Lawyer Masunaga Hidetoshi signing a document for legal professionals
There is a lawyer, Masunaga Hidetoshi (82), who has been working on lawsuits for 15 years to resolve the “disparity in one vote,” which causes inequality in the weight of votes per voter in national elections. Looking toward the upcoming House of Councilors election in a year, he is working to send letters to about 20,000 legal professionals throughout August to increase awareness of this issue. What drives this veteran lawyer? (Ohsugi Haruka)
◆ Hand-signing each letter to judges, lawyers, scholars, and journalists
”I’ve finally made it to 10,000 letters.” In front of a stack of printed documents, Masunaga said. He has been continuing the work of signing each document by hand since June. The recipients include judges, lawyers, constitutional scholars, and journalists who have covered lawsuits. He plans to send them in envelopes marked “Personal” as he hopes they will read them.
National Diet Building (reference photo)
The document explains the significance of the “population-proportional election lawsuit” that Masunaga is working on. At the beginning of the text, he wrote, “The population-proportional election lawsuit is, for the first time in history since Himiko, an action to reclaim sovereignty as one’s own.” Then, the text includes the following phrase: “Japan is not a nation with popular sovereignty, but a nation with parliamentary sovereignty.” Although the constitution stipulates that sovereignty belongs to the people, what does this mean?
◆ More seats obtained with less than half of the votes
Under the current electoral systems of both the House of Representatives and the House of Councilors, there is a disparity in the number of voters required for a single member to be elected, leading to unequal value of votes. As a result, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, which obtained less than half of the valid votes, hold a majority of seats in the National Diet.
For example, in the 2021 House of Representatives election, the two parties obtained a 47% share of the proportional representation votes and 49% of the single-member district votes but won 63% of the seats. In the 2022 House of Councilors election, their share was 46% in proportional representation and 45% in the electoral districts, yet they occupied 59% of the seats.
Voting scene (reference photo)
Masunaga has a strong sense of crisis, believing that this situation does not reflect public opinion.
The constitution begins with, “The Japanese people shall act through their representatives elected by a legitimately conducted election.” It stipulates that the National Diet is “organized by elected members representing the entire nation,” and further states, “(Decisions) shall be made by a majority of the members present.”
However, in reality, the ruling party, with less than half of the votes, uses its majority of seats to select the Prime Minister and pass budgets and laws. Masunaga points out: “Japan is not a country of majority rule, but a country of minority rule. It is harmful to hold power by minority rule.”
◆ Shocked by the political awareness of classmates during study abroad in the United States
In his 30s, Masunaga studied at Columbia Law School in the U.S. and was shocked by the high political awareness of his American classmates. In 2009, he and fellow lawyers began lawsuits seeking invalidation of national elections based on the perspective of vote disparity. The ultimate goal of these lawsuits is the realization of population-proportional elections.
However, recently, in the House of Representatives election of 2021, where the maximum disparity was 2.08 times, and the House of Councilors election of 2022, where it was 3.03 times, Masunaga and others sought invalidation, but the Supreme Court ruled consecutively that these elections were “constitutional.”
In the House of Councilors, after deciding to merge Tottori and Shimane and Tokushima and Kochi in 2015, there have been no significant legal revisions, and a disparity of about three times has become the norm.
Supreme Court Grand Bench (reference photo)
The Supreme Court stated in its ruling that “further disparity correction is an urgent issue,” but no review is progressing in the National Diet, and the upcoming House of Councilors election is likely to be conducted under the current system.
Masunaga says, “If we conduct the House of Councilors election without seriously reviewing the system, the Supreme Court should at least issue a ‘state of unconstitutionality’ ruling. This document is intended to encourage Supreme Court judges to listen.” He further proposes introducing an electoral district system divided into the same 11 blocks as the proportional representation in the House of Representatives for the House of Councilors election. Under this scheme, the disparity would become a 1.1 times effective population-proportional election, moving closer to “popular sovereignty.”
◆ “Transfer power according to the constitution”
Hand-signing and mailing 20,000 documents requires significant effort and cost. Masunaga speaks with a stern gaze: “Looking back at Japan’s history, sovereignty has always been held by the rulers. I thought we became a nation of popular sovereignty after accepting the Potsdam Declaration, but that was not the case in reality. I am aiming for the first transfer of power according to the constitution in history, which is a monumental task.”
