ABSTRACT
In 1994, the Japanese electoral law was radically changed. The electoral system of the Lower House was changed from a medium-sized constituency single nontransferable vote system to a mixed single member district and proportional representation (PR) system. Public funding for political parties was also introduced along with harsher penalties for electoral malpractice. The Japanese political system had been widely criticised for being too candidate-centric and prone to corruption. This fault was perceived to be due to the old electoral system and consequently there were increasing calls for electoral reform. Electoral reform became the focal political issue between summer 1993 and spring 1994 during the Hosokawa coalition, and the electoral law of 4 March 1994 was the result of that debate. This was the main product of that government and we need to assess why they introduced the system they did.
