House of Councillors

House of Councillors
参議院
Sangiin
Type
Type Upper house
Leadership
Speaker Kenji Hirata, DPJ
since 14 November 2011
Opposition Leader Hirofumi Nakasone, LDP
since 30 July 2010
Structure
Members 242
Political groups
  DPJ/Shinryokufūkai (106)
  LDP (83)
  Kōmeitō (19)
  YP (11)
  JPC (6)
  SPJ/NRP (5)
  SDP (4)
  PNP (3)
  Independents (5)
Elections
Last election 11 July 2010
Meeting place
National Diet Building, Tokyo
Website
www.sangiin.go.jp
Japan

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
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The House of Councillors (参議院 Sangiin?) is the upper house of the Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or designation of the prime minister, the House of Representatives can insist on its decision. In all other decisions, the House of Representatives can override a vote of the House of Councillors only by a two-thirds majority of members present.

The House of Councillors has 242 members who each serve six-year terms, two years longer than those of the House of Representatives. Councillors must be at least 30 years old, compared with 25 years old in the House of Representatives. The House cannot be dissolved, as only half of its membership is elected at each election. Of the 121 members subject to election each time, 73 are elected from the 47 prefectural districts (by single non-transferable vote) and 48 are elected from a nationwide list by proportional representation with open lists. Up to the 1998 election, there were 252 members, 126 elected at a time: 76 from prefectural districts and 50 elected nationwide. At the 2001 elections these numbers were reduced and the total number was 247 (126 elected in 1998 and 121 elected in 2001) and the open list preference vote was introduced.

See List of members of the Diet of Japan for the list of current members of the House of Councillors.

Contents

Current composition

(as of November 14, 2011)[1]

Parliamentary group Councillors
mandate expires total
2013 2016
Democratic Party of Japan – Shinryokufūkai 62 44 106
Liberal Democratic Party – "Assembly of Independents" 33 50 83
Kōmeitō 10 9 19
Your Party 1 10 11
Japanese Communist Party 3 3 6
Sunrise Party of Japan – New Renaissance Party 3 2 5
Social Democratic Party – "Alliance to protect the constitution" (goken rengō) 2 2 4
People's New Party 3 0 3
Independents
includes President (Democrat) and Vice President (Liberal Democrat),
one OSMP member		 4 1 5
total 121 121 242

Latest election

e • d Summary of the 11 July 2010 Japanese House of Councillors election results[2]
Alliances and parties Prefectural constituency vote National PR vote Elected in 2010 Seats
not up		 Total seats +/−[3]
Votes  % Seats +/−[3] Votes  % Seats +/−[3]
   Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Minshutō – 民主党 22,756,000.342 38.97% 28 8 18,450,139.059 31.56% 16 2 44 62 106 10
People's New Party (PNP) Kokuminshintō – 国民新党 167,555.000 0.29% 0 2 1,000,036.492 1.71% 0 1 0 3 3 3
New Party Nippon (NPN) Shintō Nippon – 新党日本 no candidate 0 1 1[4] 0
DPJ–PNP Coalition 22,923,555.342 39.25% 28 10 19,450,175.551 33.27% 16 3 44 66 110 13
   Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Jimintō – 自民党 19,496,083.000 33.38% 39 14 14,071,671.422 24.07% 12 1 51 33 84 13
New Komeito Party (NKP) Kōmeitō – 公明党 2,265,818.000 3.88% 3 0 7,639,432.739 13.07% 6 2 9 10 19 2
New Renaissance Party (NRP) Shintō Kaikaku – 新党改革 625,431.000 1.07% 0 3 1,172,395.190 2.01% 1 1 1 1 2 4
former LDP–NKP—NRP Coalition 22,387,332.000 38.33% 42 11 22,883,529.351 39.15% 19 4 61 44 105 7
  
Your Party (YP) Minna no Tō – みんなの党 5,977,391.485 10.24% 3 3 7,943,649.369 13.59% 7 7 10 1 11 10
Japanese Communist Party (JCP) Kyōsantō – 共産党 4,256,400.000 7.29% 0 0 3,563,556.590 6.10% 3 1 3 3 6 1
Social Democratic Party (SDP) Shamintō – 社民党 602,684.000 1.03% 0 0 2,242,735.155 3.84% 2 0 2 2 4 0
Sunrise Party of Japan (SPJ) Tachini – たち日 328,475.000 0.56% 0 1 1,232,207.336 2.11% 1 1 1 2 3 0
Happiness Realization Party (HRP) Kōfuku – 幸福 291,810.000 0.50% 0 0 229,026.162 0.39% 0 0 0 1 1 0
Independents[5] 1,314,313.027 2.25% 0 2 — 0 2 2 2
Other parties 318,847.000 0.55% 0 0 908,582.924 1.55% 0 0 0 0 0 0
Total (turnout 57.92%) 58,400,807.899 100.0% 73 1 58,453,432.438 100.0% 48 0 121 121 242 1

See also

References

  1. ^ Members by parliamentary group (Japanese, English: "Members Strength of the Political Groups in the House of Councillors")
  2. ^ Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Results of the 22nd House of Councillors election
  3. ^ a b c compared to the seats held before the election
  4. ^ independent member of the DPJ parliamentary group, not a member of New Party Nippon by the time he took his seat as replacement for Yasuo Tanaka: [1]
  5. ^ includes one OSMP member (not up), and one independent member of the SDP parliamentary group (seat lost in this election)

External links

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