esentatives usually becomes
prime minister

note: following the resignation of Prime Minister Yoshiro MORI,
Junichiro KOIZUMI was elected as the new president of the majority
Liberal Democratic Party, and soon thereafter designated by the Diet
to become the next prime minister

Legislative branch: bicameral Diet or Kokkai consists of the House
of Councillors or Sangi-in (252 seats; one-half of the members
elected every three years - 76 seats of which are elected from the
47 multi-seat prefectural districts and 50 of which are elected from
a single nationwide list; members elected by popular vote to serve
six-year terms) and the House of Representatives or Shugi-in (480
seats - 180 of which are elected from 11 regional blocks on a
proportional representation basis and 300 of which are elected from
300 single-seat districts; members elected by popular vote to serve
four-year terms)

elections: House of Councillors - last held 12 July 1998 (next to
be held NA July 2001); House of Representatives - last held 25 June
2000 (next to be held by June 2004)

election results: House of Councillors - percent of vote by party -
NA%; seats by party - LDP 102, DPJ 47, JCP 23, Komeito 22, SDP 13,
Liberal Party 12, independents 26, others 7; note - the distribution
of seats as of February 2001 is as follows - LDP 112, DPJ 58,
Komeito 24, JCP 23, SDP 13, Liberal Party 5, independents 7, others
10; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats
by party - LDP 233, DPJ 127, Komeito 31, Liberal Party 22, JCP 20,
SDP 19, other 28; note - the distribution of seats as of February
2001 is as follows - LDP 239, DPJ 129, Komeito 31, Liberal Party 22,
JCP 20, SDP 19, other 20

Judicial branch: Supreme Court (chief justice is appointed by the
monarch after designation by the cabinet; all other justices are
appointed by the cabinet)

Political parties and leaders: Democratic Party of Japan or DPJ
[Yukio HATOYAMA, leader, Naoto KAN, secretary general]; Japan
Communist Party or JCP [Kazuo SHII, chairman, Tadaaki ICHIDA,
secretary general]; Komeito [Takenori KANZAKI, president, Tetsuzo
FUYUSHIBA, secretary general]; Liberal Democratic Party or LDP
[Junichiro KOIZUMI, president, Taku YAMASAKI, secretary general];
Liberal Party [Ichiro OZAWA, president, Hirohisa FUJII, secretary
general]; New Conservative Party [Chikage OGI, president, Takeshi
NODA, secretary general]; Social Democratic Party or SDP [Takako
DOI, chairperson