6/25/2020 Details of 2001 (Gyo-Tsu) 82 | Judgments of the Supreme Court deprivation or restriction of the right to vote . Nevertheless, I still agree with the court opinion with respect to the following two points. The first point is that, if a judgment is rendered to determine unconstitutionality of deprivation or restriction of the right to vote of Japanese citizens residing abroad, it would bring benefits only to those who currently reside or stay abroad. For those who have returned to Japan after elections, apart from mental satisfaction with the outcome of the judgment, there is no way of relief but monetary compensation. For the benefit of some jokoku appellants who have already returned to Japan, monetary compensation is inevitably needed. The second point, which is as important as or more important than the first point, is that compensation for having prevented citizens from exercising the right to vote due to the Diet or Diet members' act or omission, is to be paid from taxes collected from citizens. In my opinion, payment of state compensation may play a significant role, irrespective of its amount, in that it can make the general public aware of the fact that taxes collected from them will be used to pay compensation for having prevented them from exercising the right to vote, the core of representative democracy, due to the Diet or Diet members' act. 2. I completely disagree with the opinion that deprivation or restriction of the right to vote of Japanese citizens residing abroad is not unconstitutional and it is within the bounds of the Diet's discretion. Most democratic nations today adopt representative democracy as the basis for their state governing systems. Under the representative democratic system, citizens who have reached a certain age are eligible to exercise the right to vote in elections on an equal footing, without restrictions, and at regular intervals (including elections to be held due to the dissolution of the House of Representatives; hereinafter the same), and the Diet consisting of members who are chosen in such elections functions as the highest organ of state power and forms a state governing system together with administration and judicature under the principle of separation of power. According to the provisions of the Constitution, Japan is one of such nations that adopts a representative democratic system, and its legislative body, which is the core of representative democracy, cannot be legitimated unless it has gone through an equal, free, and regular election. In achieving the goal of democratic nations, i.e. respect for fundamental human rights, the Diet must play an important role as the highest organ of state power under the principle of separation of power. The Diet hardly has the discretion to deprive citizens of the right to vote or restrict them from exercising it in any aspects of equality, freedom, and regularity. Deprivation or restriction of citizens' right to vote undermines not only the authority of the Diet as the highest organ of state power but also the ground for legitimacy of the existence itself of the Diet or Diet members. It must not be forgotten that popular sovereignty is the basic philosophy of the Constitution of Japan and Japan is a nation that adopts the representative democratic system. In many cases, it has been proven from experience that the wellbeing of citizens residing abroad is significantly affected by the political or other situation of their mother country. I personally think that we should get away from the old idea that Japan, in spite of its political regime as a nation that adopts the representative democratic system, is allowed to generally restrict its citizens from exercising the right to vote simply because they reside abroad. The following is the dissenting opinion by Justice YOKOO Kazuko and Justice UEDA Toyozo. In our opinion, the whole of the jokoku appeal should be dismissed for the following grounds. 1. The Constitution of Japan proclaims the principle of popular sovereignty in its preamble as follows: "We, the Japanese people, acting through our duly elected representatives in the National https://www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=1264 16/21