National Election Void

Not only politicians but also plaintiffs were surprised. The Hiroshima High Court made a decision that the general election of the House of Representatives last December had been unconstitutional and the disputed election in the district 1 and 2 in Hiroshima prefecture invalid. It is the first time in Japan for a court to sentence a national election to be void. The reason was that the difference of one-vote value in the election, that was the difference of numbers of voters for one lawmaker depending on electoral district, had been too large in light of equality under the law. That showed the uniqueness of Japanese version of democracy, which required high level of equality.

After the Supreme Court of Japan decided that the general election in 2009 was in “a situation of unconstitutional,” the lawmakers kept on discussing how to fix the problem, which made no valuable conclusion. Against the December election, which was executed with no improvement, two lawyers groups took legal actions to seventeen high courts in Japan requiring invalidation of the election.

The decision of Hiroshima strongly supported the decision of the Supreme Court two years ago, and accused the negligence of the lawmakers. Although former decisions had been avoiding invalidation not to invite extreme confusion in national politics, Hiroshima recognized that lawmakers’ lack of sense had been unbearable in spite of enough time they had had.

The significance of the decision was about credibility of politics. In Japan, people basically expect high sense of morality to politics. That was why they had sensitively been responding to bribe cases like the Lockheed Incident and the Recruit Case. This case over equality of one-vote value showed the laziness of lawmakers to abide by a requirement of the constitution, while they poses various laws and taxes on their citizens. Most people recognize that the incompetent lawmakers invited that hard decision.

The Hiroshima High Court set a suspension of invalidity of the election for about eight months. Before the expiration, the Supreme Court will decide for all accusations raised all over Japan. Considering the ignorance of lawmakers, the Court may take one step forward to accuse politics. But it seems to be unlikely to request the general election again. Because judicial office would not ultimately force legislative office a denial of qualification, lawmakers are still optimistic about their own reform. That is a vicious cycle of Japanese democracy. If they are too long reluctant to be compliant, however, every political decision, including economic recovery policy or improvement in Japan-US relationship, will be baseless without supports from the people.