Majority of Courts Finds Last Upper House Election in Unconstitutional Situation

In their decisions over equality of value of one vote in the election of the Upper House in July, the courts are dividedbetween the opinions that the election was constitutional and unconstitutional. As sentences of unconstitutionality occupies the greater share of the courts, it is recognized that the parties in the House need to be serious for improving the election system by next election in 2028.

 

Two groups of lawyers filed 16 lawsuits to 14 high courts or their branches, arguing that 2025 July election of the Upper House had been unconstitutional, because the gap between urban and rural districts was too wide to implement requirement of the Constitution of Japan that guarantees every voters equality under the law. The high court is designated as the first court to decide this issue.

 

The greatest value of one vote was given to the voters in Fukui district in the election. One seat was allocated to 619 thousand voters in the district. On the other hand, 1.9 million voters had only one seat in Kanagawa district in the same election. It is calculated that the value of one vote in Fukui district was 3.13 times greater than in Kanagawa district. This was “the greatest gap” in 2025 Upper House election.

 

The greatest gap was 5.00 in 2010 election and 4.77 in 2013. The Supreme Court found those two elections as in an unconstitutional situation, which meant that the gap of one vote was unconstitutionally wide, but the result of election cannot be invalid. After reform of election system, including integration of four districts into two in Tottori-Shimane and Tokushima-Kochi, the greatest gap was shrunk into 3.08 in 2016, 3.00 in 2019 and 3.03 in 2022. The Supreme Court decided that those current three elections were constitutional.

 

For 2025 election, 11 high courts or their branches decided that it was in an unconstitutional situation, while 5 found it within a range of constitutional. The decisions of unconstitutional situation found that there was an extreme gap in the value of one vote and the gap was widened from the previous election. They also recognized that the House has not made any effective measure to narrow it. The greatest gap became great by 0.1 point from 3.03 times in 2022 to 3.13 in 2025.

 

It is common to all the high courts that they demand the House to take urgent measures to narrow the gap of in a value of one vote. Even among the high court that found 2025 election constitutional, Tokyo High Court demanded the House to reflect a further reform to the next election in 2028. Although the leaders of the parties in the House agreed in June on discussing election reform by 2028, they have not made any progress so far.

 

The Supreme Court is expected to made a final decision on 2025 election next year. The key point is whether 0.1 point of widening in one-vote value between two latest elections shifted the situation from constitutional to unconstitutional. 

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