5th Court Finds Japan Upper House Poll in Unconstitutional State

Akita, Nov. 6 (Jiji Press)–A Japanese court found on Thursday that the July 20 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, was held “in a state of unconstitutionality” because of large vote-value disparities. But Naoto Ogawa, presiding judge at the Akita branch of Sendai High Court, rejected a demand from a group of lawyers including Hidetoshi Masunaga to invalidate the election, which had a maximum vote-value disparity of 3.13 times. It was the ninth ruling on 16 lawsuits filed over the Upper House election with 14 high courts or high court branches nationwide by two groups of lawyers. Of the nine, five found that the election was conducted in an unconstitutional state, while four assessed that it was constitutional. The Supreme Court concluded that the 2022 election for the upper chamber, whose maximum vote-value gap was 3.03 times, was constitutional. In his ruling, Ogawa said that disparities of around three times “raise doubts over whether lawmakers can be said to be legitimately elected representatives of the entire nation.” “Disparities have been expanding, albeit gradually,” the judge pointed out. “It is difficult to say that concrete discussions toward fixing the disparities are progressing in the Diet,” he said, concluding that the July election “was held in a significantly unfair state.” Still, he ruled that the failure to correct the disparities by the time of the latest Upper House election did not exceed the limits of the Diet’s discretionary authority, and therefore, the election cannot be deemed unconstitutional. “The ruling imposed very heavy obligations on the Diet to correct the disparities,” lawyer Makoto Ito said at a press conference in the city of Akita in northeastern Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]