LDP Considers Cutting 45 Proportional Seats, Sparing Single-Member Districts Despite Prior Bipartisan Deal to Reduce Both
Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki said Thursday that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi instructed him to build consensus on reducing Lower House seats through proportional representation cuts.
rnz.co.nzThe ruling Liberal Democratic Party is considering cutting 45 proportional representation seats in the House of Representatives, LDP Secretary-General Shunichi Suzuki said Thursday. Suzuki spoke at a meeting of the party’s Headquarters for Political System Reform in Tokyo on June 4, 2026.
He said Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who also serves as LDP president, had instructed him to build consensus within the party on reducing Lower House seats through cuts to proportional representation seats.
“There are concerns that local voices could be lost (if cuts were made to single-seat constituencies) amid population decline,” Suzuki said. “I would like to invite discussion on cutting 45 proportional representation seats,” he said.
During an extraordinary parliament session in 2025, the LDP and the Japan Innovation Party jointly submitted a bill to reduce single-seat constituencies by 25 and proportional representation seats by 20, based on an agreement to cut the chamber’s total seats by about 10 percent.
That bill was scrapped after the dissolution of the Lower House in January 2026. The Japan Innovation Party later called on the LDP to cut 45 Lower House proportional representation seats.
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