3 More Rulings Find Japan Upper House Poll Constitutional

Tokyo, Oct. 30 (Jiji Press)–Three Japanese high courts ruled Thursday that the July 20 election for the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, the country’s parliament, was constitutional in terms of vote-value disparities. The rulings by Tokyo, Nagoya and Takamatsu high courts were the third to fifth on a total of 16 lawsuits filed with 14 high courts or high court branches across the country by two groups of lawyers. The group led by lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga demanded that the election results be invalidated, arguing that the maximum vote-value gap of 3.13 times in the election is against the Constitution in light of the equal value of votes. But the petitions were dismissed by the Tokyo, Nagoya and Takamatsu courts. With the latest rulings, the number of those finding the election constitutional increased to four. Last week, Osaka High Court ruled it constitutional. On Wednesday, meanwhile, Nagoya High Court’s Kanazawa branch ruled that the election was conducted “in a state of unconstitutionality.” The focus in the series of lawsuits is how the courts would assess the expansion in the maximum vote-value gap from 3.03 times in the previous 2022 Upper House election. No revision has been made in the electoral system since the previous election, which the Supreme Court ruled constitutional. In the latest election, the number of eligible voters per Upper House seat was the lowest in the prefectural constituency of Fukui and the highest in the Kanagawa prefectural constituency. “An expanding trend in vote-value disparities that cannot be ignored is appearing,” Presiding Judge Masatoshi Miyasaka at Tokyo High Court said. Miyasaka urged the Diet to thoroughly review the electoral system, citing the possibility of the next Upper House election being ruled unconstitutional if the parliament does not act. He, however, said that it is too early to judge whether the July 20 poll was unconstitutional as specific discussions were about to start around the time of the latest election. Nagoya High Court and Takamatsu High Court concluded that it cannot be said vote-value disparities are significantly expanding. At a press conference in Tokyo, Masunaga said that his group will appeal against all three rulings. Meanwhile, he suggested that the Tokyo High Court verdict was more meaningful than a ruling that the election was conducted “in a state of unconstitutionality.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]