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August 13, 2026
 

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VOTE DISPARITY

Lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga (left) criticizes the ruling handed down by the Fukuoka High Court in Fukuoka on Tuesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 20, 2026
Two courts find February¡¯s Lower House election constitutional
The lawyers who filed the lawsuits claimed that the maximum vote-value disparity of 2.10 times in the election failed to meet the equal value of votes under the Constitution.
Lawyers hold a sign saying the July Upper House election was ruled to be in an unconstitutional state, in the city of Hiroshima on Tuesday, following a ruling by the Hiroshima High Court on vote disparity.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 26, 2025
Hiroshima High Court finds Upper House poll held in unconstitutional state
The latest ruling was the 11th to find that the election with a maximum vote value gap of 3.13 times was conducted under unconstitutional conditions.
Lawyers who filed a lawsuit over the July Upper House election hold up a sign saying ¡°state of unconstitutionality¡± Tuesday in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, following a ruling by the Hiroshima High Court¡¯s Matsue branch.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 5, 2025
Another court finds July Upper House poll held in unconstitutional state
The Matsue branch of the Hiroshima High Court ruled that the July election was held in a ¡°state of unconstitutionality¡± due to vote-value disparities of up to 3.13 times.
Lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga (front, left) and others seeking the invalidation of the July Upper House election walk to the Nagoya High Court's Kanazawa branch on Oct. 1.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2025
Court finds July poll was held in an unconstitutional state
A group of lawyers sought the invalidation of the Upper House election.
Lawyers enter the Osaka High Court to file a lawsuit on Tuesday to nullify the results in six electoral districts, including Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo, of Sunday's House of Councillors election, claiming that the election was unconstitutional in terms of vote-value disparities.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 22, 2025
Lawyers file lawsuit to nullify Upper House election
The lawyers argued that the apportionment provisions for Upper House seats did not meet the constitutional requirement of population-based proportional representation.
People listen to an election campaign speech in Tokyo on Thursday.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 4, 2025
Maximum vote-value gap rises to 3.126 times for Upper House election
The figure was up from 3.03 times in the previous Upper House election in 2022.
Voters cast their ballots for the Lower House election at a polling station in Tokyo on Oct. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 26, 2025
Three more courts find 2024 Lower House election constitutional
The plaintiffs had claimed that the maximum vote-value gap of 2.06 times in the election violated the Constitution.
At the Naha branch of Fukuoka High Court, presiding Judge Takashi Miura said that the constituency map redrawn for the election was reasonable as it adopted the so-called Adams method, which is believed to reflect population ratios more accurately.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Feb 18, 2025
Fukuoka High Court¡¯s Naha branch finds 2024 Lower House poll constitutional
It was the seventh ruling among the 16 lawsuits on the latest general election filed so far by two groups of lawyers at 14 high courts and high court branches.
A lawyer heads to the Fukuoka High Court on Monday to file a lawsuit concerning "vote disparity" in the Lower House election held the previous day.
JAPAN / Politics
Oct 28, 2024
Lawyers file suits to nullify Lower House election results
The group have said that the poll was unconstitutional because it was carried out without correcting vote-value disparities.
A Lower House plenary session is held in June. One vote in the least-populated single-seat constituency for the lower chamber is at least twice as powerful as that in the eight most populous constituencies, an analysis has found.
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 26, 2024
Vote-value disparities may be unconstitutional in eight Lower House districts
One vote in the least-populated single-seat constituency is at least twice as powerful as one in the eight most populous constituencies, a new analysis shows.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Jun 20, 2023
LDP power struggle in Yamaguchi shows waning influence of Abe faction
With Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi having been selected for the new No. 3 district, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida¡¯s caucus has come out on top over the Abe faction.
JAPAN / FOCUS
Mar 2, 2023
Redrawn electoral map raises concerns in Â鶹´«Ã½ rural areas
To rectify vote-value disparities, 10 seats will be transferred from the least populous rural areas to the most densely populated urban areas.
JAPAN
Nov 18, 2022
Parliament OKs bill to redraw Lower House electoral map to curtail vote-value disparities
The revised law, which will remove one seat each from 10 prefectures and distribute 10 to five other prefectures, will be put into effect a month after its promulgation.
JAPAN
Nov 16, 2022
Eight of 16 courts find July Upper House poll to be in unconstitutional state
The rulings were given on lawsuits filed with high courts and high court branches across the country by two groups of lawyers claiming that the Upper House poll violated the Constitution.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 26, 2022
A second ruling finds July Upper House poll was constitutional
A total of 16 lawsuits over vote-value gaps in the July election have been filed with 14 high courts and high court branches across the country.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 14, 2022
Osaka High Court declares July Upper House poll unconstitutional
The court rejected the plaintiffs¡¯ demand that the result of the election, in which the maximum vote-value gap stood at 3.03 times, be nullified.
JAPAN
Sep 12, 2022
Senior LDP executive backs discussions on anti-cult law
Toshiaki Endo, chair of the LDP¡¯s General Council, said that it would nonetheless be ¡®hard to define what cults are.¡¯
Japan Times
JAPAN / Politics
Jul 9, 2022
Lower House redistricting plans in focus after Abe¡¯s death
The ruling LDP is facing tricky political questions in the late PM¡¯s home prefecture of Yamaguchi, with the answers likely to impact a Lower House district realignment plan.
JAPAN / Politics / FOCUS
Apr 11, 2022
Lower House redistricting threatens clash of titans within LDP
With a single-seat district to be cut in Yamaguchi, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and ex-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could end up fighting for the remaining seats and resulting influence.
EDITORIALS
Jul 20, 2018
The need to overhaul the electoral system
The amendment to the Public Offices Election Law that was hastily enacted this week highlights all the more the need for a more fundamental overhaul.
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company's warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Severe Tropical Storm Chan-hom made landfall around Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday night.
What Â鶹´«Ã½ language rules for permanent residency should look like
Potential health care workers hoping to find work in Japan take Japanese language instruction in Jakarta. Not all applicants for permanent residency should be expected to reach this level of proficiency.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo's Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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