House of Councillors
Coordinates: 35°40′35.5″N 139°44′40.5″E / 35.676528°N 139.744583°E
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| House of Councillors 参議院 Sangiin |
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|---|---|
| Type | |
| Type | Upper house |
| Leadership | |
| President | Kenji Hirata, DPJ Since 14 November 2011 |
| Vice President | Masaaki Yamazaki, LDP Since 26 December 2012 |
| DPJ parliamentary group chairman (Opposition leader) | Azuma Koshiishi, DPJ Since 2006 |
| LDP parliamentary group chairman (Government leader) | Hirofumi Nakasone, LDP Since 2010 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 242 |
| Political groups |
DPJ/Shinryokufūkai (106)
LDP (83)
Kōmeitō (19)
YP (11)
JPC (6)
SDP (4)
PNP (3)
Independents (5)
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| Elections | |
| Voting system | Parallel voting: Single non-transferable vote (146 seats) Party-list proportional representation (96 seats) Staggered elections |
| Last election | July 11, 2010 |
| Meeting place | |
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| National Diet Building, Tokyo | |
| Website | |
| www.sangiin.go.jp | |
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| This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Japan |
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Constitution
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Judiciary
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Prefectures
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Elections
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Foreign relations
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The House of Councillors (参議院 Sangiin) is the upper house of the National 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. [1] 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.
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Current composition [edit]
(as of May 24, 2013)[2]
| Parliamentary group | Councillors | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mandate expires | total | |||
| 2013 | 2016 | |||
| The Democratic Party and The Shin-Ryokufukai (Minshutō・Shin-Ryokufūkai) | 43 | 42 | 85 | |
| Liberal Democratic Party (Jiyūminshutō) | 34 | 49 | 83 | |
| New Komeito (Kōmeitō) | 10 | 9 | 19 | |
| Your Party (Minna no Tō) | 3 | 10 | 13 | |
| People's Life Party (Seikatsu no Tō) | 6 | 2 | 8 | |
| Japanese Communist Party (Nihon Kyōsantō) | 3 | 3 | 6 | |
| Green Wind (Midori no Kaze) | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| Social Democratic Party (Shakaiminshutō・Goken Rengō) | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Japan Restoration Party (Nippon Ishin no Kai) | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| New Renaissance Party (Shintō Kaikaku) | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Independents includes President (Democrat) and Vice President (Liberal Democrat), one OSMP member |
7 | 2 | 9 | |
| total | 115 | 121 | 236 | |
Vacant seats:
- in the class of 2007
- one each from Gifu, Nara, Okayama, Ehime, Miyazaki (Japanese regular election, 2013)
- one from the Democratic Party list in the national proportional segment (Yasuhiro Ōe was a Liberal Democrat when he resigned, but he was elected as a Democrat in 2007.)
Latest election [edit]
| Alliances and parties | Prefectural constituency vote | National PR vote | Elected in 2010 | Seats not up |
Total seats | +/−[4] | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Seats | +/− [4] | Votes | % | Seats | +/− [4] | ||||||
| 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 |
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| People's New Party (PNP) Kokuminshintō – 国民新党 | 167,555 | 0.29% | 0 | 2 |
1,000,036.492 | 1.71% | 0 | 1 |
0 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
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| New Party Nippon (NPN) Shintō Nippon – 新党日本 | no candidate | 0 | 1 | 1[5] |  0 |
||||||||
| DPJ–PNP Coalition | 22,923,555.342 | 39.25% | 28 | 10 |
19,450,175.551 | 33.27% | 16 | 3 |
44 | 66 | 110 | 13 |
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| Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Jimintō – 自民党 | 19,496,083 | 33.38% | 39 |  14 |
14,071,671.422 | 24.07% | 12 | 1 |
51 | 33 | 84 | 13 |
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| New Komeito Party (NKP) Kōmeitō – 公明党 | 2,265,818 | 3.88% | 3 | 0 |
7,639,432.739 | 13.07% | 6 | 2 |
9 | 10 | 19 | 2 |
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| New Renaissance Party (NRP) Shintō Kaikaku – 新党改革 | 625,431 | 1.07% | 0 | 3 |
1,172,395.190 | 2.01% | 1 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
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| former LDP–NKP—NRP Coalition | 22,387,332 | 38.33% | 42 | 11 |
22,883,529.351 | 39.15% | 19 | 4 |
61 | 44 | 105 | 7 |
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| 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 |
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| Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Kyōsantō – 共産党 | 4,256,400 | 7.29% | 0 | 0 |
3,563,556.590 | 6.10% | 3 | 1 |
3 | 3 | 6 | 1 |
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| Social Democratic Party (SDP) Shamintō – 社民党 | 602,684 | 1.03% | 0 | 0 |
2,242,735.155 | 3.84% | 2 | 0 |
2 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
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| Sunrise Party of Japan (SPJ) Tachini – たち日 | 328,475 | 0.56% | 0 | 1 |
1,232,207.336 | 2.11% | 1 | 1 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
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| Happiness Realization Party (HRP) Kōfuku – 幸福 | 291,810 | 0.50% | 0 | 0 |
229,026.162 | 0.39% | 0 | 0 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
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| Independents[6] | 1,314,313.027 | 2.25% | 0 | 2 |
— | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
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| Other parties | 318,847 | 0.55% | 0 | 0 |
908,582.924 | 1.55% | 0 | 0 |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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| Total (turnout 57.92%) | 58,400,807.899 | 100.0% | 73 | 1 |
58,453,432.438 | 100.0% | 48 | 0 |
121 | 121 | 242 | 1 |
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Members (since 1992) [edit]
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See also [edit]
Notes [edit]
- ^ Hayes 2009, p. 50
- ^ House of Councillors: Members Strength of the Political Groups in the House (Japanese version 会派別所属議員数一覧)
- ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Results of the 22nd House of Councillors election
- ^ a b c compared to the seats held before the election
- ^ independent member of the DPJ parliamentary group, not a member of New Party Nippon by the time he took his seat as replacement for Yasuo Tanaka: [1]
- ^ includes one OSMP member (not up), and one independent member of the SDP parliamentary group (seat lost in this election)
References [edit]
- Hayes, L. D., 2009. Introduction to Japanese Politics. 5th ed. New York: M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0-7656-2279-2
External links [edit]
- House of Councillors Website (in English)
- House of Councillors internet TV - Official site (in Japanese)
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