Patrick Harlan, 54, a.k.a. Pacun of the comedy duo Pacun Makun, appeared on BS-TBS “Hodo 1930” (Monday-Friday, 7:30 p.m.) on the 17th. He commented on the Japan Restoration Association’s policy talks with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) regarding a reduction in the number of Diet members. Yoshimura and Koizumi Shinjiro, the leader of the Restoration Association of Japan, were showing off their “honeymoon” relationship. At the first meeting of the policy talks held on November 16 at noon, the Restoration Association presented 12 policy demands, two of which were the concept of a sub-capital city and social security reform. However, on the same evening, Representative Hirofumi Yoshimura stated that the reduction in the number of Diet members is “the center pin, the core” and demanded that it be implemented by the end of the year during the extraordinary Diet session. In response to the Ishin’s sudden assertion that reducing the number of Diet members was “an absolute condition for a coalition,” Ichiro Aizawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Election System Research Committee, wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) page, “If the number of Diet members is reduced under the current system, the number of members will be further reduced not in Osaka or Tokyo but in the regions. Some have criticized the system, posting, “Suddenly reducing the fixed number of seats is out of the question. Pacun mentioned the fact that Komeito left the coalition because it could not agree on restrictions on corporate and group donations, and said, “Komeito did not move at all on politics and donations to the extent that we left. To avoid a repeat of that, they decided to put politics and donations on the shelf for the time being. The reduction in the number of Diet members is “a proposal that only the Restoration Association can make,” he said. “They had a successful experience in the provinces and were able to secure their own brand, so they probably decided that this was an easier condition to accept and calculated that the supporters of the Restoration Association would also agree. He added, “However, I don’t think it’s true if the public as a whole is obsessed with this issue. It’s not something that the parties have addressed in previous elections, and it hasn’t been discussed much in the programs we have covered,” he said, pointing out that the public did not consider the reduction in the number of Diet members to be an important issue. He explained that the number of Diet members in Japan is small compared to European countries in terms of population, and speculated, “The number of Diet members is not large in the parliamentary system, and the fact that Ishin is pushing for a reduction in the number of Diet members when the public is not so concerned about it may be a calculation that the ruling party will swallow it.
