Suits filed to null Japan's upper house election over vote disparity
While the vote gap had been on a declining trend since the mergers of two pairs of less-populated prefectures into two constituencies in 2015, the maximum disparity in the latest upper house election expanded to 3.13-fold from 3.03-fold in the previous race in 2022.
The Supreme Court said in its 2023 ruling that resolving such disparities is an urgent matter. It had ruled that the upper house poll results in 2010 and 2013, as well as those of House of Representatives races in 2009, 2012 and 2014, were in a "state of unconstitutionality" but stopped short of invalidating the election results.
The lawsuits filed Tuesday morning by two groups of lawyers included those submitted to the Osaka High Court, the Hiroshima High Court's Matsue and Okayama branches and the Fukuoka High Court's Naha branch.
"Even though the top court said the disparities should be corrected, this election was held under the same system," lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga said at a press conference after filing the suit with the Osaka court.
Calculations by Kyodo News based on data released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications showed that Kanagawa Prefecture had the highest number of voters per lawmaker and Fukui Prefecture the lowest.
Vote weight disparities in upper house elections were 5.00-fold in 2010 and 4.77-fold in 2013. The disparities then fell since Tottori and Shimane prefectures were merged into one constituency and Tokushima and Kochi prefectures into another ahead of the 2016 election.
The top court ruled that the disparity of up to 3.08-fold in 2016 and 3.00-fold in 2019 were constitutional.
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