NCJ Number
129236
Journal
Law and Contemporary Problems Volume: 53 Issue: 1 and 2 Dated: special issue (Winter/Spring 1990) P 157-170 (N 2)
Date Published
1990
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The article discusses the idea of "one person, one vote," malapportionment of National Diet seats, the Japanese party structure, the 1947 constitution, and Japanese Supreme Court decisions that affect all of the above.
Abstract
The problem of malapportionment arises from the shift in population from rural to urban areas in Japan without a corresponding shift in apportioning Diet seats from the rural areas to the growing urban areas. The article first looks at the Constitution with an overview of the developments in apportionment law. It then examines one particular Japanese Supreme Court dealing with malapportionment of Diet seats and justiciability. Apportionment and the constitutional requirement of equality under the law is looked at through another Japanese Supreme Court case that involves electoral equality as a constitutional requirement. A presentation of the imbalance in apportionment, the current lack of an effective judicial remedy, and the differences between the power held by the United States Supreme Court and the Japanese Supreme Court, which is also influenced heavily by the West German Federal Constitutional Court, concludes the article. 50 notes