A pledge to halve the number of seats in the Lower House will be included in the Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) manifesto for the next election, party founder and Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said Sunday.
"If they're squeezed to do more work, the Lower House doesn't need 480 members," Hashimoto told an audience in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. "Our party will seek to halve the number to 240."
Hashimoto didn't specify whether the reduction would impact mainly single-seat constituencies or the proportional representation system.