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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.2 The New Electoral System and Its Political Consequences in Japan-The 1996 Election of the House of Representatives

The New Electoral System and Its Political Consequences in Japan-The 1996 Election of the House of Representatives

Shine-Ching Hsieh
1999 / 11
Volume 6, No.2

pp.45-87
10.6612/tjes.1999.06.02.45-87
Paper

Abstract

The Japanese electoral system had adopted the single non-transferable vote (SNTV). Under SNTV, three to five members were elected from each constituency based on a plurality of votes. However, a series of corruption scandals since 1988 in Japan had damaged confidence in political system. As a result, Diet passed new measures transforming the middle-size district system into a mixed-member system in January 1994, combining single-member district & PR party lists. This article introduces the reform process and the new electoral system.It was the first time that Japanese House of Representatives adopted the single-member district & PR party lists parallel system on October 20, 1996. The article is intended to describe the electoral process and analyze its political consequences.The preliminary conclusions of the study are:(1) The new electoral system in Japan is of great advantage to LDP.(2) The new electoral system didn't correct the 'money politics' and transform the electoral competition from candidate-oriented to party and policy-oriented in Japan.

Keywords

disproportionality

electoral system

effective number of parties

fraction

party system

percentage of failure / win ballot

political consequences

proportional representation

single-member district

single-member district & PR party lists parallel system