Sangiin

Sangiin
*House of Councils*
Basic data
Seat:	Kokkai gijidō , Nagatachō , Chiyoda , Tokyo
MPs:	245
Current legislative period
Last choice:	July 21, 2019
Chair:	President ; Akiko Santō , ; non-attached ( LDP ) ; ; Deputy President ; Toshio Ogawa , ; non-attached ( KDP )
	Factions ;
Distribution of seats:	Fractions June 19, 2020, after 201st NV Government factions (141) LDP / Voice of the People ( LDP + non-party) 113; Kōmeitō 28; Opposition factions (97) KDP / DVP / Shinryokufūkai / SDP ( KDP + DVP + SDP + non-party) 60; Ishin 16; KPY 13; Wind of Okinawa (Okinawa socialists + non-party) 2; Hekisuikai (non-party) 2; Minna no Tō ( NKoku + non- party) 2; Reiwa Shinsengumi 2; Non-attached (7) Non-attached (non-party + LDP + KDP) 7;
	Website
	www.sangiin.go.jp

The Sangiin ( Japanese 参議院 , literally: "House of Councils"; occasionally referred to as the Senate in Western publications ) is the upper house of the Kokkai , the Japanese parliament. It has 242 members, half of whom are re-elected every three years. The sangiin is subordinate to the shūgiin , the lower house, which determines the prime minister and has a preponderance in legislation.

history

After the Meiji constitution of 1889, Japan was constitutionalized according to Prussian and British models and the Reichstag was set up as a two-chamber parliament . The House of Lords was the Kizokuin ( wurde , mansion), which, as in the United Kingdom , could include members of the nobility ( Kazoku ) and, as in the Kingdom of Prussia, other appointed members, including some members elected by the top taxpayers of each prefecture and members elected by academic institutions. In the 1947 constitution , the Kizokuin was abolished and replaced by the elected Sangiin.

Composition and choice

Half of the Sangiin is re-elected every three years, the term of office of the MPs is six years. Following reforms in 2018, the number of members of the Sangiin will be increased from 242 to 248 by the election in 2022. As with the Shūgiin today - there, however, majority voting exclusively in single-mandate constituencies and proportional representation in eleven regional constituencies ("blocks") - a trench election system with two votes is used in ordinary / regular Sangiin elections, i.e. two independent votes and seat allocation procedures for the 124 MPs to be elected for election:

74 MPs are directly elected in 45 constituencies; 43 constituencies are congruent with prefectures , two constituencies that have been united since 2016 each consist of two neighboring prefectures: Tottori-Shimane and Kōchi-Tokushima. In each constituency, up to six MPs are elected by non-transferable individual votes - in the single constituencies, this is identical to a simple majority vote.
The remaining 50 MPs are elected at national level by proportional representation using the D'Hondt procedure . Since the 2001 election, voters have been able to influence which candidates are elected by specifying a single candidate from a party list , similar to the preferred vote in Austria, but without a quorum: the order of the list candidates, including those of potential successors , followed so far the number of preferential votes. From the 2019 election, however, parties can, if they want, put protected candidates at the top of their list.

In contrast to the Shūgiin, a candidate cannot compete in both segments at the same time. Until 1980, instead of proportional representation, there was an entire country-wide constituency, in which candidates and not party lists were also elected.

A candidate in a prefectural constituency must deposit 3,000,000 yen (around 27,000 euros in 2016) when registering , which will be refunded depending on his or her share of votes and the number of mandates in the constituency (votes of the candidate> valid votes × 1/8 ÷ number of mandates, i.e. in a one-mandate constituency from 12.5% of the votes, in a two-mandate constituency 7.25% etc.). In the case of proportional representation, 6,000,000 yen must be deposited for each candidate on the list; a refund will be made if at least half of the party's list candidates have been elected. By way of comparison, for candidates for the British House of Commons , which are now elected exclusively in single-mandate constituencies , the deposit is now only £ 500, and a refund is made from 5% of the votes.

Eligible are Japanese citizens over 30 years of age who have not been convicted of electoral offenses, corruption or serious crimes. Citizens over the age of 18 have been eligible to vote since 2016 ( in Japan, however, you are still not of legal age until you are 20, even if a reduction is socially discussed).

Vacancies in the constituencies are filled by by -elections in April or October, within three months of regular elections or in the proportional constituency by substitutes. If regular Sangiin elections coincide with a by-election for a vacancy in the non-eligible half of the chamber, they will be held as a joint election: In a regular two-seat constituency e.g. B. three members are elected, whereby the two candidates with the highest percentage of votes are elected for six years, the third only for three years. In the same way, the first elections in each constituency were held in 1947 as a joint election to both halves of the chamber.

The number of MPs from the constituencies is as follows:

Constituency	Number of mandates		MPs
Constituency	Election 2016	Election 2019 ff.	currently (2019-2022)	from 2022 (subject to further changes)
Tokyo Tokyo	6th	6th	12
Kanagawa Kanagawa Aichi Osaka Aichi Osaka	4 each	4 each	8 each
Saitama Saitama	3	4th	7th	8th
Hokkaidō Hokkaidō Chiba Hyōgo Fukuoka Chiba Hyogo Fukuoka	3 each	3 each	6 each
Ibaraki Ibaraki Shizuoka Kyoto Hiroshima Shizuoka Kyoto Hiroshima	2 each	2 each	4 each
Tottori Tottori - Shimane (shared) Tokushima - Kōchi (shared) Shimane Tokushima Kochi	1 each	1 each	2 each
each of the 30 remaining prefectures	1 each	1 each	2 each
Proportional representation constituency (nationwide)	48	50	98	100
total	121	124	245	248

Competencies

In legislation, the Sangiin is subordinate to the Shūgiin, which can enforce a law in the event of a conflict with a two-thirds majority . In the election of the Prime Minister, in international treaties and in the budget, the Shūgiin's vote is decisive; if there is no vote on an international treaty adopted in the Shūgiin or on the budget in the Sangiin within 30 days, it is deemed to have been accepted. The consent of both companies is only required for certain personnel nominations. The initiation of referendums on constitutional amendments must be decided in both chambers with a two-thirds majority.

The Sangiin can adopt a "complaint resolution" ( 問責決議 , monseki ketsugi ) against the Prime Minister or individual ministers , which does not, however, result in a binding resignation. This has happened ten times so far, in 1998 against the head of the defense authority Fukushirō Nukaga , in 2008 against Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda , in 2009 against Prime Minister Tarō Asō and in 2010 against the ministers of state Yoshito Sengoku and Sumio Mabuchi , in 2011 against the defense minister Yasuo Ichikawa and the head of the National Public Security Commission Kenji Yamaoka , against Minister of Transport Takeshi Maeda and Minister of Defense Naoki Tanaka in 2012 and against Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in 2013 . All ten were passed in a "twisted parliament" , that is, with an opposition majority in the Sangiin.

Institutional reform

Since the Sangiin is subordinate to the Shūgiin in all decisive questions, there has been a debate about reform or abolition of the Sangiin since its establishment. The greater inequality of the election compared to the Shūgiin - in the extreme case in 1992, the voters in Tottori had 6.5 times the voting weight of those in Kanagawa - was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and recently corrected several times through constituency reforms at relatively short intervals.

After the first clear loss of the government majority ( Nejire Kokkai ) in the Sangiin election in 1989 , the political weight of the Sangiin had initially increased, since the ruling parties usually did not have a two-thirds majority in the Shūgiin and usually tried to establish a consensus between the two chambers. For the first time since 1951, a government resorted to the anti-terrorism law in 2008 using a two-thirds majority in the Shūgiin to outvote an opposition majority in the Sangiin. If a government has a two-thirds majority in the Shūgiin and installs it, the institutional imbalance comes into play: Then the Sangiin can delay a bill, but not prevent it.

Last election and current composition

The last, 25th Sangiin election on July 21, 2019 led to the following result:

Political party		SNTV - or FPTP - Prefecture constituencies		National proportional representation		Elected in 2019	New overall composition
Political party		be right	Seats	be right	Seats	Elected in 2019	New overall composition
	Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) 自由民主党 Jiyūminshutō ( 自 / 自民 / 自民党 )	39.8%	38	35.4%	19th	57	113
	Constitutional Democratic Party (KDP) 立憲民主党 Rikken Minshutō ( 立 / 立民 )	15.8%	9	15.8%	8th	17th	32
	Kōmeitō 公明党 Kōmeitō ( 公 / 公明 )	7.8%	7th	13.1%	7th	14th	28
	Democratic People's Party (DVP) 国民民主党 Kokumin Minshutō ( 国 / 国民 )	6.5%	3	7.0%	3	6th	21st
	Nippon Ishin no Kai (Ishin) 日本維新の会 Nippon Ishin no Kai ( 維 / 維新 )	7.3%	5	9.8%	5	10	16
	Communist Party of Japan (CPJ) 日本共産党 Nihon Kyōsantō ( 共 / 共産党 )	7.4%	3	9.0%	4th	7th	13
	Reiwa Shinsengumi れいわ新選組 Reiwa shinsengumi ( れ新 / れい新 / れいわ / ... )	0.4%	0	4.6%	2	2	2
	Social Democratic Party (SDP) 社会民主党 Shakaiminshutō ( 社 / 社民 / 社民党 )	0.4%	0	2.1%	1	1	2
	NHK kara kokumin o mamoru tō NHK から国民を守る党 enueichikei kara kokumin o mamoru tō ( N 国 / N 国党 )	3.0%	0	2.0%	1	1	1
	Others	1.1%	0	1.4%	0	0	0
	Independent [= without party nomination]	10.6%	9	-		9	17th
total		100%	74	100%	50	124	245

↑ Status: election result, without any changes since then

Bureau

On August 1, 2019 (opening day of the 199th Kokkai), Akiko Santō (LDP, proportional representation) were elected President and Toshio Ogawa (KDP, Tokyo) as Vice President of the Sangiin.

According to faction

The parliamentary groups (as of June 18, 2020, after the 201st National Assembly) have the following strengths:

Fraction (engl. Self-Identification)		Party affiliations of the members	MPs
			until July 25th, 2022			until 07/28/2025			total
			Relation	To you.		Relation	To you.			(Women)
	Jiyūminshutō ・ Kokumin no Koe (Liberal Democratic Party / Voice of the People) engl. Liberal Democratic Party and Voice of The People	LDP , non-party	20th	38	58	18th	37	55	113	(18)
	Rikken ・ Kokumin ・ Shinryokufūkai ・ Shamin ("KDP / DVP / Shinryokufūkai / SDP") engl. The Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan and Democratic Party For the People and The Shin-Ryokufukai and Social Democratic Party	KDP , DVP , SDP , non-party	12	20th	32	12	16	28	60	(18)
	Kōmeitō ("Justice Party") engl. Komeito	Kōmeitō	7th	7th	14th	7th	7th	14th	28	(5)
	Nippon Ishin no Kai ("Assembly for the Renewal / Restoration of Japan") engl. Nippon Ishin (Japan Innovation Party)	Ishin	3	3	6th	5	5	10	16	(3)
	Nihon Kyōsantō (Communist Party of Japan) engl. Japanese Communist Party	KPJ	5	1	6th	4th	3	7th	13	(5)
	Okinawa no kaze ("Wind of Okinawa") engl. Okinawa Whirlwind ("Whirlwind / Storm Okinawa")	Okinawa Shakai Taishūtō / All Okinawa party alliance , non-party	0	1	1	0	1	1	2	(0)
	Reiwa Shinsengumi engl. REIWA SHINSENGUMI	Reiwa Shinsengumi	0	0	0	2	0	2	2	(1)
	Hekisuikai (碧水会 , ~ "Association 'blue water'") Engl. Hekisuikai	Non-party ("independent" center-left opposition candidates)	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	(2)
	Minna no Tō ("party of all") engl. Your party	NKoku , non-party or Minna no Tō (regional party founded in 2019)	1	0	1	1	0	1	2	(0)
	Non-attached	LDP (President) , KDP (Vice President) , non-party	0	3	3	1	3	4th	7th	(4)
total			48	73	121	50	74	124	245	(56)

Seating arrangements

The seating arrangements at the beginning of the 25th Sangiin electoral term (199th National Assembly)

A total of 245 seats

KPJ : 13
DVP - Shinryokufūkai : 26
Kōmeitō : 28
LDP - cocumin no koe : 114
Okinawa no kaze : 2
Hekisuikai : 2
Minna : 2
Non-attached: 5
KDP - Min'yūkai - kibō no kai : 35
Nippon Ishin no Kai : 16
Reiwa Shinsengumi : 2

The seating arrangement of the parliamentary groups, which is determined by the President of the Chamber at the beginning of a session, does not correspond to political left-right assignments, as is the case in some other parliaments, e.g. B. the German Bundestag, the case is (compare: Political spectrum # Influence on the seating arrangements in parliaments ). Instead, the strongest faction is placed in the middle, the smaller factions to the right and left of it. In the 55 party system, for example, the communists and socialists sat on the right for a long time, the ruling Liberal Democrats in the middle and the center-left opposition made up of Democratic Socialists and Kōmeitō on the left. At the first session of the Sangiin in 1947, the deputies were initially placed according to seniority.

Web links

Official Website (Japanese)
Official website (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b 会派別所属議員数一覧 , accessed on June 19, 2020.
↑ Sōmushō , October 24, 2018: 参議院議員選挙制度の改正について , accessed January 25, 2019.
↑ Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet. In: The Japan Times . July 28, 2015, accessed August 1, 2015 .
↑ Sangiin: Historical Changes in the Electoral System (Japanese)
↑ Interparliamentary Union , PARLINE database: Japon, Sangiin (Chambre des Conseillers) (French)
↑ 給油新法が衆院本会議で成立、 57 年ぶりに再議決. In: Reuters . January 11, 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2012 (Japanese).
↑ 臨時国会召集参院議長に山東氏 . In: nikkei.com . August 1, 2019, Retrieved August 2, 2019 (Japanese).
^ House of Councilors: Strength of the Political Groups in the House of Councilors , accessed on May 28, 2020.
^ Sangiin: seating arrangements 1. – 25. Election period (always at the beginning), accessed on January 31, 2020.
^ Sangiin: Q&A

[7] Status: election result, without any changes since then

[Fraktionen-1] 会派別所属議員数一覧 , accessed on June 19, 2020.

[2] Sōmushō , October 24, 2018: 参議院議員選挙制度の改正について , accessed January 25, 2019.

[3] Upper House districts set for shake-up after electoral reform laws pass Diet. In: The Japan Times . July 28, 2015, accessed August 1, 2015 .

[4] Sangiin: Historical Changes in the Electoral System (Japanese)

[5] Interparliamentary Union , PARLINE database: Japon, Sangiin (Chambre des Conseillers) (French)

[6] 給油新法が衆院本会議で成立、 57 年ぶりに再議決. In: Reuters . January 11, 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2012 (Japanese).

[8] 臨時国会召集参院議長に山東氏 . In: nikkei.com . August 1, 2019, Retrieved August 2, 2019 (Japanese).

[9] House of Councilors: Strength of the Political Groups in the House of Councilors , accessed on May 28, 2020.

[10] Sangiin: seating arrangements 1. – 25. Election period (always at the beginning), accessed on January 31, 2020.

[11] Sangiin: Q&A