House of Representatives (Japan)
House of Representatives 衆議院 Shūgiin | |
|---|---|
| 213th Session of the National Diet | |
| Type | |
| Type | Lower house of the National Diet |
| Leadership | |
Speaker | |
Vice Speaker | |
Prime Minister | |
Leader of the Opposition | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 465 |
Political groups | Government (291)
Opposition (165) Unaffiliated (6)
Vacant (3)
|
| Committees | 17 committees |
Length of term | Up to 4 years |
| Salary | Speaker: ¥2,170,000/m Vice Speaker: ¥1,584,000/m Members: ¥1,294,000/m |
| Elections | |
| Parallel voting: First-past-the-post voting (289 seats) Party-list proportional representation (176 seats) | |
First election | 1 July 1890 |
Last election | 31 October 2021 |
Next election | On or before 30 October 2025 |
| Meeting place | |
| Chamber of the House of Representatives | |
| Website | |
| www | |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Politics of Japan |
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Japan portal
|
The House of Representatives (衆議院, Shūgiin) is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house. The composition of the House is established by Article 41 and Article 42 of the Constitution of Japan. The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, and 289 are elected from single-member constituencies.
The overall voting system used to elect the House of Representatives is a parallel system, a form of semi-proportional representation. Under a parallel system, the allocation of list seats does not take into account the outcome in the single seat constituencies. Therefore, the overall allocation of seats in the House of Representatives is not proportional, to the advantage of larger parties. In contrast, in bodies such as the German Bundestag or the New Zealand Parliament the election of single-seat members and party list members is linked, so that the overall result respects proportional representation fully or to some degree.
The House of Representatives is the more powerful of the two houses, able to override vetoes on bills imposed by the House of Councillors with a two-thirds majority.
The last election for the House of Representatives was held on 31 October 2021 in which the Liberal Democratic Party won a majority government with 261 seats. Along with their coalition partner, Komeito which won 32 seats, the governing coalition holds 293 seats in total.