Max Vote-Value Gap Estimated at 2.274 Times for Japan Lower House

Tokyo, May 29 (Jiji Press)–Vote-value disparities between single-seat constituencies for Japan’s House of Representatives, the lower chamber of parliament, reach up to 2.274 times, according to an estimate made based on preliminary results of the 2025 national census released by the internal affairs ministry Friday. Thirty-nine constituencies are estimated to have vote-value gaps of over two times compared with the least populous constituency. The Supreme Court is said to find disparities of over two times unconstitutional. The government’s council on the Lower House constituency demarcation is expected to come up with a proposal on redrawing by May 2027. Meanwhile, the maximum estimated vote-value disparity between prefectural constituencies for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber, came to 3.189 times, according to the preliminary census results. The largest gap for the Lower House based on preliminary outcomes of the previous 2020 census stood at 2.094 times. The public offices election law was amended in 2022 to reduce one constituency each in 10 prefectures and increase the number of constituencies by 10 in total in five other prefectures. But vote-value disparities for the Lower House, which has a total of 289 single-seat constituencies, expanded although a simple comparison is difficult. The No. 3 constituency in Ishikawa Prefecture had the smallest population, at 246,882. Ishikawa has been seeing an exodus of residents since a powerful earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula in the central Japan prefecture in January 2024. The No. 2 constituency in Fukuoka Prefecture had the largest population, at 561,373, followed by the No. 1 district in the same southwestern prefecture, at 548,942, and the No. 6 constituency in the eastern prefecture of Ibaraki, at 548,202. The Lower House rezoning council will speed up work to draft its proposal after the final results of the 2025 census are released by September. The council is expected to propose adjusting electoral district boundaries while keeping the number of constituencies in each of the country’s 47 prefectures unchanged because the latest census was conducted under a simplified format. If the previous redistricting standards are applied, 21 districts, including the Ishikawa No. 3 and Fukuoka No. 2 constituencies, and neighboring districts would be subject to rezoning. The results of the 2025 census may impact discussions between the ruling and opposition parties on the reform of the Lower House election system. The population per seat stood at 414,659, down by 13,520 from the final figure in the previous full-scale census. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, have called for reducing the number of Lower House seats by 10 pct from the 465 at present. Opposition parties, including the Centrist Reform Alliance, are cautious. For the Upper House, the Tokyo constituency had the largest population per seat, at 1,134,913, while the prefectural constituency of Fukui, central Japan, had the smallest, at 355,848. Since the Upper House does not have a body equivalent to the Lower House rezoning council, issues related to Upper House electoral system overhaul will be discussed between the ruling and opposition camps at the chamber’s existing reform panel. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]