4th Ruling Finds Japan Feb. Lower House Poll Constitutional

Tokyo, May 21 (Jiji Press)–Tokyo High Court ruled Thursday that the Feb. 8 election for Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, was constitutional in terms of vote-value disparities. Presiding Judge Takao Furuta dismissed a claim by a group of lawyers led by Hidetoshi Masunaga that sought to nullify the election results. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs argued that the maximum vote-value disparity of 2.1 times in the election failed to satisfy the constitutional requirement for equality in the value of votes. Furuta said that the so-called Adams method, introduced to better reflect differences in regional populations when setting the number of seats in each prefecture, is reasonable. The plaintiffs plan to file an appeal. It was the fourth ruling in a total of 16 lawsuits filed with the 14 high courts and high court branches across the country by two groups of lawyers, including the Masunaga-led group. All three previous rulings, issued by Takamatsu High Court, Fukuoka High Court and the Naha branch of the Fukuoka court, found the election to be constitutional. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]