ねじれ国会＝divided parliamentあるいはhung parliament？

28日、通常国会が始まった。で、昨年12月の衆議院選では自民が大勝したけど、参議員では過半数を占める政党が無いので引き続き”ねじれ国会”となっている。ところで、英語でねじれ国会ってどういう表現なのか？素朴な疑問・・

ちょっと調べてみた。

bloombergの記事　http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-24/japan-cpi-fall-shows-challenge-for-boj-s-new-inflation-target.html

この記事の中では "・・・・・・takes his plan to pull the economy out of recession to a divided parliament”と表現されている。

次はFinancial Timesの記事（下記に全文引用）

最終パラグラフではa hung parliamenとなっている。

で、よくわかんないので現役の記者（えーと米メディアの現役記者）この違いは何よ？と聞いたら以下の回答だった

ーdividedは２院制の国会で、与党がどちらか一方しか過半数の議席を持っていない場合に使うらしい（日本の場合、参

議院では自民党が過半数を持っていいない）。

ーhungはどの政党も単独過半の議席を持っていない事・・・

それで考えると、FTの記事は違うんじゃねぇーか？聞いたら

“厳密に言えば参議院が単独過半数じゃないのでアリだよ”とますます訳がわかんなくなったけど・・・・

とりあえず、"NEJIRE KOKKAI"でいいだろ！！

Japan’s opposition LDP ahead in surveys　Dec 6, 2012

By Michiyo Nakamoto in Tokyo

Japanese bond futures hit new highs on Thursday as opinion polls

showed the main opposition Liberal Democratic party on course for a

decisive win in an election little more than a week away.

The rise in 10-year bond futures was fuelled by expectations of

further monetary stimulus to boost flagging growth in the world’s

third-largest economy.

Nationwide polls by three of Japan’s leading dailies on Thursday

showed the LDP, a firm proponent of more aggressive easing from the

Bank of Japan, poised to seize more than half the seats in the

country’s lower house in the December 16 election.

Shinzo Abe, the LDP leader in pole position to become prime minister,

has said he will call for “unlimited” action by the BoJ to beat

deflation, which has dogged Japan for most of the past 15 years.

The poll in the left-leaning Asahi newspaper, which supports the

incumbent Democratic party, found the LDP could take as many as 285 of

the 480 lower house seats, while the DPJ could see the number of its

seats plummet from 230 to 95. The LDP now holds 118 seats in the lower

house.

The right-leaning Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest selling daily, forecast

that the LDP and its political ally, New Komeito, could together take

as many as 300 seats.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, in unusually impassioned

language, insisted his party still had a chance of winning the

election “if we turn ourselves into balls of fire and appeal to voters

to the very end”.

Mr Noda, who has said a return of the LDP would be a backward step for

Japan, admitted that the DPJ’s election prospects were “grim” but said

the public would “share our view that Japanese politics needs to move

forward”.

Takao Toshikawa, editor of Insideline, a political newsletter, said

the ruling party’s dwindling support was “a reflection of public anger

with the DPJ which exposed its lack of experience running the

government and lack of leadership”.

The uncertainty facing the DPJ is such that Mr Noda has taken the

unusual step of running in both his local constituency in Chiba

prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, and in the wider surrounding district

where winners are selected from party lists by proportional

representation.

Such “double registration” is seen as a sign of weakness and Mr Noda

is only the second prime minister to take out this insurance policy.

Mr Noda’s education minister, Makiko Tanaka, a six-term

parliamentarian whose family has had a stranglehold on its rural

constituency for decades, has also double-registered for the first

time.

A victory for the LDP in the lower house elections would still leave

Japan with the problem of a hung parliament, since the DPJ is the

largest party in the upper house, where it holds 90 seats.