2026 POLLS: Max Vote-Value Gap Estimated at 2.10 Times

Tokyo, Jan. 28 (Jiji Press)–The maximum vote-value disparity between single-seat constituencies for the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, Japan’s parliament, stands at 2.10 times, a Jiji Press estimate has found. The maximum disparity was logged between the No. 3 district in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido and the No. 1 district in the western prefecture of Tottori. The Hokkaido district had the largest number of eligible voters, at 462,999, while the Tottori district had the fewest, at 220,820, according to population data as of Monday, which were released by the internal affairs ministry Tuesday, when the official campaign period began for the Feb. 8 Lower House election. The maximum vote-disparity gap topped 2.0 times in 17 out of 289 single-seat constituencies across the country, according to the estimate. The number of eligible voters in Japan and overseas totaled 103,517,115, down by 662,160 from the figure at the time of the previous Lower House election in 2024. In 2022, the revised public offices election law came into effect to adjust the number of seats in single-seat constituencies. In the 2024 Lower House election, the first poll held under this constituency zoning, the maximum gap came to 2.06 times. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]