THE GOVERNMENT OF MODERN JAPAN: JAPAN'S ELECTORAL SYSTEM The Reasons for Reform |
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Gerald L. Curtis :: The reason why Japan adopted this new system was to try to first of all eliminate the intra-party competition that was so characteristic of the "medium-size election district" system. Japanese people who favored changing the election system thought that if they could eliminate intra-party competition by changing the election system, then people would vote more for the parties and their platforms than for individual candidates, particularly in the case of the Liberal Democratic Party candidates who were running against other Liberal Democratic Party candidates. So that it would change the focus of Japanese election campaigns more to issues and to party positions rather than to personalities and individual candidates. And the reason for having 200 seats through a proportional representation system was to make sure that some smaller parties could get at least some representation in the Japanese Diet. So it was a compromise to get the support of smaller parties, like the Komeito, for electoral reform, because they know they could survive at least in the proportional representation district part of the election system. |
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