Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2016 October 12 - 18 [POLITICS]

July Upper House election is ‘in state of unconstitutionality’: high court

Japan’s high court ruled on October 14 that the July Upper House election was in violation of the Japanese Constitution which guarantees equality in the value of a single vote. This is the first court ruling on the latest national election.

In the Upper House election, the largest vote disparity between the most and least populated constituencies was as high as 3.08 times. After the poll, two different groups of lawyers filed 16 lawsuits nationwide seeking to void the election results.

The Okayama branch of the Hiroshima High Court ruled that the gap in vote values in the single-seat constituency in Okayama Prefecture was “in a state of unconstitutionality”. Meanwhile, the court turned down the plaintiffs’ demand for invalidating the election.

Later in the day, Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Inoue Satoshi publicized a comment on the ruling.

The statement points out that this court decision again highlighted the need to ensure equal voting rights as stipulated in the Constitution. It calls on other political parties to begin talks to reform the election system based on a proposal by a former Upper House President that the current single- and multi-member constituency system be replaced with a proportional representation system.

Past related article:
> Supreme Court ruling: 2014 general election was in ‘state of unconstitutionality’ [November 26, 2015]