House of Representatives (Japan)

House of Representatives 衆議院 Shūgiin
The 47th House of Representatives
Type
Type	Lower house
Leadership
Speaker	Tadamori Oshima, Independent (party: LDP) Since April 21, 2015
Vice-Speaker	Tatsuo Kawabata, Independent (party: DP) Since December 24, 2014
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe, LDP Since December 26, 2012
Structure
Seats	475
Political groups	(by caucus as of Apr. 2016) Government Coalition (326):   LDP (291)   Kōmeitō (35) Opposition (149):   DP (96)   JCP (21)   Initiatives (14)   SDP (2)   LP (2)   Independents (14)
Elections
Voting system	Parallel voting: First past the post (295 seats) Party-list proportional representation (180 seats)
Last election	December 14, 2014
Next election	on or before December 13, 2018
Meeting place
The House of Representatives Chamber
Website
www.shugiin.go.jp

Coordinates: 35°40′30.6″N 139°44′41.8″E / 35.675167°N 139.744944°E / 35.675167; 139.744944

(by caucus as of Apr. 2016)

The House of Representatives (衆議院, Shūgiin^?) is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house.

The House of Representatives has 475 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 180 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by a party-list system of proportional representation, and 295 are elected from single-member constituencies. 238 seats are required for a majority.

The overall voting system used to elect the House of Representatives is a parallel system, a form of semi-proportional representation. Under a parallel system the allocation of list seats does not take into account the outcome in the single seat constituencies. Therefore, the overall allocation of seats in the House of Representatives is not proportional, to the advantage of larger parties. In contrast, in bodies such as the German Bundestag the election of single-seat members and party list members is linked, so that the overall result respects proportional representation.