Big In Japan

Koizumi won another election , this time achieving a majority with his Liberal Democratic party. It was previously a minority government.

The LDP maintained government in the Diet from 1955 until 1993, when it dropped to minority status in 1993. It was part of the many minrotiy governments which appeared in the 1990s, until Koizumi became Prime Minister in 2001. Since then Koizumi has manouvred elections in an attempt to regain a loyal LDP majority in the Lower House. After he was re-elected to head the LDP, he dissolved the Lower House. The recent elections were for the Lower House, which Koizumi called after his reform packages were defeated in the Diet.

Graphs and maps of the Japanese election . I couldnt find any information as to what type of voting system is used, first past the post, or preferential.
Scrymarch: Voting system: I couldn\'t find definitive word on the single/multi-preference dimension either, but the lower house is appointed by a mix of single member electorates and party list proportional voting, similar to New Zealand\'s MMP system.   Home page of the Diet :

The present election system is a combination of the single-seat constituency system and proportional representation. Under the system, out of 480 Members, 300 are elected from single-seat constituencies, and remaining 180 by proportional representation in which the nation is divided into 11 electoral blocs which according to size return between six and 30 Members. Voters cast two ballots: first, one for an individual candidate in the single-seat consitituency, and second, one for a political party in the proportional representation election.

The combined election system was adopted and went into effect to replace the long-standing multi-seat medium-sized constituency election system, which was abolished in January 1994 by a revision of the Public Offices Election Law. This election system was first used in the 41st general election for the members of the House of Representatives held in October 1996 in which 300 were elected from single-seat constituencies and 200 by prportional representation, and again in the 42nd general election held in June 2000 after reducing the number of Members elected by proportional representation from 200 to 180 by another revision of the Public Offices Election Law.

(2)Election to the House of Councillors

One hundred of the 252 members of the House of Councillors are elected by proportional representation from a single nationwide electoral district. The remaining 152 are elected in 47 prefectural constituencies, each returning two to eight members. As with the House of Representatives, voters cast two ballots - one for a political party (proportional representation) and one for an individual candidate. The minimum age requirement to be a candidate for the House of Councillors is 30, and that for voters is 20.

It should be noted that the House of Representatives can be dissolved, whereas the House of Councillors is not subject to dissolution. When the House of Representatives is dissolved, the House of Councillors closes its session at the same time. However, the Cabinet may, in time of national emergency, convoke an emergency session of the House of Councillors. Measures taken at such a session are provisional and become null and void unless agreed to by the House of Representatives within 10 days of the opening of the next session of the Diet.

This and other sources imply to me that these votes are single preference, people tend to assume that as the default.

Most Popular on South Sea Republic

The articles that have been viewed the most:

Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix

Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area. This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most; My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are AZ88, Postinos, Bomberos with Grazie, Humble Pie, Orange Table, The Vig, Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on phoenixeatsout.com

Most Popular Hikes in Arizona

Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak. For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in Tom's Thumb and Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.

Alternate Australian Constitutions

Between 2004 and 2009 this site, southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues. One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome: The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.

Archives For South Sea Republic

South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then; The articles are ordered by views.

Who Is Cam Riley

Cam Riley I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident. I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end. I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now. The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.

Websites Worth Reading

Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;