Top officials of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and New Komeito will hold negotiations in London later this week over reducing the number of seats in the Lower House, LDP Secretary General Yoshiro Mori told reporters Tuesday.
Liberal Party head Ichiro Ozawa is part of a nonpartisan delegation of Lower House lawmakers that left Japan on Tuesday to study the session procedures of the British Parliament. Mori said he and his New Komeito counterpart Tetsuzo Fuyushiba will join the eight-member group in London Friday.
One LDP executive said the LDP has presented Ozawa with a proposal to break the stalemate among the three parties regarding an LDP-Liberal Party agreement to cut Lower House proportional representation seats by 50, and added that Ozawa may respond during the London talks.
New Komeito has staunchly opposed reducing the number of seats in the Diet, making it one of the biggest stumbling blocks in policy coordination talks ahead of establishing a coalition government with the three parties.
The visit to Parliament is part of an effort to improve the way the Diet works. Currently, there are plans to introduce one-on-one debates between leaders of ruling and opposition camps.