Last Election Under Unconstitutional Condition

Okayama Branch of Hiroshima High Court sentenced on Friday that the election of House of Councillors this summer was executed under unconstitutional condition in terms of guaranteeing equal value of each vote. In the election, Shinzo Abe administration achieved two-third majority for constitutional amendment. The court questioned legitimacy of the election.

The sentence was made as the first decision on simultaneous accusations to all the High Courts on one-vote value in the election. The election was executed with a systematic reform that introduced new electoral district beyond the border of prefectures. Tottori and Shimane, or Tokushima and Kochi, were integrated as one district, because of their scarcity of voters.

However, Okayama Court realized that remarkable difference of value of each vote remained. The number of eligible voters for one seat was 3.08 times bigger in Saitama Prefecture than in Fukui, which made the value of a vote in Saitama 3.08 times smaller than in Fukui. As the Supreme Court decided that the election was under unconstitutional condition in 2010 with gap of 5.00 times, and in 2013 with 4.77 times, Okayama made stricter decision on the value of one vote than that by Supreme Court.

The lawmakers in House of Councillors, as well as House of Representatives, had been reluctant to adjust the difference in value of one vote. Integrating electoral districts in local area works against Liberal Democratic Party, which is generally dominant in local districts. In the discussion of election system reform, LDP has been appealing to maintain the principle of distributing seats to each prefectural unit. But, Okayama Court criticized their argument. “The greatest reason for the difference over 3 times was unsuccessful discussion over whether or not to maintain the system based on the unit of prefecture,” said the sentence of Okayama.

LDP is going to restart discussion over electoral system in House of Councillors next month. To maintain the distribution based on prefectural unit, they consider increasing seats in the House or transferring some seats from proportional representatives to the districts. However, their idea is not sufficient to recover the gap in the value of each vote.

It makes no sense for the argument to amend the Constitution to vest House of Councillors power for representing each prefecture, as long as a lawmaker of each House are designated to represent all the people. Autonomy in Japan does not give great power to each prefecture, under strict control of central government. To make House of Councillors strong as United States Senate is, central government has give local governments its power more than ever.