Japanese Question Time

In an excerpt, members of the House of Councillors, the upper house of the Japanese parliament, questioned Prime Minister Hosokawa and other officials. After being elected last year, the prime minister promised to institute political reform in this session of the parliament, replacing the existing system of multi-seat constituencies with a combination of single-seat constituencies and nationwide proportional representation. In a single seat constituency, the candidate with the most votes would be elected. Under the proportional representation system, votes would be tallied for each party on a national basis and then allotted proportionally. The prime minister also wants to reduce the number of seats in the Diet, the lower house of Parliament. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had ruled Japan for nearly four decades, lost power in last years' elections because of their failure to institute changes in the political system. The LDP is now opposing the government’s political reform close