House of Councillors
upper house of Japan
The House of Councillors, or by its official English translation name, the Senate, (Japanese: 参議院, Hepburn: Sangiin; Japanese pronunciation: [saŋʲ.ɡʲiꜜ.iɴ, -ŋʲiꜜ-]) is the upper house of the National Diet of Japan. The House of Representatives is the lower house. The House of Councillors is the successor to the pre-war House of Peers. If the two houses disagree on matters of the budget, treaties, or the nomination of the prime minister, the House of Representatives can insist on its decision. In other decisions, the House of Representatives can override a vote of the House of Councillors only by a two-thirds majority of members present.
The House of Councillors has 248 members who each serve six-year terms, two years longer than those of the House of Representatives. Councillors must be at least 30 years old, compared with 25 years old in the House of Representatives. The House of Councillors cannot be dissolved, and terms are staggered so that only half of its membership is up for election every three years. Of the 124 members subject to election each time, 74 are elected from 45 districts by single non-transferable vote (SNTV) and 50 are elected from a nationwide list by proportional representation (PR) with open lists.
The English translation of the institution's name was established in 1946.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “House of Councillors” is upper house of Japan. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through House, Councillors and upper, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q548911. VIAF identifies the subject as 158822158. The Library of Congress control number is n81047124. Authority coordinates are 35.677, 139.745. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946.
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This entry incorporates text from “House of Councillors” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.