The Liberal Democratic Party and the Liberal Party have agreed to submit a bill to the Diet aimed at cutting 50 Lower House seats elected by proportional representation as early as Wednesday, party officials said Friday.
The reduction in the number of proportional representation seats was proposed by the Liberal Party and agreed by the two parties as one of the conditions for launching the coalition government.
However, the two parties delayed submission of the bill due to strong opposition by New Komeito, with which the two parties seek to establish a wider alliance.
New Komeito opposes the idea since more than half of its Lower House members were elected through proportional representation.
It is unclear whether the bill will be deliberated during the current Diet session because the LDP apparently decided to submit the bill to the Diet only to keep its agreement with the Liberal Party.
Some LDP lawmakers have indicated that submitting the bill to the Diet would not necessarily entail the start of deliberations on it.
Makoto Koga, chairman of the LDP's Diet Affairs Committee, told reporters that it is still uncertain whether the Diet debate over the bill will begin immediately.
"There are many other bills awaiting to be discussed in the Lower House's special committee on electoral reform, and I don't know whether the bill will be debated in the near future," Koga said.