House of Representatives (Japan) Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids House of Representatives 衆議院 Shūgiin
The 48th House of Representatives
Type
Type	Lower house
Leadership
Speaker	Tadamori Oshima, LDP Since April 21, 2015
Vice-Speaker	Hirotaka Akamatsu, CDP Since November 1, 2017
Prime Minister	Shinzō Abe, LDP Since December 26, 2012
Opposition leader	Yukio Edano, CDP Since October 23, 2017
Structure
Seats	465

Political groups	Government (314) LDP (285) Kōmeitō (29) Opposition (145) CDP & DPFP & Social Security & affiliated Independents (120) JCP (12) Ishin (11) Kibo (2) Independents (6)
Elections
Voting system	Parallel voting: First past the post (289 seats) Party-list proportional representation (176 seats)
Last election	October 22, 2017
Next election	On or before October 22, 2021
Meeting place

Chamber of the House of Representatives
Website
www.shugiin.go.jp

The House of Representatives (衆議院, Shūgiin) is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Councillors is the upper house.

The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a four-year term.

List of Speakers

Kuroda Kiyotaka, Satsuma samurai and prime minister in the late 1880s, coined the term "transcendentalism" (超然主義, chōzen shugi) on the occasion of the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution in 1889. The oligarchs should try to "transcend" electoral politics and govern without partisan majorities the House of Representatives
Itō Hirobumi, a Chōshū samurai, member of the House of Peers and prime minister of Japan on three non-consecutive occasions between 1885 and 1901. He was a main architect of the Imperial Constitution which created the Imperial Diet. When the oligarchs attempts to govern "transcendentally" mostly failed in the 1890s, he saw the necessity for permanent allies among elected political parties.
Hara Takashi, although actually himself born a Morioka noble, made his career as commoner-politician and became the first and one of only three prime ministers from the House of Representatives in the Empire
Shigeru Yoshida, prime minister 1946–1947 as a member of the House of Peers and 1948–1954 as a member of the House of Representatives, oversaw the end of the American-led occupation and the beginning of the Japanese economic miracle.
Shinzo Abe, prime minister 2006-2007 and again 2012-2020, was the longest-serving PM in Japanese history.