By KYOTA TANAKA/ Staff Writer
October 18, 2022 at 18:00 JST
Lawyers for the plaintiffs head toward Tokyo High Court on Oct. 18. (Kyota Tanaka)
The Tokyo High Court ruled on Oct. 18 that the July Upper House election was held in “a state of unconstitutionality” in 11 electoral districts, including Tokyo, but it did not invalidate the results.
The court found large disparities in the weight of votes cast in the electoral districts, threatening the principle of equal representation in elections.
Shortly after the July 10 vote, two groups of lawyers filed 16 lawsuits across 14 high courts and branches around Japan, claiming the unequal value of votes violated the Constitution.
This latest ruling is the second among the 16 lawsuits.
The legal actions also called on the courts to nullify the election results, but the Tokyo High Court rejected that request, as did the first court.
The first ruling, which was issued by the Osaka High Court on Oct. 14, also determined that the July election was held in a state of unconstitutionality, one step away from being unconstitutional.
The Osaka High Court ruling criticized the Diet, saying that the enthusiasm among lawmakers to correct the issue has “significantly weakened.”
In the July Upper House election, the vote disparity was up to 3.03 times.
In other words, the vote disparity between the Fukui electoral district, where the number of voters per seat was the smallest of all the districts in Japan, and the Kanagawa electoral district, where the number of electorates per seat was the largest, was 3.03.
Fukui electoral district had around 318,000 voters and the Kanagawa district had about 962,000 in the July election.
That means the value of a vote cast in the Kanagawa electoral district was equal to about a third of a vote cast in Fukui.
The rulings in the remaining 14 lawsuits are expected to be handed down by Nov. 15.
The Supreme Court will issue a unified ruling sometime next year, as the high court cases are expected to be appealed.
Previously, the Supreme Court ruled that the Upper House elections in 2010 and 2013 were held in states of unconstitutionality.
The vote disparity in these elections reached 5 times in 2010 and 4.77 times in 2013.
But it ruled the Upper House elections in 2016 and 2019 were constitutional.
The vote disparity in these elections were reduced to 3.08 times in 2016 and 3 times in 2019.
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