10th, 11th "Constitutional" Rulings Made for Japan 2024 Lower House Election

   Miyazaki/Hiroshima, Feb. 21 (Jiji Press)--Fukuoka High Court's Miyazaki branch and Hiroshima High Court both ruled Friday that the House of Representatives election last October was constitutional in terms of vote-value disparity.
   These were the 10th and 11th "constitutional" rulings in a total of 16 similar lawsuits filed with 14 high courts and high court branches across Japan. There have been no other judgements so far. The remaining rulings would be handed down by March 7, and the Supreme Court is expected to make its uniform decision by the end of the year.
   In the election for the all-important lower chamber of the Diet, the country's parliament, the power of one vote in the least populated constituency was 2.06 times stronger than that in the most densely populated district.
   The maximum vote-value disparity shrank from the 2.08 times in the previous Lower House election in 2021, as the electoral map was redrawn for the 2024 poll under the Adams' method to better reflect population-to-seat allocation ratios.
   The Miyazaki branch's presiding judge, Masakazu Nishimori, pointed out that the new map's rationality cannot be denied by the disparity, which he said is "not remarkably wide."

(2025/02/21-18:03)

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