Abstract
How do members of the House of Councilors (HoC) participate in policy-making processes? What kind of interests do they represent? The Japanese symmetrical bicameralism has characterized her party system and major party organizations across chambers. The differences of electoral systems used in the HoC and the House of Representatives (HoR) also affect legislators’ policy focuses and interest representation. Assuming ex-ante agreements among legislators from both chambers within the policy committees LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), we focus on their PARC (the Policy Affairs Research Council) membership and analyze the distinct patterns of HoC members. The paper finds that HoC members are more likely to participate in Cabinet, Social Affairs and Local Government divisions (bukai) than HoR members. The results suggest that HoC members represent nationwide interest groups’ and prefectural interests.
