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48-628: Hiraizumi is the smallest municipality in Iwate Prefecture in terms of area. Located in a basin in south-central Iwate Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu, the town is surrounded by the Kitakami Mountains . Iwate Prefecture Hiraizumi has a humid climate ( Köppen climate classification Cfa ) characterized by mild summers and cold winters. The average annual temperature in Hiraizumi

96-590: A mayor-council form of government with a directly elected mayor and a unicameral town council of 12 members. Hiraizumi and the city of Ichinoseki collectively contribute five seats to the Iwate Prefectural legislature. In terms of national politics, the city is part of Iwate 3rd district of the lower house of the Diet of Japan . The local economy is based on agriculture and tourism. Hiraizumi has two public elementary schools and one public middle school operated by

144-473: A party-list system of proportional representation , and 289 are elected from single-member constituencies. The overall voting system used to elect the House of Representatives is a parallel system , a form of semi-proportional representation . Under a parallel system, the allocation of list seats does not take into account the outcome in the single seat constituencies. Therefore, the overall allocation of seats in

192-538: A " Hatomander ". The bill passed the House of Representatives in May 1956, but was never voted on by the House of Councillors. Electoral reform came into vogue again in the 1970s, but Kakuei Tanaka 's plan met opposition internally in the LDP and never came to a vote in either chamber of the Diet. Japan entered a lengthy recession in the 1990s (see Lost Decades ), which many people blamed on

240-564: A coalition with their old rivals the Socialists, whose leader Tomiichi Murayama became prime minister. As with party colleagues Ichirō Hatoyama and Kakuei Tanaka before him, prime minister Toshiki Kaifu of the LDP unsuccessfully tried to reform the electoral system in 1991. However, the Morihiro Hosokawa government got the 1994 Japanese electoral reform through the Diet, introducing a parallel voting system which went into effect at

288-527: A major political issue or controversy. One infamous example was on March 14, 1953, when Shigeru Yoshida dissolved the House and called for new election, after he name called people during a meeting of the budget committee. This came to be known as the "you idiot" dissolution . In 1955, prime minister Ichirō Hatoyama oversaw the creation of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which since his third government has dominated Japanese politics under

336-622: A result of the 1889 Meiji Constitution . It was modeled on the parliaments of several Western countries, particularly the German Empire and the United Kingdom, because of the Emperor Meiji 's westernizing reforms. The Imperial Diet consisted of two chambers , the elected House of Representatives which was the lower house, and the House of Peers which was the upper house. This format was similar to

384-504: Is 10.8 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1265 mm with September as the wettest month and February as the driest month. The temperatures are highest on average in August, at around 24.4 °C, and lowest in January, at around -1.9 °C. Per Japanese census data, the population of Hiraizumi peaked around 1950, and has declined over the past 70 years. The area of present-day Hiraizumi

432-621: Is a mountain range in northeastern Honshu , in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan . The range extends for 250 kilometres (160 mi) from the southern border of Aomori Prefecture in the north to the northern border of Miyagi Prefecture in the south, and are bordered by the Kitakami River valley in the west and the Pacific Ocean to the east, with an average width of around 80 kilometres (50 mi).The Kitakami Mountains are thus mostly located within eastern Iwate Prefecture . The range

480-528: Is largely an eroded plateau with a thick granite bedrock, thus accounting for its other name: Kitakami Plateau ( 北上高地 , Kitakami-kōchi ) . In the north, the mountains are characterized by marine terraces at an altitude of around 300 meters, whereas in the south, the mountains are drowned to form a deeply indented rias coast . Geologically, the Kitakami Mountains are Paleozoic and Mesozoic formations, divided into northern and southern groups.

528-407: Is passed by the lower house (the House of Representatives) but is voted down by the upper house (the House of Councillors ) the House of Representatives can override the decision of the House of Councillors by a two-thirds vote in the affirmative. However, in the case of treaties , the budget , and the selection of the prime minister, the House of Councillors can only delay passage, but not block

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576-516: Is the lower house of the National Diet of Japan . The House of Councillors is the upper house . The composition of the House is established by Article 41  [ ja ] and Article 42  [ ja ] of the Constitution of Japan . The House of Representatives has 465 members, elected for a four-year term. Of these, 176 members are elected from 11 multi-member constituencies by

624-590: The 1955 System . The LDP would govern without interruption for nearly 40 years until the 1993 election , alone save for a three-year coalition government with the New Liberal Club after the 1983 election . Hatoyama planned to change the electoral system to first past the post , introducing a bill to that effect in March 1956. This was met with opposition from the Socialist Party , who criticized Hatoyama's plan as

672-496: The Democratic Socialist Party became Japan's first socialist prime minister and the first since the introduction of parliamentarianism. Since the end of US rule in 1952, it has been the norm that the prime minister dissolves the House of Representatives before its 4-year term expires. Only once, in 1976, did the House last a full 4 years. It has become tradition to give nicknames to each dissolution, usually referencing

720-762: The House of Lords in the Westminster system , or the Herrenhaus in Prussia , where the upper house represented the aristocracy . Both houses, and also the Emperor, had to agree on legislation, and even at the height of party-based constitutional government, the House of Peers could simply vote down bills deemed too liberal by the Meiji oligarchy , such as the introduction of women's suffrage , increases in local autonomy, or trade union rights. The prime minister and his government served at

768-579: The Kan Cabinet and Noda Cabinet . The LDP and Komeito , who had formed a two-party government between 2003 and 2009, came to power again after the 2012 election . Shinzo Abe , who had previously led the First Abe Cabinet , was prime minister for another stint lasting eight years, stepping down for health reasons in 2020. When the Emperor Akihito expressed interest in abdicating, the Diet passed

816-514: The List of members of the Diet of Japan . Shaded Note that the composition of the ruling coalition may change between lower house elections, e.g. after upper house elections. Parties who vote with the government in the Diet, but are not part of the cabinet (e.g. SDP & NPH after the 1996 election) are not shaded. The Japanese parliament, then known as the Imperial Diet, was established in 1890 as

864-691: The Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the start of war in 1937, the influence of the Imperial Diet was further diminished, though never eliminated, by special laws such as the National Mobilization Law and expanded powers for cabinet agencies such as the Planning Board. The House of Representatives in the Empire had a four-year term and could be dissolved by the Emperor . In contrast, members of

912-400: The next election in 1996 . Under this system, which remains in effect as of 2022, 300 (since reduced to 289) members of the House of Representatives are elected using first past the post in single-member constituencies, while 200 (since reduced to 176) members are elected in regional blocs using party-list proportional representation . Prime minister Junichiro Koizumi introduced a bill to

960-399: The third Katsura government , accompanied by major demonstrations outside the Diet, was followed shortly by resignation. Subsequently, in the period often referred to as Taishō democracy , it became increasingly customary to appoint many ministers, including several prime ministers, from the House of Representatives – Hara Takashi was the first commoner to become prime minister in 1918. In

1008-533: The Emperor's pleasure , and could not be removed by the Imperial Diet. However, the right to vote on, and if necessary to block, legislation including the budget, gave the House of Representatives leverage to force the government into negotiations. After an early period of frequent confrontation and temporary alliances between the cabinet and political parties in the lower house, parts of the Meiji oligarchy more sympathetic to political parties around Itō Hirobumi and parts of

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1056-439: The House of Councillors cannot be dissolved. Thus the House of Representatives is considered to be more sensitive to public opinion, and is termed the "lower house". While the legislative term is nominally 4 years, early elections for the lower house are very common, and the median lifespan of postwar legislatures has in practice been around 3 years. For a list of majoritarian members and proportional members from Hokkaidō, see

1104-403: The House of Councillors with a two-thirds majority. The last election for the House of Representatives was held on October 27, 2024, in which the Liberal Democratic Party and their coalition partner Komeito failed to reach a majority of 233 seats, instead winning 215, 18 short of a majority. The House of Representatives has several powers not given to the House of Councillors. If a bill

1152-466: The House of Peers had either life tenure (subject to revocation by the Emperor) or a seven-year term in the case of members elected in mutual peerage elections among the three lower peerage ranks, top taxpayer and academic peerage elections. During the war, the term of the members of the House of Representatives elected in the last pre-war election of 1937 was extended by one year. In the 1946 election to

1200-530: The House of Representatives , held under the U.S.-led Allied occupation of Japan , women's suffrage was introduced, and a system of "large" electoral districts (one or two per prefecture) with limited voting was used. A change in the electoral law in April 1945 had for the first time allocated 30 seats to the established colonies of the Empire: Karafuto ( Sakhalin ), Taiwan , and Chōsen ( Korea ); but this change

1248-597: The House of Representatives in 2006 on changing the Imperial Household Law to allow a woman to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne (see Japanese imperial succession debate ), but he withdrew the bill after the birth of Prince Hisahito of Akishino the same year. The LDP once again lost power at the 2009 election , when the Democratic Party -led Hatoyama Cabinet took over, followed in rapid succession by

1296-571: The House of Representatives is not proportional, to the advantage of larger parties. In contrast, in bodies such as the German Bundestag or the New Zealand Parliament the election of single-seat members and party list members is linked, so that the overall result respects proportional representation fully or to some degree. The House of Representatives is the more powerful of the two houses, able to override vetoes on bills imposed by

1344-462: The House of Representatives would now be able to override the upper house in important matters. The constitution also gave the Diet exclusive legislative authority, without involvement of the Emperor, and explicitly made the cabinet responsible to the Diet and requires that the prime minister has the support of a majority in the House of Representatives. The Diet first met under the new constitution on May 20, 1947. Four days later, Tetsu Katayama of

1392-542: The Kitakami Basin was born. The Kitakami Mountains were exposed to erosion for a long time because they were above water from the Cenozoic onwards. In addition, as a result the glacier effects of the last glacial period , the current gentle topography was created. Mount Hayachine , near the center of the range, is the highest peak at 1,917 metres (6,289 ft), and supports endemic alpine vegetation. Notable caves within

1440-675: The Kitakami Mountains include Akkadō and Ryūsendō . The peaks of the Kitakami mountains include the following: House of Representatives of Japan Opposition (242) Unaffiliated (2) Naruhito [REDACTED] Fumihito [REDACTED] Shigeru Ishiba ( LDP ) Second Ishiba Cabinet ( LDP – Komeito coalition ) [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Fukushiro Nukaga Kōichirō Genba [REDACTED] Masakazu Sekiguchi Hiroyuki Nagahama Saburo Tokura Kazuo Ueda The House of Representatives ( Japanese : 衆議院 , Hepburn : Shūgiin )

1488-464: The Kitakami Mountains were geologically part of Primorsky region of Siberia . About 30 million years to 15 million years ago, the Japanese archipelago separated from the continent and moved to its present position. The Kitakami Mountains around that time was an island, the west side was a shallow sea, and the Ōu Mountains were not yet born. The uplift of the Ōu mountain range began in late Miocene and

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1536-588: The Konjiki-dō, a jewel box of a building intended to represent the Buddhist Pure Land and the final resting place of the Fujiwara lords. Hiraizumi's golden age lasted for nearly 100 years. It was destroyed in 1189, and, after the fall of the Fujiwara clan, the town sank back into relative obscurity, and most of the buildings that gave the town its cultural prominence were destroyed. When the poet Matsuo Bashō saw

1584-615: The Koromo River served as the boundary between Japan to the south and the Emishi peoples to the north. By building his home south of the Koromo, Kiyohira (half Emishi himself) demonstrated his intention to rule Ōshū without official sanction from the court in Kyoto . Kanzan was also directly on the Ōshū Kaidō , the main road leading from Kyoto to the northern lands as they opened up. Kanzan was also seen as

1632-584: The LDP. In the 1993 election , the party lost power for the first time under the 1955 System, when an eight-party coalition led by Morihiro Hosokawa of the Japan New Party were able to form a government . This government fell apart after nine months, and was succeeded by the Hata Cabinet , another short-lived non-LDP government. The LDP returned to power in 1994 with the Murayama Cabinet , this time in

1680-571: The exact center of Ōshū which stretched from the Shirakawa Barrier in the south to Sotogahama in present-day Aomori Prefecture . Kiyohira built the large temple complex known as Chūson-ji . The first structure was a large pagoda at the very top of the mountain. In conjunction with this, he placed small umbrella reliquaries ( kasa sotoba ) every hundred meters along the Ōshū kaidō decorated with placards depicting Amida Buddha painted in gold. Other pagodas, temples and gardens followed including

1728-456: The legislation. As a result, the House of Representatives is considered the more powerful house. Members of the House of Representatives, who are elected to a maximum of four years, sit for a shorter term than members of the House of Councillors , who are elected to full six-year terms. The lower house can also be dissolved by the Prime Minister or the passage of a nonconfidence motion, while

1776-509: The liberal parties eventually formed a more permanent alliance, in the form of the Rikken Seiyūkai in 1900. The confidence of the House of Representatives was never a formal requirement to govern, but between 1905 and 1918, only one cabinet took office that did not enjoy majority support in the House of Representatives. During the Taishō political crisis in 1913, a no-confidence vote against

1824-466: The multi-member districts. Influence of the House of Representatives on the government increased, and the party cabinets of the 1920s brought Japan apparently closer to a parliamentary system of government, and there were several reforms to the upper house in 1925. However, the balance of powers between the two houses and the influential role of extra-constitutional actors such as the Genrō (who still selected

1872-507: The prime minister) or the military (that had brought down several cabinets) remained in essence untouched. Within a year of the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in September 1931, a series of assassinations and coup attempts followed. Party governments were replaced by governments of "national unity" ( kyokoku itchi ) which were dominated by nobles, bureaucrats and increasingly the military. After

1920-560: The same year, the Rice Riots had confronted the government with an unprecedented scale of domestic unrest, and a German Revolution brought the Prusso-German monarchy to an end, the very system Meiji oligarchs had used as the main model for the Meiji constitution to consolidate and preserve Imperial power. Even Yamagata Aritomo and other oligarchs that had been fundamentally opposed to political parties, became more inclined to cooperate with

1968-517: The shrine was already 700 years old. Although rebuilt many times, the same shrine is still standing in the same location. In about 1100, Fujiwara no Kiyohira moved his home from Fort Toyoda in present-day Esashi , in the city of Ōshū to Mount Kanzan in Hiraizumi. This location was significant for several reasons. Kanzan is situated at the junction of two rivers, the Kitakami and the Koromo . Traditionally

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2016-565: The southern area has oldest previous Silurian foundation, which was once a shallow sea on the continental margin where the water temperature was high enough for coral growth from the Silurian to the Devonian periods; this region, later collided with the northern Kitakami mountainous area in the early Cretaceous period, and the whole was penetrated by the granite in various places. Until the Paleogene ,

2064-459: The state of the town in 1689 he penned a famous haiku about the impermanence of human glory: Modern Hiraizumi village was created on April 1, 1889 with the establishment of the post- Meiji restoration municipality system. Hiraizumi was raised to town status on October 1, 1953. It annexed neighboring Nagashima village on April 15, 1955. The town lost some land to the city of Ichinoseki on September 1, 1956, and again on May 1, 1964. Hiraizumi has

2112-423: The still mainly bourgeoisie parties, to prevent a rise of socialism or other movements that might threaten Imperial rule. Socialist parties would not be represented in significant numbers in the lower house until the 1930s. The initially very high census suffrage requirement was reduced several times, until the introduction of universal male suffrage in 1925. The electoral system to the House of Representatives

2160-557: The town government. The town does not have a high school. [REDACTED] East Japan Railway Company (JR East) - Tōhoku Main Line [REDACTED] Tiantai County , Zhejiang Province , China, friendship city since 2010 Hiraizumi has a number of officially listed National Treasures and other culturally or historically notable sites. [REDACTED] Media related to Hiraizumi, Iwate at Wikimedia Commons Kitakami Mountains Kitakami Mountains ( 北上山地 , Kitakami sanchi )

2208-456: Was also fundamentally changed several times: between systems of "small" mostly single- and few multi-member electoral districts (1890s, 1920, 1924), "medium" mostly multi-member districts (1928–1942) and "large" electoral districts (usually only one, rarely two city and one counties district per prefecture; 1900s and 1910s), using first-past-the-post in single-member districts, plurality-at-large voting (1890s) or single non-transferable vote in

2256-469: Was never implemented. Similarly, Korea and Taiwan were granted several appointed members of the House of Peers in 1945. In 1946, both houses of the Imperial Diet (together with the Emperor) passed the postwar constitutional amendment which took effect in 1947. The Imperial Diet was renamed the National Diet, the House of Peers was replaced by an elected upper house called the House of Councillors , and

2304-577: Was part of ancient Mutsu Province . It was the home of the Northern Fujiwara clan for about 100 years in the late Heian era , during which time it served as the de facto capital of Ōshū , an area containing nearly a third of the Japanese land area. At its height the population of Hiraizumi reached 50,000 or more than 100,000, rivaling Kyoto in size and splendor. The first structure built in Hiraizumi may have been Hakusan Shrine on top of Mount Kanzan (Barrier Mountain). A writer in 1334 recorded that

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