ABSTRACT
One difference stands out when comparing Diet and Congress members. In Japan, a Diet member is rarely considered a legislator. An important aspect of candidate selection in Japan is the process by which an aspirant procures an official endorsement from a political party. The Public Office Election Law states that the number of seats in the Diet may be altered according to the results of the national census, conducted every five years. Breaking down the Diet by political party, Liberal Democratic party members are mainly former bureaucrats, executives of larger corporations, and leaders of farming, forestry, or fishing organizations. Along with the shift to a younger generation, there is an increasing number of second-gene ration members or hereditary politicians. Most Diet members have a high level of education—on the average, they are college graduates. The post-war Japanese Diet was modeled on the US Congress in certain areas, for instance, committee staffs and the research services of the National Diet Library.
