Japanese go to the polls June 25 in the nation's second general election that combines single-seat constituencies and proportional representation.
For the election, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is using the same strategies that it employed in past elections that were based on multiseat constituencies. These include the use of industry groups to establish voter bases for individual lawmakers and the replacement of retiring politicians with their sons and daughters in their home constituencies. We must give serious consideration to why the 70-year-old multiseat constituency system was replaced with the present arrangement that gives a precedence to single-seat constituencies.
Under the proportional representation system, of which the multiseat system is a variation, the ruling party is rarely overthrown by the opposition. In Japan as well as in Italy, the No. 1 party has often formed a ruling coalition with other parties after losing a parliamentary majority. Long rule by the same party, sometimes with allies, tends to lead to corruption.