Parallel voting in the context of "House of Representatives (Japan)"

The National Diet (国会, Kokkai; Japanese pronunciation: [kok̚.kai]) is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (衆議院, Shūgiin), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (参議院, Sangiin). Both houses are directly elected under a parallel voting system. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally responsible for nominating the prime minister. The Diet was first established as the Imperial Diet in 1890 under the Meiji Constitution, and took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the post-war constitution. Both houses meet in the National Diet Building (国会議事堂, Kokkai-gijidō) in Nagatachō, Chiyoda, Tokyo.

General elections were held in Japan on 18 July 1993 to elect the 511 members of the House of Representatives. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had been in power since 1955, lost their majority in the House. An eight-party coalition government was formed and headed by Morihiro Hosokawa, the leader of the Japan New Party (JNP). The election result was profoundly important to Japan's domestic and foreign affairs.

It marked the first time under the 1955 System that the ruling coalition had been defeated, being replaced by a rainbow coalition of liberals, centrists and reformists. The change in government also marked a change in generational politics and political conduct; the election was widely seen as a backlash against corruption, pork-barrel spending and an inflated bureaucracy. Proposed electoral reforms also held much influence over the election. Eleven months after the election, with the electoral reform legislation that was its raison d'être passed, the eight-party coalition collapsed. This was the last general election to use the single non-transferable vote electoral system, with the 1994 electoral reform efforts changing the system to parallel voting starting with the next election.

Semi-proportional representation characterizes multi-winner electoral systems which allow some representation of smaller parties or candidates, but don't reflect the strength of the competing political forces close to proportional to the votes they receive. Semi-proportional voting systems are between proportional systems like party-list proportional representation or single transferable vote and winner-take-all systems. Examples of semi-proportional systems include the single non-transferable vote, limited voting, and parallel voting.

Because there are many measures of proportionality, and because there is no objective threshold, opinions may differ on what constitutes a semi-proportional system as opposed to a non-proportional one or a fully proportional system.

The Legislative Yuan (Chinese: 立法院; pinyin: Lìfǎyuàn; lit. 'Law-establishing court') is the unicameral legislature of Republic of China (Taiwan), which ruled Mainland China prior to its retreat in 1949, located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for four-year terms by people of the Taiwan area through a parallel voting system.

Originally located in Nanjing, the Legislative Yuan, along with the National Assembly (electoral college) and the Control Yuan (upper house), formed the tricameral parliament under the original 1947 Constitution. The Legislative Yuan previously had 760 members representing constituencies in all of China (includes provinces, municipalities, Tibet Area, and various professions in Mainland China).