2024 Lower House Election Decided to Be Constitutional

The Supreme Court decided that the election of House of Representatives in 2024 was not violated the Constitution of Japan, which stipulates people’s equality under the law, in a lawsuit demanding equality in value of one vote. Evaluating electoral reform in 2022, the court approved the effort of the House to diminish the gap of values in each vote. The plaintiffs complained about indifference of the court on inequality in political participation for the people. 

The gap of one vote is calculated by how many eligible voters were in a single-seat district of Lower House election. In the election on October 27th, 2024, a voter in Tottori 1st district had the greatest value among all 289 single-seat districts, because the district had the smallest population. On the other hand, a voter in Hokkaido 3rd district had the smallest value, because the district had the greatest population. The value of one vote in Tottori 1st was 2.06 times greater than in Hokkaido 3rd.

 

The court dismissed the appeal of plaintiffs that gap of 2.06 times was intolerable in light of the Constitution of Japan which guarantees the people equality under the law. “Current election system can diminish the gap and stably maintains that situation,” said the court. It has been regarded that 2 times should be the line to evaluate constitutionality of value of one vote. The court reasoned that some move of population caused widening the gap.

 

The House of Representatives passed an election reform bill which introduced “Adams method” in single-seat districts. The method, invented by 6th president of the United States John Quincy Adams, is a formula to determine the number of seats in each district. It divides population of each prefecture by variable “x” and its quotient become the number of single-seat districts in the prefecture. Currently, Tokyo has 30 districts, while Tottori and some other prefectures have 2 each.

 

The House introduced the Adams method in 2024 election for the first time. To minimize the gap of one-vote value, the single-seat districts increased in 10 prefectures and decreased in 10 prefectures. This 10 and 10 reform reduced the one-vote value smaller than 2 times. However, it expanded again to 2.06 in October 2024 with move of population.

 

The Supreme Court sentenced that Lower House elections in 2009, 2012, and 2014 were in the situation of unconstitutional, if not invalid, because of a great gap in one-vote value. Those three elections had a gap of 2.30, 2.43 and 2.13. The House discussed how to minimize the gap, and with some reforms, it was diminished to 1.98 in 2017 election, 2.08 in 2021 and 2.06 in 2024. The court approved those recent three elections.

 

However, the plaintiffs question whether the gap around 2 times can be tolerated, seeking complete equality in value of one vote, which should be 1.00. The lawmakers need to prove that they have been elected through a fair system or there is no such thing as a complete equality in one-vote value.

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