Max Vote-Value Gap Tops 2 Times in Japan's Lower House

Tokyo, Oct. 15 (Jiji Press)--The maximum vote-value disparity between single-seat constituencies in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Japan's parliament, has exceeded two times, a Jiji Press estimate showed Tuesday.

As of Monday, the No. 3 constituency of Hokkaido, northernmost Japan, had the largest number of voters at 461,457, while the No. 1 constituency in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, had the smallest at 224,060.

As a result, the weight of a single vote in the Tottori constituency was 2.060 times greater than that in the Hokkaido constituency, according to the estimate.

A disparity of over two times in vote value in a Lower House election may be ruled unconstitutional by a court.

Ten of the chamber's 289 single-seat constituencies in the country had vote-value disparities of at least two times compared with the Tottori constituency.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]