The current 150th Diet session is in unprecedented chaos over an electoral reform bill to revise the Upper House voting system. The bill would change the roster system for candidates nominated in the proportional-representation segment of the Upper House polls. Currently, parties predetermine the ranks of the candidates. Under the new system, the roster would be unranked and voters would choose either a party or a candidate instead of a party, as is currently done. The ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, New Komeito and the New Conservative Party abruptly introduced the bill and railroaded it through an Upper House special committee after only four days of debate, in defiance of an opposition boycott.

Electoral reform was one of the major tasks that my Cabinet promised to undertake in the 1990s. We had great difficulty in enacting a bill that would revise the Public Offices Election Law to change the Lower House polling system. Diet passage of the bill replaced a 70-year-old multiseat-constituency system with the current system that combines single-seat districts and a national proportional-representation section. The LDP -- then part of the opposition after losing a general election -- and the Japan Communist Party opposed the legislation. Since changes in an electoral system affect all Diet members' interests, they are often difficult to implement.

In seeking electoral reform, the current ruling alliance is employing completely different strategies than my government did. We discussed why the reform was needed and how the reform bill should be compiled. The Recruit stocks-for-favor scandal stirred active debate on political reform.