku – 幸福	291,810.000	0.50%	0	0	229,026.162	0.39%	0	0	0	1	1	0
	Independents	1,314,313.027	2.25%	0	2	—				0	2	2	2
	Other parties	318,847.000	0.55%	0	0	908,582.924	1.55%	0	0	0	0	0	0
Total (turnout 57.92%)		58,400,807.899	100.0%	73	1	58,453,432.438	100.0%	48	0	121	121	242	1

See also

• List of Speakers of the House of Councillors of Japan

References

• Hayes, L. D., 2009. Introduction to Japanese Politics. 5th ed. New York: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-76-562279-2

External links

• House of Councillors Website (in English)
• House of Councillors internet TV - Official site (in Japanese)