December 3 & 5, 2025

Japanese Communist Party Executive Committee Chair Tamura Tomoko, at a press conference in the Diet building on December 4, expressed her determination to firmly oppose a bill to reduce the number of House of Representatives’ seats, which the Liberal Democratic-“Nippon Ishin no Kai” coalition seeks to submit to the Diet.

The LDP and the Ishin party three days earlier agreed to introduce to the current extraordinary Diet session a bill to cut the number of Lower House members by 20 in proportional representation districts and 25 elected form single-member districts.

Tamura criticized the LDP-Ishin’s attempt for not only preventing people’s voices from being heard in the Diet but also weakening government oversight, an important function of the Diet.

In addition, Tamura noted that currently the Lower House has 465 seats, the lowest level since universal suffrage was introduced in 1925, and that among the 38 OECD member countries, Japan ranks 36th in terms of the number of national legislators. She pointed out, “Historically and internationally, Japan is a nation with a small number of parliamentarians.”

Tamura also pointed out that what many people are demanding is to fully uncover the truth behind the LDP’s slush-fund scandal and to impose a total ban on corporate and organizational political donations. “Nevertheless, the LDP and Ishin parties switched the focus of the argument from the issue of money distorting politics to the move for Diet seat reduction,” Tamura stated in criticism of the two parties.

Furthermore, Tamura pointed out that as the present electoral system favoring single-seat constituencies gives the major parties a huge advantage over minor parties, it generates a massive number of so-called “wasted votes” and creates a “fake majority”. She said, “In order to allow people’s voices to be heard in the Diet, a drastic revision of the electoral system is essential. The JCP will propose changing the current system to one centering on the proportional representation system and will work hard to achieve this.”

Past related article:
> Koike: JCP will make all-out efforts to block LDP-Ishin coalition’s attempt to cut number of Diet seats [October 21, 2025]