Since then several elections had taken place; and the defects of the existing law were more strongly pronounced at each successive election. It was, however, not until the year 1898 that the Government at last introduced a Bill for a revision of the law with the view of adopting the system I had the honour of formulating. After heated discussion in three successive sessions, the Bill was passed in 1900 and sanctioned as a law. This is our present Election Law. In the revised system the Fu, Ken, and Shi (the administrative districts) constitute at the same time the electoral districts, and a voter in each district has but one vote for one candidate, while several seats (according to the population) are allotted to the district.
The above is a brief historical sketch of our electoral system. I shall now try to answer your questions in order.
Equitable results.
As to the first question whether our system secures the representation of each party in reasonable proportion to its voting strength, I cannot do better than answer it by pointing out a few instances in the General Election which took place on the 15 May 1908.
TABLE I
THE CITY OF TOKYO (11 seats)
Seats in Seats
Parties. Votes. Proportion Obtained.
to votes.
Seiyu-Kwai (Liberals) 6,579 2.71 2
Konsei-honto (Progressives) 2,216 0.91 1
Daido-ha (Conservatives) 2,879 1.18 2
Yuko-Kwai (Radicals) 4,656 1.91 2
Churitsu (Independent) 10,414 4.29 4
——— ——- —
Total 26,744 11.00 11
All parties except the Seiyu-kwai and Daido-ha succeeded in obtaining their representatives in reasonable proportion to their respective voting strength. The explanation given for the particular case of the Seiyu-kwai is that the party, unable for some reason or other to limit the number of candidates, had placed five candidates instead of three or four, and caused its own defeat by splitting the votes. I take at random, or rather in the order they come, a few more districts, and the results obtained are as follows:—
TABLE II
TOKYO-FU (5 seats)