Court Finds July Upper House Poll in Unconstitutional State

Kanazawa, Ishikawa Pref., Oct. 29 (Jiji Press)–The Kanazawa branch of Nagoya High Court on Wednesday ruled that the July election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of Japan’s parliament, was conducted in a state of unconstitutionality due to vote-value disparities. A group of lawyers, including Hidetoshi Masunaga, sought to invalidate the election, which had a maximum vote-value disparity of 3.13 times. Presiding Judge Kazuaki Ono dismissed the claim. It was the second ruling on 16 lawsuits filed with 14 high courts or high court branches across the country by two groups of lawyers. Last week, Osaka High Court ruled the election constitutional. No review of the electoral system has been conducted since the previous 2022 Upper House election, which the Supreme Court ruled constitutional. The focus was on how the high court branch would assess the widening of the maximum vote-value gap from 3.03 times in the 2022 election. The disparity was reduced from about five times to some three times with the 2015 revision of the public offices election law, but Ono noted that the gap is gradually widening. “The further widening following the Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2022 election cannot be ignored, and the Diet, the country’s parliament, should have considered a drastic review of the election system,” the presiding judge added. He also said that the mergers of two pairs of sparsely populated neighboring prefectural constituencies in western Japan–Tottori and Shimane, and Tokushima and Kochi–were only a palliative. As the Diet failed to take concrete measures, the July Upper House election was conducted in a state of extreme inequality and violated the principle of equality in the value of votes, the judge said. Osaka High Court on Friday suggested that the increase in the disparity cannot be considered a significant expansion. Still, the court urged the Diet to take legislative measures to address the issue, stating, “The pressing issue has become even more urgent.” In this year’s Upper House election, the number of voters per parliamentary seat was the lowest in the Fukui prefectural constituency and the highest in the Kanagawa constituency. At a press conference in Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture, central Japan, following the ruling, Masunaga said, “This is an extremely important ruling that raises constitutional doubts about the legitimacy of Diet members’ seats.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]