One part of the agreement entered into between the Liberal Democratic Party and Japan Innovation Party to establish a new ruling coalition was to reduce the number of members in the Lower House of parliament.
The commitment expressly called for introducing legislation in the current special session, which ends on Dec. 17. Given the complexities involved and the need to gain some understanding from the opposition parties, the JIP agreed to a compromise that calls for legislation this year to establish a bipartisan parliamentary group to develop specific legislation to reduce the number of members by 10% during the regular session that starts in late January.
Under an agreement reached on Dec. 1, lawmakers would first try to negotiate reductions, with a fallback plan to cut the number of Lower House seats by 25 single seats and 20 proportional seats if talks fail to conclude within a year.
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