2 Courts Find Japan Upper House Poll in Unconstitutional State

Hiroshima/Fukuoka, Oct. 31 (Jiji Press)–Two high courts in Japan on Friday ruled the July 20 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the country’s parliament, was held “in a state of unconstitutionality” due to large vote-value disparities. The two groups of lawyers that filed the lawsuits argued that results of the election, whose maximum vote-value gap was 3.13 times, should be invalidated. Hiroshima High Court and Fukuoka High Court rejected the demands, however. The suit at the Hiroshima court was filed by a group led by Michihiko Misao, and that at the Fukuoka court was lodged by a group headed by Hidetoshi Masunaga. No revisions to the election system have been made since the previous 2022 Upper House election, which the Supreme Court found constitutional. The focus in the lawsuits has been how the slight increase in the maximum vote-value gap from 3.03 times in the previous poll would be assessed. Presiding Judge Masayuki Suenaga at the Hiroshima court pointed to “a significant expanding trend” in vote-value disparities. “It is difficult to say that maintaining the current prefecture-based constituency system for Upper House elections is objectively rational,” the judge said, noting that vote-value disparity remains about three times in many constituencies even after the public offices election law revision in 2015. Presiding Judge Norihiro Matsuda at the Fukuoka court said: “It’s clear that (parliament’s) enthusiasm for correcting the gap is waning.” He added 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 stopgap measure.” On the other hand, Suenaga said the expansion in vote-value gaps from the 2022 election cannot be termed extreme. Matsuda said that a sufficient period had not passed to address the disparities. Lawyer Seiichiro Ishii told a press conference after the Hiroshima High Court ruling that he somewhat appreciates the court’s findings on the current electoral system. The two lawyer groups filed a total of 16 lawsuits with 14 high courts and high court branches, saying the latest Upper House election was against the Constitution in terms of the equal value of votes. Including the two latest judgments, seven rulings have so far been handed down, with four of them finding the election constitutional and three in an unconstitutional state. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]