political inefficiency. Election of the Prime Minister Between 1885 and 1947 in the Empire of Japan, the prime minister was not elected by legisture, but responsible to, chosen and appointed by the Emperor. In practice, the usually nominated a candidate for appointment. The and its elected lower house, the House of Representatives, which were set up in 1890 according to the Imperial Constitution, had no constitutionally guaranteed role in the formation of cabinets. Since 1947, the Prime Minister has been chosen in the (ja) in the National Diet. It is held after a cabinet has submitted its resignation – the outgoing cabinet remains as caretaker cabinet until the Imperial inauguration ceremony of a new prime minister –; a cabinet must resign en masse under the constitution (Articles 69 and 70) 1. always on convocation of the first Diet after a general election of the House of Representatives, 2. if the post of prime minister has fallen vacant – that includes cases when the prime minister is permanently incapacitated, e.g. by illness, kidnapping or defection –, or 3. if a no-confidence vote in the House of Representatives is not answered by the dissolution of the chamber. Though both Houses of the Diet vote in two-round elections to select a prime minister, the House of Representatives has the decisive vote: If the two Houses vote for different candidates (as they did in 1948, 1989, 1998, 2007 and 2008), a procedure in the may reach a consensus; but eventually the candidate of the House of Representatives becomes that of the whole Diet and thereby prime minister-designate. The designated prime minister must still be ceremonially appointed by the Emperor in the to enter office; but unlike some heads of state, the Emperor has no reserve power to appoint anyone other than the person elected by the Diet. In 2001, LDP president and Prime Minister Junichirō Koizumi instituted an advisory council to investigate the possibility of introducing direct popular election of the prime minister in a constitutional revision. Upcoming national elections 2022 House of Councillors by-election On April 24, a by-election will be held in Ishikawa to the 2019–25 class of the House of Councillors. The seat had been vacated in December 2021 by Shūji Yamada (LDP) for his (unsuccessful) candidacy in the gubernatorial election in March. There are also two vacant House of Councillors seats in Kanagawa (one from each class), but they will