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6/25/2020 Details of 2017 (Gyo-Tsu) 47 | Judgments of the Supreme Court  move to the main contents Sitemap About this site Privacy Policy search by keyword About the Judicial System Supreme Court  in Japan Publications Japanese  Judgments of the The Legal Training and The Training and Research Supreme Supreme Court Research Institute of Japan Institute for Court Oﬃcials Court Library Judgments of the Supreme Court TOP > Supreme Court of Japan > Judgments of the Supreme Court > Search Results 2017 (Gyo-Tsu) 47 Back Date of the judgment (decision) 2017.09.27 Case Number 2017 (Gyo-Tsu) 47 Reporter Minshu Vol. 71, No. 7 Judgment concerning the constitutionality of the provisions on the Title apportionment of seats for members (to be elected by constituency) of the House of Councillors stipulated in Article 14 and Appended Table 3 of the Public Oﬃces Election Act Case name Case to seek invalidation of election Result Judgment of the Grand Bench, dismissed Court of the Prior Instance Tokyo High Court, Judgment of November 2, 2016 At the time of the ordinary election of members of the House of Councillors held on July 10, 2016, under the provisions on the apportionment of seats for members of the House of Councillors to be elected by the constituency stipulated in Article 14 and Appended Table 3 of the Public Oﬃces Election Act, which had been revised by Summary of the judgment (decision) Act No. 60 of 2015, the disparity between constituencies in terms of the value of votes did not indicate the existence of extreme inequality to such an extent that it would raise a question of unconstitutionality, and therefore, said provisions cannot be held to have been in violation of Article 14, paragraph (1), etc., of the Constitution. (There are opinions and dissenting opinions.) References Article 14, paragraph (1), Article 15, paragraphs (1) and (3), Article 43, paragraph (1), and Article 44 of the Constitution, Article 14 and Appended Table 3 of the Public Oﬃces Election Act https://www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=1534 1/24

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2017 (Gyo Tsu) 47 [Judgments concerning the constitutionality of the provisions on the apportionment of seats for members (to be elected by constituency) of the House of Councillors stipulated in Article 14 and Appended Table 3 of the Public Offices Election Act]

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the electoral code system, in light of the migration from constituencies, should be declared unconstitutional?

Alleged Acts: The plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the apportionment scheme for Tokyo and Kanagawa are unconstitutional and invalid and the recent election utilizing that scheme should be declared invalid. When originally set for the constituency disparity had a maximum of 1:2.62. However, after migration throughout the nation, this gradually increased. At its highest in 1992, this disparity reached 1:6.59 and in 2007 went back down to 1:5.

Procedural history: In 1994, the court held that although there was grounds for a constitutional review if there was extreme parity, there was not sufficient evidence in the case before the court. Again in 2001, the court reached the same conclusion and further explained that the proper avenue for reform was through the legislative process not through the courts. The representation system then underwent revisions in the legislature.

Summary: The court determined that the 2015 revisions overcame the existence of the disparity between the constituencies. Further, the court determined that the revisions had additional correction mechanisms that would permit the constituencies that were not merged to make future changes to rectify the disparity. These revisions included merging the less-populated constituencies to reduce the disparity to 1:2.97 from the 1:5 level.

Conclusion: The voting parity by jurisdiction did not create inequality severe enough to be unconstitutional.

Legal Issue(s)

Voting Systems (Winner-take-all, proportional, etc.)

Region: Asia-Pacific

Country: Japan

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: General

Date of decision: Sep 17, 2017

Geolocation

Latitude: 35.73293063

Longitude: 139.7553762

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

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