Under an electoral system of single nontransferable vote(SNTV) with multiple-seat districts, each voter can cast onlyone vote and only for one candidate, surplus votes cannot betransferred between candidates, and seats go to those candi-dates with the plurality of votes. Initially crafted by Japaneseoligarchs in 1900, this unique system was continuously em-ployed for Japan's lower house elections till 1995, with a briefinterlude during the Allied occupation. The SNTV systemhas been in use in Taiwan since World War II and wasadopted in Korea during the Fourth and the Fifth Republic(1973­88). It is ironic that academic interest in this electoralsystem should increase just when it is being abandoned in itsbirthplace, Japan, in a fin-de-siecle political act that alsoended political dominance of the ruling Liberal DemocraticParty (LDP).