Lawsuits filed to nullify Japan’s general election over vote disparities

TOKYO, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) — Lawyers filed lawsuits at several high courts in Japan on Monday seeking to nullify the results and conduct a rerun of the previous day’s general election, local media reported.
The lawyers are set to complete filing the lawsuits with 14 high courts and their branches across the country later Monday, challenging all the 289 single-seat electoral district results, arguing that disparities in the weight of votes violated the principle of equality under the Constitution, Kyodo News reported.
Boundary changes and redistribution of single-seat constituencies for the latest lower house election resulted in the maximum vote weight disparity falling slightly from the previous such election in 2021 to 2.06-fold, the report said.
A revised law enacted in 2022 added 10 single-seat electoral districts to five prefectures and cut one each from 10 prefectures, while redrawing boundaries in another 10 prefectures, affecting a total of 140 constituencies, it added.
The revision aimed at narrowing the vote disparity below the 2.0-fold level between densely and sparsely populated districts within the country.
Large disparities in the weight of votes cast have led to numerous lawsuits claiming they violate the Constitution.
The Supreme Court said the maximum disparity of 2.08-fold in the 2021 lower house election was constitutional as parliament had made efforts to redress differences in the weight of votes.
The top court ruled that the lower house elections of 2009, 2012 and 2014, where the vote disparity was above 2.0-fold, were constitutionally problematic, saying they were in a “state of unconstitutionality.” It has never nullified election results. ■