Top court rejects 16 lawsuits, rules 2021 election ‘constitutional’

Ruling that the 2021 Lower House election was “constitutional,” the Supreme Court on Jan. 25 dismissed a string of lawsuits aimed at annulling the election results over disparities in vote value.

The top court’s decision applies to 16 lawsuits filed at high courts and their branches nationwide by two groups of lawyers against election administration commissions.

It was the second such ruling in a row by the Supreme Court, which said in 2018 that the previous Lower House election held in 2017 did not violate the Constitution.

Legal battles over the gap in the relative weight of a single vote between the least and most populous electoral districts have become routine.

For the election in October 2021, the number of voters per Lower House member in Tottori Prefecture’s No. 1 district was about 230,000, the smallest in Japan.

The largest number--480,000 per Lower House member—was in Tokyo’s No. 13 district.

This resulted in a vote-value disparity of 2.08.

In fact, the gap was more than double for 29 electoral districts.

In the Lower House election in 2017, the largest discrepancy was 1.98.

The lawyers maintained that the 2021 election violated the Constitution, which states that all people are equal under the law.

They also argued that decisions by a majority of legislators in the Diet did not reflect the opinions of voters because of the vote-value disparity.

High courts were split over these 16 lawsuits.

Nine ruled that the election was constitutional, while the seven said the election was held in a “state of unconstitutionality.”

To remedy the situation, the Diet passed the revised Public Offices Elections Law last November to tailor the number of Lower House seats in single-seat districts based on voter population.

From the next Lower House election, a total of 10 seats will be added in electoral districts with urban centers, such as in Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture, while one seat each from 10 rural prefectures will be cut.

Based on the 2020 census, the new setup would create a maximum vote disparity of 1.999.

In a hearing at the Supreme Court’s Grand Bench last December, the plaintiffs asserted that the reapportionment of Lower House seats under the revised law was a far cry from what is supposed to accurately reflect voter populations.

Representatives for the election administration commissions argued that the revised law remedied the discrepancy in the vote value.