National Diet

[Tokugawa]

Front of the National Diet Building

National Diet​

The National Diet is the sole legislative body on the national level in Japan. While it was founded in 1890 as part of the Meiji Constitution and then known as the Imperial Diet, most of its current legislative powers stem from the post-war Constitution imposed by the occupation authorities. Since then the National Diet has grown into a robust and stable force within Japan's government, but is often criticized for giving the rural vote a much stronger impact and failing to grow with societal changes efficiently.

Powers:
As the sole legislator, the National Diet has been empowered to create all laws on the national level. While the Cabinet does have the ability to propose legislation and the Empress must approve any law to enter into effect, no proposal can turn into law without the National Diet. It does however have powers beyond these as well, concretely the powers of the National Diet are:

• Sole law-making organ of the Empire of Japan​
• Approval of the National Budget​
• Ratification of treaties​
• Initiate draft constitutional amendments​
• Create investigative committees, to which any citizen or resident of Japan (excluding the Empress) are required to appear​
• Impeach judges convicted of criminal or irregular conduct​

The House of Representatives is considered the stronger of the two Houses as it alone can introduce a motion and hold a vote of no confidence, there are also certain other ways the House of Representatives can exert greater power.

• If a Bill is approved by the House of Representatives and then rejected, amended or not approved within sixty days (not counting when the National Diet is not in session), the Bill will be passed on to the Empress for her approval if again approved by the House of Representatives with a two thirds majority
• If both Houses cannot agree on a National Budget or treaty ratification, even after the formation of a joint committee, or the House of Councillors fails to take action on a proposed budget or treaty within thirty days or before the end of a session (whichever happens sooner), the decision of the House of Representatives stands.

House of Councillors
The House of Councillors is the upper house of the National Diet, its members are chosen using staggered elections with half the seats up every three years. It consists of 248 seats of which 100 are chosen using a nationwide election using the party-list proportional representation system and 146 seats originating from the 47 districts (lining up with the 47 prefectures of Japan). Due to the distribution of districts which generally benefit rural areas of the country the House of Councillors has been most criticized for not properly reflecting Japanese society, a situation worsened by the gradual move of citizens from rural to urban areas. This often gives more traditional parties an advantage.
Current Composition:

Red: Japanese Communist Party - 5
Pink: Social Democratic Party - 15
Blue: Democratic Party of Japan - 25
Yellow: New Japan Movement - 85
Green: Liberal Democratic Party - 95
Purple: Kōmeitō - 23

House of Representatives
The House of Representatives is the lower house of the National Diet, its members are chosen every four years using a parallel voting system. There are 11 multi-member proportional blocks filling 176 seats using party-list proportional representation and 289 single-member districts using first-past-the-post. While the balance of power between rural and urban voters is considered fairer in the House of Representatives, rural votes still count around twice as much as urban ones and the larger share of single-member districts compared to multi-member proportional blocks is considered to provide a greater benefit to larger parties. Unlike in the House of Councillors a candidate can stand in both a single-member district election and be part of a party list.

Current Composition:

Red: Japanese Communist Party - 25
Pink: Social Democratic Party - 55
Blue: Democratic Party of Japan - 65
Yellow: New Japan Movement - 135
Green: Liberal Democratic Party - 145
Purple: Kōmeitō - 40