The Parliament of Japan (国会, "Kokkai") is the highest legislative body of this country. It consists of a lower house, called the House of Representatives, and an upper house, called the House of Councilors. Both houses of the Seimas are elected by direct vote on parallel voting systems. The diet is formally responsible for the choice of the prime minister. It was first convened as the Imperial Diet in 1889. And it took its current form in 1947 after the adoption of the post-war constitution. The Japanese Parliament is located in Nagatacho, Chioda, Tokyo.
Electoral system
The houses of the Sejm are elected by parallel voting systems. This means that the places to be filled in any election are divided into two groups, each of which is elected differently; The main difference between the houses is the size of the two groups and how they are elected. Voters are also asked to cast two votes: one for a single candidate in the constituency and one for a party list.
Any citizen of Japan who is at least 18 years old can vote in this election. Age 18 replaced 20 in 2016. The parallel voting system in Japan should not be confused with the supplementary member system used in many other countries. The Japanese Constitution does not determine the number of members of each chamber of the Seimas, the voting system or the necessary qualifications of those who can vote or be elected in parliamentary elections, which allows all of these to be determined by law.
However, this guarantees universal suffrage for adults and secret ballot. He also insisted that the election law should not be discriminatory in terms of “race, religion, gender, social status, family origin, education, property or income”. In this regard, the powers of the Japanese Parliament are limited by constitution.
The laws
As a rule, the election of members of the Seimas is controlled by laws adopted by the Seimas. This is a source of disagreement over the reallocation of seats in the prefectures in response to changes in the distribution of the population. For example, the Liberal Democratic Party controlled Japan for most of its post-war history. In the post-war era, a large number of people moved to urban centers in search of wealth; although some redistributions were made in terms of the number of designated seats in the Sejm for each prefecture, rural areas usually have a greater representation than urban areas.
The Japanese Supreme Court began judicial review of property distribution laws following Kurokawa’s decision of 1976, which invalidated the elections in which one district in Hyogo Prefecture received five times the representation of another district in Osaka Prefecture. Since then, the Supreme Court has indicated that the highest electoral imbalance allowed under Japanese law is 3: 1, and that any greater imbalance between any two constituencies is a violation of article 14 of the Constitution. In recent elections, the coefficient of unacceptable distribution was 4.8 in the House of Councilors.
Candidates
What else can be said about the parliamentary elections in Japan? Candidates for the lower house must be 25 years or older and 30 years or older for the upper house. All candidates must be Japanese citizens. In accordance with article 49 of the Constitution of Japan, members of the Seimas are paid about 1.3 million yen per month. Each legislator has the right to hire three secretaries at the expense of taxpayers, free Shinkansen tickets and four round-trip tickets per month so that they can travel back and forth to their home areas.
Constitution
Article 41 of the Constitution defines the national parliament as the “highest organ of state power” and “the sole legislative organ of the state”. This statement sharply contradicts the Meiji Constitution, in which the Emperor was described as the one who exercised legislative power with the consent of the Sejm. The duties of the Seimas include not only the adoption of laws, but also the approval of the annual national budget that the government represents and the ratification of treaties. He can also initiate a draft constitutional amendment, which, if approved, should be presented to people in a referendum. The diet may conduct "investigations against the government."
Prime Minister appointment
The Prime Minister should be appointed by a resolution of the Seimas, establishing the principle of the rule of law over executive bodies. The Government may also be dissolved by the Sejm if it approves the motion of no confidence submitted by 50 members of the House of Representatives. Government officials, including the Prime Minister and cabinet members, must appear before the Seimas investigation committees and respond to inquiries. The Seimas also has the right to prosecute judges convicted of criminal or illegal conduct.
In most cases, in order to become law, a bill must first be passed by both houses of the Sejm and then promulgated by the Emperor. This role of the emperor is similar to royal consent in some other countries; however, the Emperor cannot refuse to adopt the law, and therefore his legislative role is only a formality.
Japanese Parliament Structure
The House of Representatives is the most influential part of the Sejm. She is also the bottom. While the House of Representatives usually cannot cancel the House of Advisers on a bill, the House of Advisers can only delay the adoption of a budget or contract. One that has already been approved. The upper house of the Japanese parliament is also quite influential.
Sessions
According to the Constitution, at least one session of the Sejm must be convened every year. Technically, only the Lower House of the Japanese Parliament dissolves before the election. But while it is in dissolution, the Upper is usually "closed." The emperor convenes the Sejm and dissolves the "Representatives", but he must act on the advice of the Cabinet. In an emergency, the Cabinet of Ministers may convene the Sejm to hold an extraordinary session, and a quarter of the members of any chamber may request an extraordinary session. At the beginning of each parliamentary session, the Emperor reads a special speech from his throne in the chamber of the House of Councilors. These are the features of the Japanese parliament.
The presence of one-third of the members of both houses constitutes a quorum, and discussions are open unless at least two-thirds of those present agree otherwise. Each house elects its own chairperson, who votes in the event of a tie. The members of each chamber have certain means of protection against arrest during a Seimas sitting, and the words spoken in the bicameral parliament of Japan and the votes cast for it enjoy parliamentary privilege. Each House of the Seimas determines its own permanent rules and is responsible for the discipline of its members. Member may be expelled. Each member of the Cabinet has the right to appear in any house of the Seimas for the purpose of speaking on accounts, and each house has the right to demand the appearance of members of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Story
What is the name of the parliament of Japan? The first modern legislative body of the Land of the Rising Sun was the Imperial Assembly (č°äĽš č°äĽš Teikoku-gikai), established by the Meiji Constitution, which was in force from 1889 to 1947. The Meiji Constitution was adopted on February 11, 1889, and the Imperial Parliament of Japan first met on November 29, 1890, when the document was put into operation. The House of Representatives was elected by direct vote, albeit on a limited franchise. Universal suffrage for adult men was introduced in 1925. The House of Peers, like the British House of Lords, consisted of high-ranking noblemen.
Meiji era
Meiji's constitution was largely based on the form of constitutional monarchy that existed in Prussia of the 19th century, and the new Diet was modeled on the German Reichstag and partly on the British Westminster system. Unlike the post-war constitution, the Meiji constitution provided the Emperor with a real political role, although in practice the emperor’s powers were mainly led by a group of oligarchs called patrimonial or senior statesmen. What is the name of the parliament of Japan? Now it is Kokkay - the "national congress".
To become a law or a bill, a constitutional amendment had to obtain the consent of both the Sejm and the Emperor. According to the Meiji constitution, prime ministers were often not elected and did not enjoy the confidence of the Sejm. The Imperial Parliament of Japan was also limited in its control of the budget. However, the Sejm could veto the annual budget, if they did not approve the new budget, the budget of the previous year continued to operate. This has changed with the new constitution after WWII.
The reform
In the 80s of the last century, a major parliamentary reform was carried out in Japan - in fact, the first since the end of the war. What was it like? Instead of choosing candidates for national constituencies as individuals, as before, voters vote for parties. Individual advisers officially included by parties before the election are selected on the basis of the proportions of the parties in the general voting in the constituencies. A system was introduced to reduce the excessive money spent by candidates for national constituencies.
Nuances
There is a fourth type of legislative session: if the House of Representatives is dissolved, a national parliament cannot be convened. In emergency cases, the cabinet may convene an emergency meeting (ink 集会, kinkyū shūkai) of the House of Councilors to make preliminary decisions for the entire Seimas. As soon as the entire National Seimas gathers again, these decisions must be confirmed by the House of Representatives or become ineffective. Such emergency sessions were called twice in history, in 1952 and 1953.
Any session of the Seimas may be interrupted by the dissolution of the House of Representatives. In the table, this is indicated simply as “dissolution”. The House of Councilors or the National Parliament as such cannot be dissolved. This is an important nuance.
Powers of the Parliament of Japan
The policy of the Land of the Rising Sun is carried out as part of a multi-party bicameral parliamentary representative of a democratic constitutional monarchy. In which the emperor is the ceremonial head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government and the head of the cabinet, which leads the executive branch.
Legislative power belongs to the National Diet. Which consists of two houses of the Japanese Parliament. The first - representatives, the second - advisers. Judicial power belongs to the Supreme Court and lower courts, and the sovereignty of the Japanese people in accordance with the Constitution. Japan is considered a constitutional monarchy with a civil law system.
The economist’s intelligence unit in 2016 rated Japan as “flawed democracy.”
The role of the emperor
The Japanese Constitution defines the emperor as "a symbol of the state and the unity of the people." He performs ceremonial duties and does not have real power. Political power belongs mainly to the Prime Minister and other elected members of the Sejm. The Imperial Throne is replaced by a member of the Imperial House, as defined by the Imperial Household Act.
The head of the executive branch, the prime minister, is appointed by the emperor at the direction of the Sejm. He is a member of both chambers of the Seimas and must be a civilian. Cabinet members are appointed by the Prime Minister and must also be civilians. There was an agreement with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) that the party’s president acts as prime minister.
Political models
Despite the increasingly unpredictable domestic and international environment, policymaking is consistent with established post-war models. The close cooperation of the ruling party, the elite bureaucracy and important interest groups often makes it difficult to determine who exactly is responsible for specific political decisions.
After a largely informal process in the elite circles in which ideas were discussed and developed, steps can be taken to organize a more formal policy development. This process often took place in advisory boards (shingikai). There were about 200 shingikai, each of which was associated with the ministry; their members were both officials and prominent individuals in the business, education and other fields. Shingikai played a large role in facilitating communication between those who did not usually meet.
Given the tendency for real negotiations in Japan to be conducted privately (as part of the process of reaching consensus on nemawashi, or root binding), shingikai often represented a fairly advanced stage in formulating a policy in which relatively minor differences could be resolved. and as a result, decisions are formulated in a language acceptable to all. These bodies were created legally, but did not have the power to oblige governments to accept their recommendations.
The most important advisory board in the 1980s was the Provisional Administrative Reform Commission, created in March 1981 by Prime Minister Suzuki Zenko. The commission consisted of nine members, which were attended by six advisers, twenty-one “expert members” and about fifty “advisers” representing a wide range of groups. Its head, President Keidanren Doko Toshio, insisted that the government agree to take his recommendations seriously and commit to reform the administrative structure and tax system.