Election Resources On The Internet
Without doubt, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) has had a decidedly rough ride in power in the ten months since its historic House of Representatives election victory, which brought to an end more than half-a-century of nearly uninterrupted Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) rule. Last month the Japanese public was treated to the all-too-familiar spectacle of a prime minister stepping down following a decidedly short tenure: after less than nine months as Japan's head of government, Yukio Hatoyama left office over his inability to fulfill campaign promises, and was subsequently replaced by Naoto Kan; Kan, who also succeeded Hatoyama as DPJ leader, is Japan's fifth prime minister in less than four years.
Meanwhile, more grief was in store for DPJ. Prime Minister Kan's initially strong popularity ratings steadily slid over the course of the election campaign, and another very familiar political spectacle took take place on election day, when voters finally went to the polls on Sunday, July 11 to renew half the membership of the upper house of Japan's bicameral National Diet, the House of Councillors: the DPJ and its remaining ally, the small People's New Party (PNP) lost their joint upper house majority.
The loss of the upper house (whose electoral system is described in Japan's 2007 House of Councillors election and Parliamentary Elections in Japan) constitutes a major setback to Prime Minister Kan's government: under Japan's 1947 "MacArthur" constitution, bills rejected by the House of Councillors can't become law unless the House of Representatives - the Diet's lower chamber - overrides the Councillors' veto by a majority of at least two-thirds. Consequently, an opposition-controlled upper house is now able to derail the government's legislative agenda, as was the case between 2007 and 2009, when DPJ and its allies controlled the House of Councillors, while LDP and its coalition partners held a large majority in the House of Representatives; not surprisingly, this state of affairs - known in Japan as a "twisted Diet" - led to repeated clashes between the two legislative bodies.
However, the lower chamber retains the final word on a number of important matters, most notably among them the designation of a prime minister. In addition, it is still possible that Prime Minister Kan and DPJ could now find new coalition allies to secure an upper house majority, although the small Your Party, which now holds ten upper house seats following sizable gains in the recent vote, have formally ruled out the idea. Evidentally, Kan and the Democrats have done themselves no favour with their insistence on increasing the five percent consumption tax, which has proven unpopular with potential coalition partners, not to mention voters.
As a result of the election the government has been reduced to 110 seats in the House of Councillors, while the opposition parties will hold 132 seats.
Although DPJ received the largest number of both prefectural district and party list votes, LDP won the largest number of seats by capturing 21 of 29 single-member districts; DPJ, which only carried eight single-member seats, won more seats than LDP in both the multi-member districts and the party list vote, but this was not sufficient to overcome LDP's large single-seat lead. That said, the election outcome wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the Liberal Democrats, as Japan's erstwhile dominant party had its lowest party list share of the vote ever. On the other hand, LDP breakaway Your Party (YP), which favors small government, soared to third place in the election, displacing traditional LDP ally New Komeito (NK; an offshoot of the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai).
