Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura, who leads Nippon Ishin no Kai, said on Oct 28, 2026 that the Liberal Democratic Party, Ishin and the Democratic Party for the People had agreed to cut 31 seats from the House of Representatives. The figure falls short of the 45 seats Ishin had pledged to remove, and Yoshimura rated his party's delivery on that promise at 70%.
Writing on X, he said the result did not reach the pledge of cutting a tenth of the lower house, or 45 seats. "The remaining 30% is our own lack of strength. I am sorry," he wrote.
The agreement covers the number of seats, not the map. How the 31 seats would be distributed across prefectures, and what happens to the ratio of single-member districts to proportional representation seats, were not settled in the announcement. Yoshimura did not say when a bill would reach the Diet.
A pledge measured in seats
Ishin has campaigned on shrinking the lower house by a tenth, arguing that Japan's legislature is too large for its population and that the savings and sharper accountability justify the disruption to sitting members. The party has pushed the issue in national elections and in its power-sharing arrangements with other parties.
Cutting 31 seats rather than 45 leaves the pledge partly met. Yoshimura's 70% is his own arithmetic, and it treats the pledge as a single number to be delivered in full rather than a direction of travel.
The three parties hold different positions on how deep the cut should go. The LDP has been the most cautious of the three on binding numbers, while the DPFP has tied its support to broader political reform. Ishin has been the most insistent.
What comes next
An agreement among three party leaders does not by itself change the law. A bill to redraw the seat allocation must still be submitted to the Diet and passed, and redistricting typically takes an election cycle to work through. Local chapters in prefectures that stand to lose a seat are the usual source of resistance.
Yoshimura's public scorekeeping puts pressure on his two partners to stay with the 31-seat figure. It also gives Ishin a way to claim partial credit if the bill stalls, and a number to point to if it does not.
He is serving as governor of Osaka while leading a national party, a dual role he has held since taking over Ishin's leadership. The Oct 28 post was made in that party capacity, not as a government statement.