Supreme Court Rules Vote Value Disparity in 2021 Lower House Election Constitutional

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:46 JST, January 25, 2023

The Supreme Court issued a unified ruling Wednesday that the October 2021 House of Representatives election — in which the weight of the vote in a less populated constituency was up to 2.08 times greater than that of a vote in a densely populated one — was constitutional.

Two lawyers groups had filed 16 lawsuits claiming the election was unconstitutional and requesting a redo of election.

This is the second consecutive time that the highest court ruled a lower house election constitutional, following its December 2018 ruling on the 2017 election that saw vote value disparities of up to 1.98-to-1.

The maximum disparity of 2.08 in the 2021 election occurred between Tokyo Constituency No. 13, which had the largest number of voters per seat in the election at about 480,000, and Tottori Constituency No. 1, which had the smallest number at 230,000.