Japanese Voters Abroad Sue Govt over Feb. Election

Tokyo, July 10 (Jiji Press)–Japanese nationals living abroad sued the government Friday, after they were unable to vote by mail in time for the House of Representatives general election in February, which was held only some two weeks after the dissolution of the chamber. The four plaintiffs in their 40s to 70s who live in Germany, France, Australia and Canada said in the lawsuit filed with Tokyo District Court that the Japanese government had neglected to establish an adequate system enabling expatriates to vote in elections held at home without fail, arguing that this inaction amounted to a violation of the Constitution. They demanded a total of about 50,000 yen in damages from the government. The election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, took place Feb. 8, 16 days after the Jan. 23 Lower House dissolution, the shortest such interval since the end of World War II. According to the lawsuit, three of the four plaintiffs sent back their ballots soon after they received them from the municipalities concerned, but the ballots did not arrive by the voting day. The voting paper did not even reach the other plaintiff during the election campaign period, and that person was therefore unable to vote in the Lower House election and a national review of Supreme Court justices. Expatriates are allowed to cast their ballots at Japanese diplomatic establishments, but this may require long-distance travel and a lot of related costs. The plaintiffs argued, “The government should have legislated to allow Japanese nationals living abroad to exercise their voting rights without any special burden, but it failed to do so.” “Having views of Japanese citizens abroad reflected in domestic politics is important for today’s society in Japan,” Takaaki Toden, 72, one of the plaintiffs, said in an online press conference after the filing of the lawsuit. Internal affairs minister Yoshimasa Hayashi avoided commenting on the case, saying that he did not yet know details of the lawsuit. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that Japan’s public offices election law, which did not grant the exercise of expatriates’ voting rights in national elections at the time, violated the Constitution. In 2022, the Supreme Court found a law on the national review of the court’s justices unconstitutional for not having a provision allowing Japanese nationals living abroad to vote for the review. The government revised both laws following the top court decisions. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]